Silver Chloride (AgCl) Optical Material
Silver chloride is a non-glass, inorganic optical material. It has a fairly low melting temperature among non-glass optical ceramics. In addition, it has a moderately high density and a moderately low thermal conductivity. The graph bars on the material properties cards below compare silver chloride to other non-glass optical ceramics (top) and the entire database (bottom). A full bar means this is the highest value in the relevant set. A half-full bar means it's 50% of the highest, and so on.
Mechanical Properties
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus
20 GPa 2.9 x 106 psi
Poisson's Ratio
0.4
Shear Modulus
7.0 GPa 1.0 x 106 psi
Thermal Properties
Melting Onset (Solidus)
460 °C 850 °F
Specific Heat Capacity
360 J/kg-K 0.086 BTU/lb-°F
Thermal Conductivity
1.2 W/m-K 0.66 BTU/h-ft-°F
Thermal Expansion
31 µm/m-K
Other Material Properties
Density
5.6 g/cm3 350 lb/ft3
Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz
12
Light Transmission Range
0.4 to 25 µm
Refractive Index
2.0
Common Calculations
Stiffness to Weight: Axial
2.0 points
Stiffness to Weight: Bending
16 points
Thermal Diffusivity
0.57 mm2/s
Followup Questions
Further Reading
Handbook of Optical Materials, Marvin J. Weber, 2003
Handbook of Optical Constants of Solids, Edward D. Palik (editor), 1998
CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook, 4th ed., James F. Shackelford et al. (editors), 2015