New glassy Materials and Optical fibers for wellbeing in Society

在微米/纳米尺度的新型玻璃成分开发、非传统光纤设计和制造方面的最新技术进步正在为小型化和集成化技术领域的重大突破铺平道路。更具体地说，研究人员将他们的活动主要放在用于光子学和光纤激光器的硅基光纤玻璃上，而“奇异”材料(硫化物、氟化物、碲酸盐等)。它们是过去15年来的替代品，因为二氧化硅在红外中的狭窄透射窗排除了其在特定应用中的使用。然而，如今，纤维拉伸技术正在慢慢地演变为一种加工路线，使得能够使用新类型的材料和/或一组材料、新的几何形状和新的协议。例如，可以设想用于中红外光学的半导体填充芯二氧化硅光纤，用于声或光检测的多材料玻璃-金属-聚合物光纤，或用于纳米颗粒/纳米线制造的流体动力学控制。为了发展它们，应该发明新的光纤或预制棒的制造路线，以使未来的光子组件和系统能够组合所需的材料或复合材料结构以实现预定的功能。纤维形式的具有特定性质的材料的复杂组合，可以很容易地集成或互连，并为需要收集和集成不同性质的数据的特定问题提供新的解决方案。 近年来，多种材料和多功能纤维显示出强大的潜力，可以同时提供多种功能，如导电性、压电性、物理/化学传感以及光传输。然后，通过直接从自然、生物启发的光子学和结构材料中获得灵感，可以设计和探索复杂的结构。 我们在这项发现拨款计划中的做法依赖于在两个技术领域取得的最新进展：(I)探索可与其他材料(例如聚合物、金属)结合以生产多材料和多功能纤维的新玻璃成分；(Ii)实施创新和适当的工艺，以根据应用领域实现所需的性能。在这份提案中，我们将重点关注用于通信、健康、能源和环境的材料。

The recent technological advances in the development of new glass compositions, unconventional optical fibers design and manufacturing at a micro-/nano- scale are paving the way for major breakthroughs in the field of miniaturized and integrated technologies. Regarding more specifically fiber drawing, researchers have devoted their activity mainly to silica-based fiber glasses for photonics and fiber lasers, while “exotic” materials (chalcogenide, fluoride, tellurite, etc.) are merging from the last 15 years as alternative when the narrow transmission window of silica in the infrared rules out its utilization in particular applications. Nowadays however, fiber drawing technology is slowly morphing into a processing route enabling the use of new type of materials and/or set of materials, new geometries, and new protocols. Semiconductors filled-core silica fibers for mid-IR optics are for instance envisaged, multi-materials glass-metal-polymer fibers for acoustic or photo-detection, or fluid dynamic control for nanoparticles/nanowire fabrication. For their development, new fabrication routes for fibers or preforms should be invented to enable the combination of materials or composite structures requested for achieving the targeted functionalities in the future photonic components and systems. Complex association of materials with specific properties in the form of fibers that can be easily integrated or interconnected and provide novel solutions to specific problems where the collection and integration of data of different nature is required. Recently, multi-material and multifunctional fibers have demonstrated their strong potential to offer concurrently multiple functionalities like electrical conductivity, piezoelectricity, physical / chemical sensing in addition to light transmission. Then, complex structures can be designed and explored by taking directly inspiration from nature, bioinspired photonics and structural materials. Our approach in this Discovery Grant proposal is relying on the association of recent advances accomplished in two technological domains: (i) the exploration of new glass compositions than can be combined with other materials (e.g. polymers, metals) to produce multi-material and multifunctional fibers and; (ii) the implementation of innovative and appropriate processes to achieve the desired properties depending on the applications area. In this proposal, we will be focusing on materials for communication, health, energy, and environment.