We developed a new type of chalcohalide glasses with physicochemical and nonlinear optical properties that are tunable by composition. It is found that more than 60 mol.% CdCl2 heavy metal halide can be dissolved into the ternary Ge–Sb–S system and forming stable glasses. The visible-light transparency range is extended to shorter wavelengths with the addition of CdCl2, which is beneficial for the optical quality control and infra-red (IR) system alignment. The third-order optical nonlinearity (TONL) is studied using the femtosecond Z-scan method. The results show that both the nonlinear refractive index and two photon absorption co-efficient decrease with CdCl2. Benefiting from the favorable property-tailoring effects of CdCl2, the TONL figure of merit (FOM) can be improved to meet the requirement (FOM \u3c 1) for all-optical switching and IR photonic applications
