Towards multimaterial multifunctional fibres that see, hear, sense and communicate

Abstract

Virtually all electronic and optoelectronic devices necessitate a challenging assembly of conducting, semiconducting and insulating materials into specific geometries with low-scattering interfaces and microscopic feature dimensions. A variety of wafer-based processing approaches have been developed to address these requirements, which although successful are at the same time inherently restricted by the wafer size, its planar geometry and the complexity associated with sequential high-precision processing steps. In contrast, optical-fibre drawing from a macroscopic preformed rod is simpler and yields extended lengths of uniform fibres. Recently, a new family of fibres composed of conductors, semiconductors and insulators has emerged. These fibres share the basic device attributes of their traditional electronic and optoelectronic counterparts, yet are fabricated using conventional preform-based fibre-processing methods, yielding kilometres of functional fibre devices. Two complementary approaches towards realizing sophisticated functions are explored: on the single-fibre level, the integration of a multiplicity of functional components into one fibre, and on the multiple-fibre level, the assembly of large-scale two- and three-dimensional geometric constructs made of many fibres. When applied together these two approaches pave the way to multifunctional fabric systems.

Polymer Fiber Probes Enable Optical Control of Spinal Cord and Muscle Function In Vivo

“…We employed thermal drawing to fabricate these bifunctional polymer fiber probes as it permits simultaneous processing of multiple materials [31][32][33] . Control over the stress during the draw enables preservation of the cross-sectional geometry of the preform, a macroscopic template of the final device, while features are reduced by up to 200 times and the length is scaled accordingly, producing hundreds of meters of fiber [34] .…”

In-Fiber Semiconductor Filament Arrays

“…Recent work, however, has generalized optical fiber manufacturing to include microstructured fibers that combine multiple distinct materials including metals, semiconductors, and insulators, which expand fiber-device functionalities while retaining the simplicity of the thermal-drawing fabrication approach [77]. For example, a periodic cylindrical-shell multilayer structure has been incorporated into a fiber to guide light in a hollow core with significantly reduced loss for laser surgery [82].…”

“…A new class of fibers incorporating multiple materials (e.g., semiconductor, insulators, and metals) has been developed [32]. These fibers allow one, in principle, to incorporate the functionality of a semiconductor device into a fiber.…”

Digital design of multimaterial photonic particles

“…The key to addressing the challenge of particle digital design is exploiting a recently discovered in-fiber fluid instability (26)(27)(28) that produces spherical particles having-in principle-arbitrary internal structure. A centimeter-scale axisymmetric cylindrical "core" rod is assembled as a prototype of the intended particle structure in a LEGO-like procedure from prefabricated segments of different materials, which is then embedded in a cladding matrix to form a "preform" (29)(30)(31). A fiber that is thermally drawn from this preform with reduced transverse feature size defines the initial conditions for a cylinder-to-sphere geometric transformation by thermally inducing the Plateau-Rayleigh capillary instability (PRI) (32,33) at the heterogeneous interfaces along the whole fiber length (26)(27)(28).…”