Vitreous Materials for Electrooptics

A complex approach to the development of electrooptic glasses is proposed. The approach is based on the use of the traditional methods of structural-physical investigations in combination with the Rayleigh and Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering spectroscopic techniques. The structural features of niobate glasses and their properties are considered. It is shown that niobium selectively enters into the fluctuation microinhomogeneities in the alkali borosilicate vitreous matrix. The conditions for the precipitation of sodium niobate microcrystals are determined, and their influence on the increase in the Kerr constant for glass-ceramic materials is analyzed.