Performance improvement of transparent germanium-gallium-sulfur glass ceramic by gold doping for third-order optical nonlinearities.

Transparent chalcogenide glass ceramics were prepared by thermally treating gold-doped germanium-gallium-sulfur glass. The gold, as nucleating agents, modified the crystallization process of the glass, resulting in the formation of nanocrystals belonging to a single α-Ga₂S₃ phase. The crystalline grains increased in number with the treatment duration while their size remained constant, leading to a high infrared transmittance of the glass ceramics. Z-scan measurements revealed the performance improvement of the α-Ga₂S₃ nanocrystals to third-order optical nonlinearities.