Materials World Network: Creating Optoelectronic Materials and Devices Inside Microstructured Optical Fibers

有源光纤器件，光纤不仅作为无源波导，而且作为直接调制、产生或以其他方式操纵光的介质，在电信革命中发挥了重要作用，现在正在影响从遥感到生物医学的许多其他领域。 用于当前有源光纤装置的材料在很大程度上限于与光纤拉制工艺兼容的那些材料。这个多学科和合作项目之间的宾夕法尼亚州立大学和南安普顿大学光电研究中心在英国的重点是纳入新材料到光纤，使新型有源光纤器件。 半导体和金属通过独特的高压化学流体沉积技术沉积到微结构光纤的微米到纳米级空隙中，距离可达米。 因此，非晶和晶体半导体和金属的丰富光电功能可以与光纤的柔性光导能力相结合。 激光器、调制器、波导和检测器应该可以在这样的几何结构中实现，即允许半导体和金属与波导电磁辐射在比典型平面器件几何结构中可以实现的长得多的长度尺度上相互作用。该研究的更广泛影响包括加强跨学科以及英国和美国研究工作之间的联系，促进对K-12学生和代表性不足的少数民族的宣传，以及光电集成的新方法。

Active optical fiber devices for which the fiber serves not merely as a passive waveguide, but as a medium to directly modulate, generate, or otherwise manipulate light have played a major role in the telecommunications revolution and are now impacting many other fields from remote sensing to biomedicine. Materials for current active fiber devices are largely limited to those that are compatible with the fiber drawing process. This multidisciplinary and collaborative project between Penn State University and the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Centre in the UK focuses on incorporating new materials into optical fibers to allow for new types of active fiber devices. Semiconductors and metals are deposited into the micro- to nano-scale voids of microstructured optical fibers over distances of up to meters via a unique high pressure chemical fluid deposition technique. Thus, the rich optoelectronic functionality of both amorphous and crystalline semiconductors and metals can integrated with the flexible light guiding capabilities of fibers. Lasers, modulators, guides, and detectors should then become possible in a geometry that allows for interactions of semiconductors and metals with waveguided electromagnetic radiation over much longer length scales than can be realized in typical planar device geometries. The broader impacts of the research included strengthening ties across disciplines and between UK and US research efforts, fostering outreach to K-12 students and underrepresented minorities, and a new approach to optoelectronic integration.