An investigation of the structure and properties of calcium aluminate glasses and glass films prepared by unconventional methods is proposed. Calcium aluminate glasses are of scientific interest because of the changes of their structural characteristics as a function of calcium concentration. Therefore, it is proposed to study the feasibility of preparing a wide compositional range of calcium aluminate glasses by sol-gel and sputtering processes and to asses the behavior and properties of these materials as a function of various processing steps. Due to their mid-infrared transparency calcium aluminates have an important technological potential as low loss optical fiber materials.
