Low loss Ge-As-Se chalcogenide glass fiber, fabricated using extruded preform, for mid-infrared photonics

Abstract

Chalcogenide glass fibers have attractive properties (e.g. wide transparent window, high optical non-linearity) and numerous potential applications in the mid-infrared (MIR) region. Low optical loss is desired and important in the development of these fibers. Ge-As-Se glass has a large glass-forming range to provide versatility of choice from continuously varying physical properties. Recently, broadband MIR supercontinuum generation has been achieved in chalcogenide fibers by using Ge-As-Se glass in the core/clad. structure. In the shaping of chalcogenide glass optical fiber preforms, extrusion is a useful technique. This work reports glass properties (viscosity-temperature curve and glass transition) and optical losses of Ge-As-Se fiber fabricated from an extruded preform. A robust cutback method of fiber loss measurement is developed and the corresponding error calculation discussed. MIR light is propagated through 52 meters of a fiber, which has the lowest loss yet reported for Ge-As-Se fiber of 83 ± 2 dB/km at 6.60 μm wavelength. The fiber baseline loss is 83-90 dB/km across 5.6-6.8 μm, a Se-H impurity absorption band of 1.4 dB/m at 4.5 μm wavelength is superposed and other impurity bands (e.g. O-H, As-O, Ge-O) are ≤ 20 dB/km. Optical losses of fiber fabricated from different positions of the extruded preform are investigated.

Revolver Hollow Core Optical Fibers

“…One should note, that compared with RFs made of silica glass, the solid-core non-silica fibers have lower optical losses in the mid-IR. For example, optical losses less than 0.1 dB/m were demonstrated in fluoroindate fibers in the 2.0-4.5 μm spectral range [36] and in chalcogenide fibers at a wavelength of up to 6.5 μm [37,38]. At an even longer wavelength (8-16 μm), the silver halides fibers with optical losses below 1 dB/m are available [39].…”

“…More details are given in the text [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. [36] and in chalcogenide fibers at a wavelength of up to 6.5 µm [37,38]. At an even longer wavelength (8-16 µm), the silver halides fibers with optical losses below 1 dB/m are available [39].…”

Toward Mid-Infrared, Subdiffraction, Spectral-Mapping of Human Cells and Tissue: SNIM (Scanning Near-Field Infrared Microscopy) Tip Fabrication

“…They have low phonon energy, transparency within the wavelength range 0.6-25 m [13,14] and are robust enough for development as MIR fiber-optics' and SNIM tips. For instance, we have recently reported ultra-low (83 dB/km [15]) loss GeAsSe based optical fibers, exhibiting loss of<10 dB/m across 1-12 m, which encompasses the region of interest for SNIM of human cells and tissue [11,12].…”

Modelling and Design of Lanthanide Ion-Doped Chalcogenide Fiber Lasers: Progress towards the Practical Realization of the First MIR Chalcogenide Fiber Laser

“…The observed photoluminescence lifetimes are near to the radiative lifetimes predicted by the Judd-Ofelt theory. The fiber attenuation has been driven down to the dB/km level [14,15]. Lanthanide ion concentrations of up to 2000 ppm without crystallization have been achieved [6].…”