Properties and structure of Faraday rotating glasses for magneto optical current transducer

High heavy metal oxides (60–100 mol.%) ternary PbO–Bi2O3–B2O3(PBB) glasses were fabri-cated and characterized. Using a homemade single lightway DC magnetic setup, Verdetconstants of PBB glasses were measured to be 0.0923–0.1664 min/G cm at 633 nm wave-lengths. Glasses with substitution of PbO by Bi2O3were studied in terms of their Faradayeffects. PbO–Bi2O3–B2O3= 50–40–10 mol.% exhibited good thermal stability, high Verdet con-stant (0.1503 min/G cm) and good figure of merit (0.071). Based on this glass, a magnetooptical current sensor prototype was constructed and its sensitivity at different currentswas evaluated to be 8.31 nW/A.