Manufacturing and Application of Next Generation Chalcogenides

玻璃一直是许多重要文明进步的关键材料；是玻璃透镜让显微镜第一次看到细菌，是望远镜揭示了木星的行星和卫星。几千年来，玻璃器皿本身为化学、生物和文化进步的发展做出了贡献。玻璃社会的变革在现代仍在继续；就像一束束玻璃光纤改变了互联网和我们的通信方式。今天，玻璃已经超越了透明材料，通过不断的研究已经成为活跃的先进和功能材料。与传统的由硅石或沙子制成的玻璃不同，研究人员现在正在用硫磺等材料生产玻璃，这会产生一种不寻常的黄色橙色玻璃，具有令人难以置信的各种性能。这种下一代特种眼镜以其功能性和对光、电和热刺激的反应能力而闻名。这些玻璃在暴露在光线下时具有切换、弯曲、自组织和变暗的能力，它们甚至可以导电。它们在红外线中传输光，当强光照射到它们身上时，普通玻璃块和这些玻璃的性质甚至会发生变化。对特种玻璃的需求正在增长，这些先进的材料对英国具有国家重要性。我们生产和加工材料的企业每年的营业额约为1700亿GB，占全国GDP的15%，出口额为500亿GB。通过我们提议的研究计划，我们将生产出世界上独一无二的极其纯净、高功能的玻璃。我们拟议研究的目标如下：-将英国建成世界领先的特种玻璃研究和制造设施-发现新的并优化现有玻璃成分，尤其是在含硫玻璃中-发展与英国工业的联系，并帮助他们开发这些新玻璃材料-展示这些玻璃的重要新电子、电信、开关器件-与其他英国大学合作，探索特种玻璃的新的和新兴的应用为了实现这些目标，我们汇集了来自南安普顿、埃克塞特、牛津、剑桥和赫里奥特-瓦特大学的世界级的英国物理学家、化学家、工程师和计算机科学家的团队。我们与超过15家英国公司合作，这些公司将在他们的产品中使用这些材料，或者为制造这些材料的新方法做出贡献。因此，这项提议提供了一个独特的机会，以支持在特种玻璃制造、研究和开发方面的重大国家方案。

Glass has been a key material for many important advances in civilization; it was glass lenses which allowed microscopes to see bacteria for the first time and telescopes which revealed the planets and the moons of Jupiter. Glassware itself has contributed to the development of chemical, biological and cultural progress for thousands of years. The transformation of society with glass continues in modern times; as strands of glass optical fibres transform the internet and how we communicate. Today, glasses have moved beyond transparent materials, and through ongoing research have become active advanced and functional materials.Unlike conventional glasses made from silica or sand, research is now producing glasses from materials such as sulphur, which yields an unusual, yellow orange glass with incredibly varied properties. This next generation of speciality glasses are noted for their functionality and their ability to respond to optical, electrical and thermal stimuli. These glasses have the ability to switch, bend, self-organize and darken when exposed to light, they can even conduct electricity. They transmit light in the infra-red, which ordinary glass blocks and the properties of these glasses can even change, when strong light is incident upon them. The demand for speciality glass is growing and these advanced materials are of national importance for the UK. Our businesses that produce and process materials have a turnover of around £170 billion per annum; represent 15% of the country's GDP and have exports valued at £50 billion. With our proposed research programme we will produce extremely pure, highly functional glasses, unique to the world. The aims of our proposed research are as follows:- To establish the UK as a world-leading speciality glass research and manufacturing facility- To discovery new and optimize existing glass compositions, particularly in glasses made with sulphur- To develop links with UK industry and help them to exploit these new glass materials- To demonstrate important new electronic, telecommunication, switching devices from these glasses- To partner other UK Universities to explore new and emerging applications of speciality glassTo achieve these goals we bring together a world-class, UK team of physicists, chemists, engineers and computer scientists from Southampton, Exeter, Oxford, Cambridge and Heriot-Watt Universities. We are partners with over 15 UK companies who will use these materials in their products or contribute to new ways of manufacturing them. This proposal therefore provides a unique opportunity to underpin a substantial national programme in speciality-glass manufacture, research and development.