ZBLAN glass is a heavy metal fluoride glass that tends to undergo heavy devitrification, resulting in a crystalline material. It has many applications, including its use as an optical waveguide for fibre-optic technology. However, when the glass is processed with traditional casting techniques, crystallites form readily that act as scattering centres, which results in large attenuation losses. In this study, it has been experimentally demonstrated that processing ZBLAN rapidly with a heating rate of 25000 K/min and cooling rate of 4000 K/min yields test samples that are fully amorphous and retain a disordered molecular arrangement characteristic of its molten state. This novel method was developed using a specifically designed equipment named a Rapid Electro-thermal Processing Device (REPD).
