About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Materials Processing Fundamentals: Towards Sustainable Process Modeling, Design, and Operation
|
| Presentation Title |
Crystal Nucleation and Growth in FluoroZirconate (ZBLAN) Glasses: Mesoscopic Study of the Effect of Shear Rate and Viscosity |
| Author(s) |
Tomorr Haxhimali, Chris C. Walton, Alexander Hallock, Michael Vestel |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Tomorr Haxhimali |
| Abstract Scope |
ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF) glass offers the promise of optical fibers that are stable under normal conditions, and whose signal loss is of the order of 0.01 dB/km for light of wavelength 2.55 micrometers. Difficulties are attributed to imperfections in the experimental glasses that have been developed so far. The primary imperfections are light-scattering microcrystals formed during glass synthesis, as well as fiber drawing.
Fiber is drawn by pulling and thinning an initial piece of cast glass, at a temperature above its glass transition temperature (Tg) but below its crystallization temperature (Tx). ZBLAN has a very narrow working range (Tx – Tg), making it difficult to draw into fiber without causing crystallization. The difficulty is increased by convective flow that may reduce the viscosity at high shear rate locations, expediting nucleation and growth.
We are developing nucleation models from atomistic and experimentally informed phase-field studies, that consider convection flow and dissipative effects. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |