Material dispersion and Rayleigh scattering in glassy germanium dioxide, a substance with promising applications in low-loss optical fiber waveguides

An investigation was made of the dispersion of the refractive index $n(\lambda)$ of glassy $GeO_2$ in the spectral range 0,5-2,5 $\mu m$. It was found that this dispersion of $GeO_2$ vanished near $\lambda_0=1,74\mu m$. The Brillouin scattering method was used to determine the elastic and photoelastic constants of $GeO_2$ and to find the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, which indicated that the upper limit for the Rayleigh scattering losses was 0,30 dBAm at the wavelength of $\lambda=1,74\mu m$. The possibility of using $GeO_2$ fibers is considered and their advantages over $SiO_2$ fibers in the wavelength range 1,7-1,8 $\mu m$ are stressed.