Stable low-loss optical nanofibres embedded in hydrophobic aerogel.
Stable low-loss optical nanofibres embedded in hydrophobic aerogel.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1364/oe.19.000764
复制
发表时间：
2011-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Limin Xiao;M. Grogan;William J. Wadsworth;R. England;Timothy A. Birks
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Limin Xiao;M. Grogan;William J. Wadsworth;R. England;Timothy A. Birks
纳米纤维是一种比光波长还窄的光纤，暴露在空气中数小时后就会降解。我们表明，疏水性二氧化硅气凝胶（折射率 1.05）的封装可提供保护和稳定性（超过 2 个月），而不会牺牲低衰减、强限制和可接近的倏逝场。测得的衰减<0.03 dB/mm，比其他密封剂报告的衰减低 10 倍以上。这使得许多基于其极小尺寸和强外部倏逝场的纳米纤维应用成为可能，例如光学传感器、非线性光学、纳米纤维电路和高Q谐振器。气凝胶不仅仅是一个防水盒，它是一种与纳米纤维紧密接触且在宏观和分子尺度上均具有疏水性的完全相容的透气材料。气体传感（利用气凝胶的孔隙率）和超连续谱生成（利用其超低指数）的实验说明了其优点。
Nanofibres, optical fibres narrower than the wavelength of light, degrade in hours on exposure to air. We show that encapsulation in hydrophobic silica aerogel (refractive index 1.05) provides protection and stability (over 2 months) without sacrificing low attenuation, strong confinement and accessible evanescent field. The measured attenuation was <0.03 dB/mm, over 10 × lower than reported with other encapsulants. This enables many nanofibre applications based on their extreme small size and strong external evanescent field, such as optical sensors, nonlinear optics, nanofibre circuits and high-Q resonators. The aerogel is more than a waterproof box, it is a completely-compatible gas-permeable material in intimate contact with the nanofibre and hydrophobic on both the macroscopic and molecular scales. Its benefits are illustrated by experiments on gas sensing (exploiting the aerogel's porosity) and supercontinuum generation (exploiting its ultra-low index).