Chalcogenide Glasses for Infrared Photonics

Abstract

International audienceThe last advances in the synthesis and shaping techniques of chalcogenide glasses suitable for IR photonics are reported. Ball milling combined with spark plasma sintering allows the prepn. of bulk chalcogenide glasses at lower temp. and at lower cost. Microstructuring of optical fibers results in enhanced nonlinear properties leading to the demonstration of low-​threshold Brillouin laser at 1.55 μm, all-​optical wavelength conversion and time-​domain demultiplexing with a 170 Gb​/s rate, and supercontinuum between 1.5 and 2.8 μm. The potential of integrated waveguides for functions such as near-​IR sensing, mid-​IR injection, and (bio)​-​chem. functionalization is shown

Glass and Rare‐Earth Elements: A Personal Perspective

“…For the latter applications, chalcogenide glasses have much wider opportunities even up to much longer wavelengths of mid‐IR, which are probably described in a review paper by J‐L. Adam in this special issue …”

Amorphous Ge‐Sb‐Se thin films fabricated by co‐sputtering: Properties and photosensitivity

“…Amorphous chalcogenides, noncrystalline materials based on the elements of chalcogens (S, Se, and Te) have been extensively studied for last several decades. Low phonon energy, broad transmission window, large refractive index, and photosensitivity make these materials attractive in the field of photonics, optical phase‐change memories, solar cells etc . Moreover, they have tremendous potential in ultrafast all‐optical signal processing due to a third‐order nonlinearities between 2 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than that of silica …”

“…Low phonon energy, broad transmission window, large refractive index, and photosensitivity make these materials attractive in the field of photonics, optical phase-change memories, solar cells etc. [1][2][3] Moreover, they have tremendous potential in ultrafast all-optical signal processing due to a third-order nonlinearities between 2 to 3 orders of magnitude greater than that of silica. 4 Due to the presence of arsenic in classical chalcogenide glasses (As 2 S 3 , As 2 Se 3 ), which is toxic in its elemental form, arsenic-based noncrystalline chalcogenides are supposed to be environmentally improper for some applications.…”

Characterising refractive index dispersion in chalcogenide glasses

“…Critical for many of these applications, for example medical diagnostics, power delivery, microscopy and sensing, is the potential for low loss fibre fabrication [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] and hence thermal glass stability against devitrification. Many glass compositions are available, which provides the opportunity and versatility to realise glasses with a wide and continuous range of physical properties, including refractive index.…”