MWN : Void-Free Filling of Extreme Aspect Ratio Optical Fiber Templates John V. Badding, Pennsylvania State Univ Univ

1. MWN: Void-Free Filling of Extreme Aspect Ratio Optical Fiber TemplatesJohn V. Badding, Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, DMR 0806860 Optical fibers are a pervasive technology that has had broad societal impacts in areas such as high speed telecommunictions, high power industrial lasers and much more. Our group is pioneering methods to incorporate crystalline technologically relevant optoelectronic semiconductors into optical fibers, greatly extending the range of materials properties that can be exploited in the fiber geometry. Using a unique high pressure chemical deposition technique, we have filled centimeters-long, micron diameter pores in optical fibers void-free with semiconductors such as germanium, silicon, and zinc selenide. These waveguides meet the very stringent requirements on materials purity, microstructure, and surface roughness require to guide light with low optical loss. Optical micrograph of a cross section of a silica optical fiber pore 50 microns in diameter completely filled by high pressure chemical fluid deposition with the compound semiconductor zinc selenide (central bright orange circle). Established techniques such as fiber drawing have not been reported to allow for the fabrication of low optical loss zinc selenide fibers. Baril et al,Adv. Mater. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201001199

2. International and Undergraduate Outreach/CollaborationJohn V. Badding, Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, DMR 0806860 Undergraduate researcher Jennifer Esbenshade joined us for a summer REU visit and developed methods to hierarchically organized different materials in the fiber templates. As a result of her work, complex combinations of different unary and compound semiconductor and metallic materials can now be patterned in the fiber templates. We continue our international collaboration with the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Centre, with visits in both directions across the Atlantic, weekly videoconference group meetings, and joint publication of papers and conference presentations. Team of Penn State Chemistry/MATSCE, REU (Jennifer Esbenshade, back row, 4th from left), and University of Southampton, UK (Pier Sazio, back row, 3rd from left; Noel Healy, back row, 1st from left; and Priyanth Mehta, front row, right side) PI’s, students, and post-docs involved in chemical deposition in fibers project.