Germanate glass ceramic

摘要

A germanate glass ceramic article which has better thermal and physical properties than the competing materials of zinc sulfide, spinel, and sapphire is made by mixing germanate ceramic glass components; melting the components to form a molten mass; cooling the molten mass to form a solid glass article; nucleating the solid article by heating it in the range of about 630 DEG -790 DEG C. for about 1-16 hours to develop nuclei in the article; and crystallizing the nucleated article by heating it, after nucleation, in the range of about 1/2 minute to about 8 hours to grow the nuclei to crystallites having an average diameter of less then about 1000 nanometer (nm); and cooling to form the glass ceramic.