Binary III-V semiconductor core optical fiber

Abstract

For the first time to the best of our knowledge a glass-clad optical fiber comprising a crystalline binary III-V semiconductor core has been fabricated. More specifically, a phosphate glass-clad fiber containing an indium antimonide (InSb) core was drawn using a molten core approach. The core was found to be highly crystalline with some oxygen and phosphorus diffusing in from the cladding glass. While optical transmission measurements were unable to be made, most likely due to free carrier absorption associated with the conductivity of the core, this work constitutes a proof-of-concept that optical fibers comprising semiconductor cores of higher crystallographic complexity than previously realized can be drawn using conventional fiber fabrication techniques. Such binary semiconductors may open the door to future fiber-based nonlinear devices.

Controlled Sub‐Micrometer Hierarchical Textures Engineered in Polymeric Fibers and Microchannels via Thermal Drawing

“…More recently, this technique was shown to also enable the fabrication of multimaterial fibers that integrate polymers or glasses but also metals, inorganic semiconductors, or nanocomposites, uniformly integrated in prescribed positions along the fiber length. [1][2][3] Such advanced multimaterial fiber systems have been proposed for applications, in optics [16][17][18][19] and imaging, [20][21][22] optoelectronics, [23][24][25][26] sensing, [27,28] energy harvesting, [29,30] bioengineering, [31,32] health care or smart textiles. [21,33,34] So far however, the use of micro-and sub-micrometer surface textures to impart fibers with novel functionalities has not been exploited.…”

Glass and Process Development for the Next Generation of Optical Fibers: A Review

“…With these two principal tools in place to fabricate glass-clad semiconductor core fibers, a number of other unary and binary systems were developed, including doped-silicon [101], germanium (amorphous [102] and crystalline [102][103][104]), selenium [105], tellurium [106], silicon-germanium alloys [107], selenium-tellurium alloys [108], indium antimonide [109] and zinc selenide [110,111]. In addition to new core phases, efforts also were undertaken to develop cladding glasses that were more closely matched in their thermo-physical properties to those of the semiconductors they encapsulate [106,112].…”

Hybrid Optical Fibers – An Innovative Platform for In‐Fiber Photonic Devices

“…[ 124 ] Other materials have been drawn with a similar approach such as Ge, InSb, or even sapphire derived all-glass optical fi bers. [125][126][127] At such high temperature, effects such as diffusion, chemical reactions and the formation of grain boundaries upon cooling and solidifi cation can be expected. This was recently highlighted in work where an aluminium rod inside a silica cladding at the preform level resulted in a Silicon core and alumina domains in the fi ber.…”