Patent ID: 7637124

Claim:
A method for making a bismuth fluorophosphate glass, comprising the acts of: batching glass components; melting glass components to form a molten mixture; cooling the molten mixture to solid state; annealing glass in the solid state; slowly cooling the annealing glass to approximately ambient temperature; the glass components, on a mol basis, comprising of: a metaphosphate Al(PO 3 ) 3 , from 5 to 10 percent; a metaphosphate Ba(PO 3 ) 2 , from 8 to 13 percent; a metaphosphate Bi(PO 3 ) 3 , from 8 to 13 percent; fluorides BaF 2 +RFx, from 64 to 79 percent; and dopant over 100 wt % comprised of M 2 O 3 or MF 3 at 0.5 to 20 wt percent, with M selected from a group consisting of rare earth elements: neodymium (Nd), erbium (Er), ytterbium (Yb), thulium (Tm), terbium (Tb), holmium (Ho), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), praseodymium (Pr); and mixtures thereof; where R is selected from the group consisting of Ca, Mg, Pb, and Bi; and x is an index representing an amount of fluoride (F) in the compound RFx.