The Glass and Ceramics group of the Institute of Chemical Sciences of Rennes at the University of Rennes 1 (UR1) presents an important knowledge of exotic glass without silica, for example: fluorides, phosphates, chalcogenides. In the past decade, this team has developed a great experience of chalcogenide glasses, in their synthesis and purification, their shaping, and also the study of optical properties, putting forward the possibility to obtain non-linear effects 1000 times higher than in silica glasses. In SUPUVIR the role of the UR1 is to synthesize high purity chalcogenide glasses and fibers transparent in the mid-IR range. The Glass and Ceramics group and SelenOptics (Associated partner of SUPUVIR) have recently developed a new technique to make low loss microstructured chalcogenide optical fibers.
Link to Glass and Ceramics group