Materials Development for Next Generation Optical Fiber

Abstract

Optical fibers, the enablers of the Internet, are being used in an ever more diverse array of applications. Many of the rapidly growing deployments of fibers are in high-power and, particularly, high power-per-unit-bandwidth systems where well-known optical nonlinearities have historically not been especially consequential in limiting overall performance. Today, however, nominally weak effects, most notably stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) are among the principal phenomena restricting continued scaling to higher optical power levels. In order to address these limitations, the optical fiber community has focused dominantly on geometry-related solutions such as large mode area (LMA) designs. Since such scattering, and all other linear and nonlinear optical phenomena including higher order mode instability (HOMI), are fundamentally materials-based in origin, this paper unapologetically advocates material solutions to present and future performance limitations. As such, this paper represents a ‘call to arms’ for material scientists and engineers to engage in this opportunity to drive the future development of optical fibers that address many of the grand engineering challenges of our day.

A unified materials approach to mitigating optical nonlinearities in optical fiber. II. B. The optical fiber, material additivity and the nonlinear coefficients

“…As an example, corrected and normalized Raman scattering spectra are shown in Figure for silica and fibers in the BaO‐SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 ‐SiO 2 families. The reductions in the magnitude of g R relative to pure silica are explained by the high cooling rates associated with the fiber drawing process, which enables the formation of a more highly disordered core glass (as evidenced by the broadened Si‐O spectral features) and a reduced overlap of the individual Raman peaks between the differing constituents . A more detailed discussion of the most promising material systems for realizing intrinsically low Raman response is provided in the Companion Paper III…”

Circular hole ENZ photonic crystal fibers exhibit high birefringence

“…Practical implementations of ENZ materials into structured fibers can be accomplished with techniques introduced to realize optical fibers with more complex material compositions [31,32] and hybrid optical fibers [33,34]. One could simply insert naturally occurring bulk materials having ENZ properties directly into a structured fiber using direct thermal drawing [35], pressure-assisted melt filling techniques [36], or chemical depositions [37][38][39].…”

Glass: The Carrier of Light ‐ A Brief History of Optical Fiber

“…In order to truly mitigate these effects, one must start with the material. 42,43 Each phenomenon has a materials origin and it is through the appropriate materials coefficients that reductions can be gained, if not fully negated. As previously noted, Fig.…”