Low- and high-refractive-index chalcogenide glasses are studied for their potential use in the fabrication of one-dimensional hollow Bragg fibers. The low-index glasses are based on the GeSe–glass systems with indices varying from 2.0 to 2.5, while the high-index glasses are formed from the AgAsSe glasses with indices ranging from 2.8 to 3.8. High-purity elemental starting materials are distilled and the surface oxides removed prior to mixing in a rocking furnace. The refractive indices of the AgAsSe glasses, measured using a ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ laser reflectometer, were near 3.10 for the compositions most compatible with the low-index ${\mathrm{Ge}}_{20}{\mathrm{Se}}_{80}$ glass ( $n=2.46$ ). Spectral measurements show impurity absorption bands between 12 and $16\mathrm{\mu m}$ . The loss at $10.6\mathrm{\mu m}$ for the ${\mathrm{Ag}}_{25}{\mathrm{As}}_{40}{\mathrm{Se}}_{35}$ glass measured using ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ laser calorimetry was $1.16\times {10}^{-3}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1}$ .