Abstract: We have fabricated stable chalcogenide glasses containing up to 35 at. % tellurium and these glasses do not exhibit crystallization upon reheating up to the fiber draw temperature. The physical properties such as Tg, packing density, and Vickers Hardness decreases while the mass density and CTE increase with Te content and these are attributed to the weaker delocalized metallic-bonding character introduced with Te. We have drawn unclad fibers with a minimum attenuation of 0.11 dB/m at 6.6 $mu@m which represents the lowest loss reported for a chalcogenide glass containing high levels of Te. Preliminary core/clad fibers have been drawn with a minimum loss of 0.7 dB/m at 6.6 $mu@m. Improvements in glass quality and processing will lead to lower losses. We also present data demonstrating the use of unclad fibers for evanescent sensing of numerous organic and inorganic liquids and their mixtures in the 3-12 $mu@m region.!9
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