A new germanate glass-ceramic material in the BaO-Ga2O3-GeO2 system is developed for infrared (IR) dome and window applications. This glass-ceramic material has a grain size of similar to0.2-0.5 mum and is transparent in the 3-5 mum IR region. Glass ceramization results in 40% improvement in hardness, 65% increase in elastic modulus, 116% increase in strength, and 134% increase in fracture toughness over the base glass.