TeO2-ZnO-La2O3 (TZL) glasses are purified in order to enhance the optical fiber mid-infrared (mid-IR) transmission performances. Halide dehydrating reagents such as ZnF2 and LaF3 are employed and introduced during glass synthesis to capture and remove OH species from the matrix. Thermal, optical, physical and chemical characterizations are performed on bulk samples to determine the impact of the fluoride precursors on glass properties. Single-index optical fibers are then drawn and optical losses are measured in order to characterize their transmission performances with the ZnF2 and LaF3 addition. Finally, large and small core step-index fibers are manufactured with selected compositions, and low loss optical signal wave guiding is observed.
Multimaterial optical fibers combining tellurite with chalcogenide glasses and featuring thin polymer structures are fabricated via the thermal drawing process. It is demonstrated that micrometric polyethersulfone films can be embedded within larger elongated tellurite/chalcogenide glass architectures. Taking advantage of the strong chemical reactivity contrasts which exist in the considered fiber geometries, a quasi‐exposed‐core waveguide is obtained by selective etching of the glass cladding. The potential of the postprocessed fiber structure is then assessed through evanescent‐wave probing of liquids and numerical investigations are carried out to establish the device performances as function of selected optogeometric parameters. Those results open the way for the development of evolutive photonic objects benefiting from postdrawing processing of multimaterial fibers.
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