Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Gallium–lanthanum sulfide glasses are potential hosts for 1.3-μm optical fiber amplifiers and for fiber lasers in the near and middle infrared. In these glasses the addition of CsCl increases the thermal stability region making possible to draw optical fibers, without altering the optical properties of the glass. Ga2S3–La2S3 glasses modified by 10 to 40% CsCl have been studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy, to investigate the structural role of CsCl. The chlorine environment is found similar to that in CsCl. The gallium-based network is composed from almost regular tetrahedra weakly connected by corners and is not altered by the addition of CsCl.