Infrared single mode chalcogenide glass fiber for space

Abstract

An important measuring technique under study for the DARWIN planet finding mission, is nulling interferometry, enabling the detection of the weak infrared emission lines of an orbiting planet. This technique requires a perfect wavefront of the light beams to be combined in the interferometer. By using a single mode waveguide before detection, wavefront errors are filtered and a virtually perfect plane wavefront is obtained. In this paper the results on the development and the optical characterisation of suitable infrared transmitting chalcogenide glasses and mid-IR guiding optical fibers are reported. Two different perform techniques for manufacturing core-cladding chalcogenide fibers are described. Two types of step index fibers, prepared with Te(2)As(3)Se(5) chalcogenide glasses, offer single mode guidance at 10.6 mum.

Thin Chalcogenide Films for Photonic Applications

“…That provides transparency in the visible to IR region, where main telecommunication wavelengths are positioned, as well as the characteristic features of the so-called greenhouse gasses (water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone) and biological molecules are located. That well-known fact can be utilized in fabrication of mid-IR guiding optical fibers for space and underground CO 2 storage monitoring (Houizot et al, 2007, Charpentier et al, 2009), optical biosensors (Anne et al, 2009, etc.…”

Optical characterization of infrared telluride glass fibers for space use

“…Gielesen (1) , C. Boussard-Plédel (2) , S. Maurugeon (2) , B. Bureau (2) , X.H. Zhang (2) , J. Lucas (2) , J. Pereira Do Carmo (3) (1) TNO Science and Industry, P.O.…”

The effect of the longitudinal polarization component in multi-axial nulling interferometry for exoplanet detection

“…Consider now the case of single-mode chalcogenide fibers (Houizot et al 2007). These fibers are designed to be single-mode in the mid-IR (around 10.6 μm) and are made out of high refractive index glasses.…”