Dispersion properties of a single-mode windmill single crystal Sapphire optical fiber and its broadband infrared supercontinuum generation

All-solid anti-resonant single crystal fibers

“…As an outstanding fiber laser gain medium, SCFs are expected to have higher melting points, thermal conductivity, strength, laser damage threshold (500 times higher than that of silica), doping concentration, and a lower Brillouin gain coefficient [3][4][5]. Compared to silica fiber, sapphire SCF is a better platform for supercontinum generation due to its high transparency up to 5 μm, low material dispersion in the 0.8 -5 μm spectral range, and higher laser damage threshold [6,7]. Furthermore, SCF-based sensors are the unique and effective solution in high-temperature, high-pressure, and chemically aggressive environments that require high temperature stability and transient response characteristics because of their high melting point, superb mechanical properties, and stable physical and chemical properties [8][9][10][11].…”

“…Therefore, it is common for cladding materials to have lower refractive indices and similar thermal expansion coefficients to that of the core. Effective cladding methods include the magnetron sputtering [12], Sol-Gel method [13,14], liquid phase epitaxy [15], co-drawing laser heating pedestal growth (LHPG) [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], ion implantation [25][26][27][28], and micro-structure cladding [7,29,30].…”