Fluoride fibers exhibit a high optical transparency at midinfrared wavelengths, whereas the common silica fibers absorb light beyond. Upon doping with rare earth ions, heavy metal fluoride fibers are suitable for a development of high power laser materials, upconversion lasers, and optical amplifiers for. Yag laser light for laser lithotripsy and compare to a sapphire fiber that provides good transmission of er. Basics of fiber optics mark curranbrian shirk fiber optics, which is the science of light transmission through very fine glass or plastic fibers, continues to be used in more and more applications due to its inherent advantages over copper conductors. In a fluoride glass optical fiber with extremely small transmission loss for infrared light having a core layer and a clad layer each consisting mainly of zrf 4 baf 2 laf 3 alf 3, naf and h f f 4 are used as additives to obtain a desired refractive index difference between the core layer and the clad layer. The present invention relates to fluoride glass fibers, and more particularly to fluoride glass optical fibers. An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical properties glasses are among the few solids that transmit visible light thin film oxides might, but scattering from grains limit their thickness mica windows at acoma pueblo glasses form the basic elements of virtually all optical systems worldwide telecommunications by optical fibers. Strength and fatigue characteristics of fluoride glass optical fibers, used as a new infrared transmission medium, were examined. Fluoride glass fibers are mainly used as rareearthdoped active components such as fiber lasers, which are described elsewhere see fluoride glasses, and amplifiers. The initially envisaged application of fluoride fibers was optical fiber communications, because the intrinsic losses of a midir fiber could in principle be lower than those of silica fibers, which are transparent only up to. Techniques for synthesis of fluoride glass optical.
Preform cleaning by this technique leads to ir fibres with mean tensile strength values as high as 400 mpa, which is an improvement by a factor of 2. Surface analysis and treatment of extruded fluoride. Mechanical properties of aluminum fluoride glass fibers mechanical properties of aluminum fluoride glass fibers colaizzi, james 19920101 00. A correlation parameter between mirror size and tensile strength of 0. Furthermore, indium fluoride glasses have a lower phonon energy compared to zirconium fluoride. The glass composition of fluoride glass used in this study is 51zrf 420baf 24. Optical fiber amplifiers are essential components for the development of highcapacity telecommunication networks based on silica fibers see sect.
The fibers are applied in remote spectroscopy, laser surgery, and thermal imaging. The transmission loss of teflonjacketed fibres could be reduced by a factor of ten. Physical properties of multicomponent fluoride glasses for. Zblan glass is the most stable fluoride glass known and is most commonly used to make optical fiber. A new approach has been developed to fabricate fluorideglasscladded fibres from preforms having controlled coreclad ratios and uniform cladding thicknesses. Since then, substantial progress has been made in improving the optical attenuation, mechanical strength, chemical durability, and manufacturing processing of fluoride glass fibers. Strength and fatigue of fluoride glass optical fibers. Heavy metal fluoride glasses are promising materials for ultralow loss midinfrared optical fibers. Pdf splicing fluoride glass and silica optical fibers. The brillouin properties of the sapphirederived highaluminacontent allglass optical fibres were measured to obtain data for a range of compositions supplementary table s1. This preform precursor is processed to collapse the hollow cylinder inwardly to form a composite preform having a higractive index core and a lowrefractive index casing. A preform for preparation of optical fibers is prepared by inserting a rod of a higher index of refraction fluoride glass into the bore of a hollow cylinder of a lower index of refraction fluoride glass fiber.
Genera aspects of fluoride glass preparation the classical way to prepare a glass sample consists in rnixing tk e basic glass components, heating, cool ing, casting ztnd annealing. Techniques for synthesis of fluoride glass optical fibers. Comparison of fluoride and sapphire optical fibers for er. While, indium fluoride glass fiber has a transmission window ranging from 0. The fluoride fiber provides superior light transmission efficiency over the sapphire fiber at an er. Fluoride glass is a class of nonoxide optical glasses composed of fluorides of various metals. Sapphirederived allglass optical fibres nature photonics. The next three chapters are devoted to ultralow loss optical fibers. Nondestructive testing of midir optical fiber using. An especially attractive application envisions fiber optic wave guides.
Fluoride glass etching method for preparation of infrared. Splicing fluoride glass and silica optical fibers article pdf available in the european physical journal conferences 215. Fluoride glasses have experienced extraordinary development for more than 25. The mixing ratio of the naf to the h f f 4 satisfies the realtions. Fluoride glasses are the only materials that transmit light in a continuous fashion from ultraviolet up to 8. Fluoride glass optical fiber amplifiers excerpt from infrared fibers and their applications fluoride glasses were seen to be potentially excellent hosts for re doping as early as 1978, when these hosts were being viewed as solidstate laser materials. In contrast to earlier casting methods, preform coreclad ratios remained unchanged over the entire length of all preforms. Optical fibers are replacing copper coaxial cables as the preferred transmission medium for electro magnetic waves, thereby revolutionizing terrestrial communications. Indium fluoride fibers have a wide transmission window from 0. Rare earth dopant ions in fluoride glasses as host media exhibit a strongly reduced tendency for quenching processes caused by multiphonon transitions. The structure of simple fluoride systems, such as baf2 binary glass is elaborated in chapter 2. The sources of loss are considered in chapter 6, while the work performed on the. Preparation of fluoride glass optical preforms and fibers. However, such low losses as those of silica fibers have not been achieved in practice, and the brittleness and high cost of fluoride fibers also did not support.
In fact fluoride glass fiber technology is the second most. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber and find wide usage in fiberoptic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at higher. Fluoride glass a variety of fluoride glasses based on zirconium, hafnium or thorium fluoride are being intensively investigated because they are transparent in the infrared to 8 pm and be0nd. The purpose of this article is to provide the nontechnical reader with an overview of. They are usually based on heavy metal fluorides such as zrf 4, hff 4 or baf 2. Splicing fluoride glass fibers and silica fibers is a critical point for manufacturing all fibered laser modules.
It emits fluorescent light when irradiated by ultraviolet light, when previously. In fact standard fluoride glass fibers based on zirconium fluoride, and commonly called zblan has a transmission window ranging from 0. So far, the background loss of a commercial zblan fiber can be 10. The extrusion step was found to create a surface layer of differing composition from the bulk glass material, leading to defects drawn down onto the optical fiber surface during. The glass samples were obtained by a conventional meltquenching method. Nondestructive testing of midir optical fibers using infrared imaging telops 2016. We report results of a study evaluating a fluoride glass fiber to transmit er. The third chapter covers the intrinsic transparency of fluoride glasses from the uv to the ir, with particular emphasis on the multiphonon edge and electronic edge. A method for the congruent dissolution of zirconium fluoride glass using an aqueous solution with zirconium ions as a complexing agent is described. After presenting the studied glass compositions and the conventional melting and casting methods used to achieve both the bulk glasses and the preforms, the results of characterization studies concerning the absorption and scattering losses of the glasses, the effect of some. Fluoride glass fibers with reduced defects infrared.
Fluoride glass preforms prepared by a rotational casting. There is an increasing demand on high quality optical fibers that transmit over 2 microns, where silica fibers are opaque, for applications as divers as spectroscopy and sensing, laser power delivery, fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, defense ircm. One of the most exciting prospects for optical fibres made from fluoride glasses is the possibility of providing long distance optical communication systems without the need for repeaters. They also include glasses based on alf 3 and bef 2, as well as fluorophosphatebased glasses. Fusion splicing of heavy metal fluoride glass optical fibers. This opens the door to new applications, in aerospace, supercontinuum sources, and spectroscopy and fiber lasers. Fluoride glass optical fibers in france springerlink. Due to their low viscosity, it is very difficult to completely avoid the occurrence of any crystallization while processing it through the glass transition or drawing the fiber from the melt thus, although heavy metal fluoride glasses hmfg exhibit very low optical. This objective has stimulated much of the work into fluoride glasses over the past ten years, and has prompted the writing of this book. Fluoride glasses and fibers for midinfrared applications. Fluoride glasses are the only materials that transmit light in a continuous fashion from ultraviolet up to 8 mum in the midinfrared region, and can be drawn into high quality optical fibers. The new method also permits fabrication of much larger preforms. In fact fluoride glass fiber technology is the second most mature, beside silica based fiber technology. Shahriari fiber optic materials research program, department of ceramic engineering rutgers university, piscataway nj 088550909 ab stract the effect of.
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