In this work we explore using a carbon monoxide (CO) laser towards specialty optical fiber fabrication specifically targeting the use of unconventional core materials, such as semiconductors as well as other crystalline materials, surrounded by a silica glass cladding. With laser heating there is a near instantaneous temperature response with a change in laser power. Highly localized heating minimizes overall thermal exposure reducing the duration that the core and cladding material interact at elevated temperatures. Localized heating also results in large temperature gradient across the liquid-solid interface, which is beneficial for crystallization kinetics. Compared to using CO2-lasers, the radiation from the CO-laser, which operates at 5.5 μm, has a much larger penetration depth in silica resulting in energy being deposited further into the material. This enables a more homogeneous transverse temperature distribution as well as a higher average temperature while minimizing surface vaporization. This talk covers the results from recent work using a CO laser for the fabrication of hybrid material optical fibers.
Optical fibre consisting of a pure silicon core in silica cladding combines the advantageous properties of silicon waveguides with the convenience of optical fibre. However, the optical quality of these fibres is highly dependent on the crystalline structure and the purity of the silicon. The fabrication of these fibres requires engineering of the thermal gradients during the drawing process to ensure optimal crystallisation of the silicon. Here, we investigated the effects of draw speed and analyse the induced stresses at multiple stages in the fabrication process. The thermal exposure of the silicon while in contact with a silica cladding was found to increase the optical losses. This was attributed to the diffusion of impurities from the silica cladding into the silicon core.
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