Optically Trapped Delayed Elasticity In Germanium Selenide Glass Fibres

Chalcogenide glasses undergo viscosity decrease under light irradiation (photofluidity). This effect has been known and investigated for many years. Nevertheless, what is less well known, is that light irradiation impacts the whole viscoelastic behaviour, and especially the delayed elasticity (or "anelasticity") This article investigates the impact of light irradiation on delayed elastic recovery and compares it to the effect of temperature jumps, showing that photoinduced processes behind the photofluidity superimpose over the "natural" thermally activated processes. They produce their own contribution to the delayed elastic deformation without disturbing, or being disturbed, by the thermally activated processes.