Glass Reflections
Cambridge 7th to 9th September



Presenting Author:
Emma Barney
<emma.barney@nottingham.ac.uk>

article posted 24 Mar 2015

Emma Barney

Dr Emma Barney is an assistant professor in the department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Emma completed her PhD in Physics at the University of Warwick in 2008, with a thesis entitled "The structural Role of Lone-pair Ions in Glass". This studentship investigated the interaction of heavy metal ions, such as tellurium and lead, with traditional glass networks such as borates and aluminates. The research was part funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and, upon completion, Emma was employed by STFC as an instrument scientist for the GeM diffractometer at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source (2008-2011). In 2011, Emma was awarded a 2 year Nottingham Advanced Research (NAR) Fellowship at the University of Nottingham. The focus of this fellowship was to apply her understanding of lone pair ions in glass to technologically relevant arsenic based mid-infrared (mid-IR) optical glasses. At the end of the fellowship, Emma was appointed as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering.






Structure-property relationships in antimony based chalcogenide glasses
Emma Barney, Jessica Butterworth, James Towey,
David Furniss and Angela Seddon
Advanced Materials Research Group, Faculty of Engineering,
University of Nottingham NG7 2RD
email address: <emma.barney@nottingham.ac.uk>

The molecules in biological tissue strongly absorb specific light frequencies within the mid-infrared (IR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum, 3-25μm wavelength. These absorptions can be used as "molecular fingerprints" to generate spectral maps of tissue and provide information about the absence or existence of disease, potentially in real-time and in vivo. Unfortunately, to utilise this technique requires bright mid-IR broadband sources that are not currently available. Researchers are the University of Nottingham are currently developing new antimony based chalcogenide glasses for optical fibres to provide the required light spectra.

This paper will report the structure of a series of stoichiometric and selenium rich Sb-Ge-Se glasses using a combination of neutron and X-ray total scattering, Raman Spectroscopy and 77Se NMR. Basic functional properties including density and glass transition temperature, Tg, have also been measured. It has been determined that density and Tg vary linearly with composition in the stoichiometric series, but have a non-linear variation with composition as additional selenium is added to the glass. The potential structural origins for these observed trends will be discussed.