Mechanical properties of a TAS fiber: a preliminary study

The mechanical properties, including elastic moduli, hardness, fracture toughness and tensile strength of a glass fiber in the Te–As–Se system (TAS) were studied. The values for the hardness (1.4 GPa) and the fracture toughness (0.18 MPa √m) show that this glass is both soft and brittle in comparison to glasses from other systems. However, indentation measurements should be interpreted with caution due to an indentation creep phenomenon and to a delayed fracture process. In addition, the effect of treatments in air (relative humidity about 60%) at different temperatures below T g were investigated. The main result of this study is that the studied TAS glass is sensitive to the presence of humidity, and aging treatments have a pronounced detrimental effect on the strength of the uncoated fibers.