The present work estimated the crystallization activation energy, Eα, the pre-exponential term, A, and the reaction model, g(α), of a lithium disilicate glass using model-free and model-fitting approaches. Samples with distinct granulometry (PD1: < 105 μm; and PD5: 600–850 μm) were heated at several rates (0.5 to 30 K/min). Our results show that Eα, A, and g(α) are susceptible to particle size. PD1 crystallizes in a single step, and the surface mainly governs it all β values. On the other hand, the overall crystallization of PD5 is more complex and can be described by different Avrami reaction models, with n = 1, 1.5, 2, and 3. In addition, we found that the crystallized fraction at the crystallization peak (αTp) varies significantly with the particle size and heating rate, which confirms that all the methods that assume that the αTp is constant are inadequate to describe the crystallization of glasses over a wide range of heating rates.

Recently, 2.7 µm lasers have attracted much attention because of their wide applications in remote sensing, and medical laser surgery. The effect of Bi2O3 ↔ BaF2 substitution in the Er3+ doped Bi2O3-GeO2-BaF2 glasses on physical and 2.7 µm emission properties have been studied. Under the excitation of 976 nm LD, an intense and broad 2.7 µm emission originating from the 4I11/2 → 4I13/2 transition of Er3+ was observed. BaF2 was found to enter the glass network as Ba2+ and F−, which may contribute to a reduction in the bridge oxygen content. The 1.55 µm emission was attenuated and the 2.7 µm emission was enhanced due to the combined effect of F− reducing the OH− content of the glass and Ba2+ expanding the distance between Er3+ ions. Furthermore, the peak emission cross-section is calculated to be 12.9 × 10−21 cm2. The Er3+ doped Bi2O3-GeO2-BaF2 glasses show potential as broadband mid-infrared emission gain material.

Lithium borate glass is a widely studied system, mainly due to its good ionic conductivity, thermal conductivity and thermoluminescence properties. The properties of lithium borate glass are determined by its structure, and the change of microstructure unit has great influence on its properties. In this work, the xLi2O⋅(1-x) B2O3 (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.48) glass was studied by Raman spectroscopy combined with peaks fitting and density analysis. Through quantitative analysis of Raman spectrum, the change in trend of each structural unit as well as the change of the tetracoordinated boron content (N4) were obtained with the increase of Li2O content. Especially, a more detailed assignment and general transformation mechanism of structural units were presented, and the common inflection points of properties (mass density, molar volume, etc.) and structural units content changes were found. The correlation between the properties (mass density, atomic density and molar volume) and the basic structural units (BØ3, BØ2O− and BØ4−) of the lithium borate glass was established by the genetic function approximation algorithm (GFA). The study on the structural units in xLi2O⋅(1-x) B2O3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.48) glass network and the mutual transformation mechanism between each structural unit is helpful to explore the effects on macroscopic properties as the structural units change.

The structure of thin (∼300nm) SiOxNy (0.23≤x≤1.95, 0.01≤y≤0.32) films produced by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is studied by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The dependence of the shape of the main IR absorption band in the range of 700–1400 cm–1 upon film composition is analyzed. The IR spectra exhibit strong overlapping of the bands corresponding to absorption on Si–O and Si–N bonds. A problem of separating these components is solved. Analysis of their relative intensities provides an insight into the film structure. The films with high oxygen content are found to have a homogeneous structure similar to that of nonstoichiometric Si oxide that can be described by the random bonding model. Increase of relative Si concentration and simultaneous decrease of oxygen and nitrogen content changes the film structure to the two-phase one obeying the random mixture model. Such material may be represented as a uniform mixture of interconnecting silicon–oxygen tetrahedra (Si–OaSi4-a, a=0..4) and silicon–nitrogen pyramids (Si3N). Relative Si concentration in the Si oxynitride films and their deposition temperature are hypothesized to play a decisive role on their structure, which is supported by thermodynamic modeling.

The influence of Sm3+ ion concentration on physical, structural and optical properties of magnesium-sodium fluoroborate glasses were studied and analyzed. The XRD, FTIR, SEM with EDS spectra validated the non-crystalline nature, presence of functional groups, morphology and elementary analysis of the prepared glasses. The bonding parameters, oscillator strength, JO intensity parameters and radiative properties were evaluated using absorption and emission analysis. In JO intensity parameters, the lower Ω2 value implied higher symmetry and less covalency at higher Sm3+ concentration. The 4G5/2 → 6H7/2 emission transition possesses higher stimulated emission cross section (15.75 ✗ 10−22) and higher branching ratio 0.533 (βcal), 0.51 (βexp) for BMNNFS1.5 glass. The higher values of radiative parameters witnessed the suitability of prepared glasses for laser applications. Decay measurements were carried out and BMNNFS0.1 glass has higher quantum efficiency as 72%. The color coordinates (x.y) of prepared glasses lie in the reddish-orange region of the CIE diagram this confirmed the reddish-orange visible laser applications.

The viscosity and flow behavior of the industrial heterogeneous highly basic BOF slags with 2 and 8 mass% MgO and 0 to 25 mass% V2O5 were measured by using rotating bob method and hot stage microscope. An increase in the content of V2O5 in slags with 2 mass% MgO led to a slight increase and then a decrease in viscosity. While, in the case of 8 mass% MgO-containing slags, their viscosity decreased with increasing V2O5 content in liquid determined region. Thereby, the behavior of flow point temperature and crystallization temperatures corresponds with the behavior of critical temperature on the viscosity curves for both groups of slags. The NBO/T results revealed a polymerization with the increasing of V2O5 in both slags groups with 2 and 8 mass% of MgO. Moreover, the formation of solid particles at break point in quenched slags were investigated.