FRG: Glass Science, Processing and Optical Properties of Tellurite Fibers

光纤已成为许多应用的关键组件，从光通信和互联网到智能传感，制造和医疗，并提出了更广泛的新应用领域。目前使用的大多数纤维是由石英玻璃制成的，但其某些性能不足以满足这些新的应用。为了满足这一需求，利哈伊大学的研究人员正在开发新的光纤，由具有增强的光学特性的（碲酸盐）玻璃制成，并具有进一步增强这些特性的新内部结构。该项目不仅将有助于这些新光纤的开发，还将提供有关这些玻璃在光纤制造过程中的转变及其与最终光学性能之间关系的宝贵科学信息。出于这个原因，我们正在与一家规模虽小但非常成功的公司合作，该公司对扩大他们已经生产的纤维类型非常感兴趣。这是一个高度多学科和快速发展的技术领域，参与该项目的学生将接触到广泛的当前感兴趣的技术问题。除了培养研究生外，该项目还将提供短期研究机会，以促进本科阶段代表性不足的学生群体对科学和工程的兴趣。技术描述：当今许多通信和智能传感应用联合收割机将电子学与光子学相结合。然而，现在人们对“全光学”应用越来越感兴趣，尽可能消除对电子器件的需求。要实现这一点，首先需要开发具有增强的非线性光学性能的新玻璃和光纤。该项目的研究人员正在开发具有这些特性的新型软玻璃纤维，特别是使用改性碲酸盐玻璃。此外，这些光纤正在设计和制造具有特殊的微结构，以增强其波导和非线性光学特性。为了制造这些微结构而“预成形”玻璃的一种原始且通用的方式是通过使用挤出技术。该项目的独创性是将联合收割机三个不同的研究领域结合成一个连贯的研究计划：玻璃科学，研究成型或制造过程对玻璃结构和性能的影响，最后研究纤维化玻璃的波导和光学性能。 该项目的垂直整合性质吸引了一家规模虽小但非常成功的纤维公司的注意，我们正与该公司合作开发这些纤维和其他纤维。如上所述，该项目使本科生和研究生层次的学生接触到各种主题，并使他们理解和欣赏这些不同主题和研究领域之间的相互关系以及它们与全光学应用的相关性。它还培训他们使用相应的各种尖端研究工具。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:Optical fibers have become a critical component for many applications, from optical communications and the internet to intelligent sensing, manufacturing and medical, and suggesting an even broader field of new applications. Most of the fibers presently used are made of silica glass but some of its properties are not sufficient for these new applications. In response to this need, researchers at Lehigh University are developing new fibers, made of (tellurite) glasses with enhanced optical properties and with new internal structures further enhancing these properties. This project will not only contribute to the development of these new fibers but also provide valuable scientific information on the transformation of these glasses when undergoing the fiber manufacturing process, and on its relationship to their final optical properties. For this reason, we are partnering with a small but very successful company, which is very interested in expanding the type of fibers they are already manufacturing. This being a highly multidisciplinary and fast-evolving technological field, the students involved in the project will be exposed to a broad scope of technical issues of very current interest. In addition to training graduate students, this project will offer short term research opportunities to promote interest in science and engineering in under-represented student groups at the undergraduate level.TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION:Many of today's communication and intelligent sensing applications combine electronics with photonics. However, there is now growing interest in applications that would be "all-optical", eliminating as much as possible the need for electronics. For this to become a reality, it is first necessary to develop new glasses and fibers with enhanced nonlinear optical properties. The researchers in this project are developing new soft glass fibers with such properties, in particular using modified tellurite glasses. In addition, these fibers are being designed and manufactured to have special microstructures that enhance their waveguiding and nonlinear optical properties. An original and versatile way to "preform" the glass in order to manufacture these microstructures is through the use of an extrusion technique. The originality of this project is to combine three different research areas into a coherent program of study: glass science, a study of the effect of forming or the manufacturing process on the structure and properties of the glasses and, finally, a study of the resulting wave-guiding and optical properties of the fiberized glass. The vertically-integrated nature of the project has attracted the attention of a small but very successful fiber company with which we are partnering for the development of these and other fibers. As described, this project exposes students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to a variety of topics, and brings them to understand and appreciate the interrelationships between these different topics and areas of study as well as their relevance to all-optical applications. It also trains them in the use of a corresponding variety of cutting-edge research tools.