Chalcogenide glasses with high nonlinear refractive index

Nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption of several chalcogenide glasses have been measured by the Z-scan method at 1.05 μm in order to evaluate their capability to be used in telecommunication all optical ultrafast switching devices. Value obtained for the reference glass As2S3, well known to present nonlinearities several orders of magnitude higher than silica glass, agree to those found in the literature. Glasses in the GeSe and GeSeAs systems have been characterized. Values of nonlinear refractive index four times higher than those of as2s3 have been obtained for a GeSeAs glass.