Fabrication of low-loss IR-transmitting Ge30As10Se30Te30 glass fibers

Improved purification and processing techniques have been utilized to fabricate Ge₃₀As₁₀Se₃₀Te₃₀ glass fibers with a minimum loss of O.11 dB/m at 6.6 μm. This is the lowest loss reported for any telluride glass fiber in the infrared region. Furthermore, the fibers exhibit less than 1 dB/m loss between 5.25 and 9.5 μm     

Fabrication of Arsenic Sulfide Optical Fiber with Low Hydrogen Impurities

Arsenic sulfide glass optical fibers typically possess extrinsic absorption bands in the infrared wavelength region associated with residual hydrogen and oxygen related impurities, despite using purified precursors. We report a purification process based on the addition of tellurium tetrachloride (TeCl₄) to the glass. During melting, the chlorine from TeCl₄ reacts with the hydrogen impurities to produce volatile products (e.g., HCl) that can be removed by subsequent dynamic distillation. The processing conditions have been modified accordingly to produce optical fibers with significantly reduced loss due to hydrogen sulfide impurity content (1.5 dB/m).     

Effect of temperature on the absorption loss of chalcogenide glass fibers

The change in the absorption loss of IR-transmitting chalcogenide glass fibers in the temperature range of -90 degrees C /= 6 mum the change in loss was mainly due to multiphonon absorption. The change in loss for tellurium-based glass fibers increased significantly at T = 60 degrees C. The increase in the loss at short wavelengths (lambda /= 9 mum, multiphonon absorption dominated the loss spectrum.     

Protective Silica Coatings on Zinc-Sulfide-Based Phosphor Particles

A spray drying approach was used to apply 15-nm-thick SiO₂ continuous coatings onto ZnS:Ag phosphor particles. A prehydrolyzed TEOS dip coating formula was used as the SiO₂ precursor. The phosphor was mixed together with the precursor then atomized without allowing gelation to occur until the droplets containing the particles were in flight. The coating gelled and dried while falling through a graded heat zone. The dried coated particles were captured in a cyclone separator and heat-treated to further densify the SiO₂ coating. The coatings protected the phosphors while in service in field emission display (FED) devices.     

Transparent ceramics for high-energy laser systems

We demonstrate that transparent magnesium aluminate spinel ceramic possesses excellent thermo-optical properties, a record low absorption loss of 6 ppm/cm, and superior ruggedness which position it as a prime candidate for an exit window aperture for high energy laser systems, especially in hostile environments. We also demonstrate lasing with an efficiency of about 45% in transparent Yb³⁺:Y₂O₃ ceramic made by hot pressing high purity submicron co-precipitated powder. This paves the way forward for high power solid state lasers exploiting hosts with higher thermal conductivity than YAG.     

Infrared Transparent Germanate Glass-Ceramics

A new germanate glass-ceramic material in the BaO-Ga₂O₃-GeO₂ system is developed for infrared (IR) dome and window applications. This glass-ceramic material has a grain size of ∼0.2–0.5 μm and is transparent in the 3–5 μm IR region. Glass ceramization results in 40% improvement in hardness, 65% increase in elastic modulus, 116% increase in strength, and 134% increase in fracture toughness over the base glass.     

Thermo-optic coefficient of barium gallogermanate glass

Barium gallogermanate (BGG) glasses are currently being explored as a viable low cost material for numerous U.S. defense and commercial visible-infrared window applications. These glasses are transparent from 0.4 mum to beyond 5.0 mum and can be easily made in large optics and complex shapes with high index homogeneity. For high-energy laser (HEL) applications, knowledge of the thermo-optic coefficient (dn/dT) of the window material is important in determining the optical path distortion. The dn/dT measurements were made on BGG glass at 633 and 3390 nm and compared with the values for multispectral ZnS. The dn/dT for BGG glass was approximately 1/5 the value for multispectral ZnS, giving BGG glass a clear advantage for HEL applications.     

Characterization of mid-infrared single mode fibers as modal filters

We present a technique for measuring the modal filtering ability of single mode fibers. The ideal modal filter rejects all input field components that have no overlap with the fundamental mode of the filter and does not attenuate the fundamental mode. We define the quality of a nonideal modal filter Q(f) as the ratio of transmittance for the fundamental mode to the transmittance for an input field that has no overlap with the fundamental mode. We demonstrate the technique on a 20 cm long mid-infrared fiber that was produced by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. The filter quality Q(f) for this fiber at 10.5 microm wavelength is 1000+/-300. The absorption and scattering losses in the fundamental mode are approximately 8 dB/m. The total transmittance for the fundamental mode, including Fresnel reflections, is 0.428+/-0.002. The application of interest is the search for extrasolar Earthlike planets using nulling interferometry. It requires high rejection ratios to suppress the light of a bright star, so that the faint planet becomes visible. The use of modal filters increases the rejection ratio (or, equivalently, relaxes requirements on the wavefront quality) by reducing the sensitivity to small wavefront errors. We show theoretically that, exclusive of coupling losses, the use of a modal filter leads to the improvement of the rejection ratio in a two-beam interferometer by a factor of Q(f).     

Very large temperature-induced absorptive loss in high Te-containing chalcogenide fibers

The change in the absorption loss relative to room temperature of the infrared (IR)-transmitting Ge/sub 15/As/sub 35/Se/sub (50-x)/Te/sub x/ glass fibers in the temperature range of -110/spl deg/C/spl les/T/spl les/110/spl deg/C was investigated. The attenuation increased significantly at T/spl ges/40/spl deg/C. This is mainly attributed to thermally activated free carriers associated with the semimetallic character of the Te atom. For /spl lambda//spl les/4.2 /spl mu/m, the loss due to electronic and free-carrier absorption was strongly affected by temperature. In the wavelength region of 5-11 /spl mu/m, the loss was mainly due to free-carrier absorption. Beyond /spl lambda//spl ges/11 /spl mu/m, multiphonon absorption dominated the loss spectrum at T/spl les/60/spl deg/C while free-carrier absorption contributed mainly to the total loss at T/spl ges/80/spl deg/C.     

Micro-Raman Analysis of Carbon Inclusions in Heavy-Metal Fluoride Glasses

While vitreous carbon crucibles can be used to produce high-quality heavy-metal fluoride glasses using low concentrations of SF₆ gas (15%), pure SF₆ gas produces low-quality and high-scattering glasses. This has been attributed to contamination by vitreous carbon particles by a fallback mechanism due to reaction of SF₆ gas with the crucible walls above the melt. The detrimental effect of carbon particles is further highlighted by their high scattering efficiency factor which indicates that only 37 particles of 1-μm diameter can be tolerated in an optical fiber for attaining 0.01 dB/km loss.