Giant magneto-optic response in rare-earth doped glasses and manufacturing of related devices and sensors

磁光效应是光隔离器的核心部分，广泛应用于光传感器中。2016年光隔离器市场估计为7亿美元，预计每年增长5%，而光纤传感器市场在过去二十年中持续增长，预计将从2016年的33.8亿美元增长到2026年的59.8亿美元。迄今为止，基于磁光效应的光纤化设备和传感器依赖于简单的电信光纤或具有昂贵晶体的混合解决方案。该项目提出了高性能光隔离器和电流/磁场传感器的新制造技术，旨在用新型玻璃/光纤取代基于晶体的传统混合方法。这种方法依赖于我们最近的发现，即轻微掺杂的Gd掺杂的玻璃纤维表现出巨大的磁光系数，类似于晶体，但保持低成本，低损耗和高兼容性的纤维。该计划涵盖从轻微掺杂玻璃中的巨磁光效应的研究到特种二氧化硅纤维的制造，通过设计光纤化隔离器和新型光纤频率转换设备，以及它们在安全，工业和医学应用中的合适系统的组合。虽然最初的努力将涉及制造和表征的新型玻璃组合物的玻璃和纤维与巨大的磁光响应，新开发的纤维，然后将用于制造新的传感器和设备，为选定的实际工业实施的光隔离器和磁/电流传感。

The magneto-optic effect is the core part of optical isolators and widely used in optical sensors. The market of optical isolators was estimated to be $0.7B in 2016 and is expected to grow at 5% per annum while that of optical fibre sensors has grown continuously in the last two decades and from $3.38B in 2016 it is expected to reach $5.98B in 2026. To date fiberized devices and sensors based on the magneto optic effect have relied on simple telecom fibres or hybrid solutions with expensive crystals. This project proposes new manufacturing technologies for high performance optical isolators and current/magnetic field sensors aimed to replace the traditional hybrid approach based on crystals with novel glasses/fibres. This approach relies on our recent discovery that slightly-doped Gd-doped glass fibres exhibit a giant magneto-optic coefficient, similar to crystals, yet maintaining low-cost, low loss and high compatibility with fibres. This proposed programme spans from the investigation of giant magneto-optic effect in slightly doped glasses to the manufacture of specialty silica fibres, through the design of fiberized isolators and novel fibre based frequency conversion devices, and their combination in suitable systems for applications in security, industry and medicine. Although the initial effort will relate to the fabrication and characterization of novel glass compositions for glasses and fibres with giant magneto-optic response, the newly developed fibres will then be used to manufacture novel sensors and devices for selected practical industrial implementations in optical isolators and magnetic/current sensing.