Single crystal germanium core optical fibers produced via pressure assisted physical filling and CO2 laser recrystallization

DOI: 10.1109/LPT.68

Authors: Guangrui Li (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) , Markus A. Schmidt (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) , Noel Healy (Newcastle University)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Ieee Photonics Technology Letters

State: Published (Approved)
Published: December 2019
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 13025

Abstract: We present a simple two step process for the fabrication of single crystal germanium core optical fibers. The core material is deposited into a capillary in a highly polycrystalline state using the pressure assisted filling technique. The cores are then melted and recrystallized in single crystal form using a scanning CO2 laser process. This technique is far quicker than the high pressure chemical deposition technique and overcomes all of the oxygen in-diffusion issues associated with the molten core drawing technique. We produce small core fiber 1 lm radii and length in the cm regime. It is anticipated that this process can be be optimized so that sub-micron cores can be produced to create fibers that have single-mode operation.

Journal Keywords: Optical device fabrication; Optical signal processing; Optical diffraction; Crystals; Semiconductor lasers; Germanium

Subject Areas: Physics, Materials


Instruments: I18-Microfocus Spectroscopy