Incorporation of silver ions into undoped and doped lead crystal glass was performed by ion exchange. Polyvalent arsenic, antimony, cerium and tin oxides, used as thermoreducing agents, were added in different weight percentages to the starting lead crystal glass. Thus, several doped lead crystal glasses were obtained by conventional melting. The role of the polyvalent oxides as reducing agents of silver ions introduced by ion exchange was studied by focusing on analysis of diffusion depth profiles obtained by SEM-EDX and direct observations performed by TEM. The optical absorption behaviour of the samples was studied to clarify the influence of the parameters involved in the ion exchange process. Chromatic coordinates were calculated from the corresponding transmission of visible spectra.
