U.S.-Federal Republic of Germany Cooperative Research in Optical Fibers for Sensor Applications

该奖项支持西奥多·F·莫尔斯教授和布朗大学的一名研究生对西德波鸿的鲁尔大学进行多次短期研究访问，以与光电子实验室负责人Gerhard Schiffner教授和热质传递实验室负责人Martin FieBig教授合作。他们在传感器和其他光电子应用的新型光纤的设计、制造和测试的几个方面进行合作。布朗大学是美国少数几所配备了制造这种特殊传感器光纤的大学之一。他们的研究计划侧重于预制棒制造的新技术，用于传感器、光纤激光器、保偏光纤的特殊掺杂预制棒的研究，以及对光纤中应力诱导效应的研究。他们还在研究加工如何影响稀土掺杂到玻璃基质中的方式。希夫纳教授在光电子学、特殊光纤、光纤传感器应用和光纤激光器方面拥有丰富的经验。与他的实验室的合作将包括研究二氧化硅光纤的倍频，使用各种掺杂剂来提高二次谐波转换的效率。这将有助于指导Brown的特殊光纤设计，以在特定的传感器应用中实现最佳性能。与费比希教授合作的主要研究重点将是流体力学、燃烧和沉积机理的基础研究，这些机理是通过改进的化学气相沉积工艺(MCVD)成功制备预制件的关键。这些合作者拥有跨学科的专业知识和设施，这应该是最先进的材料研究的重大进步。虽然二氧化硅通信光纤技术正在成熟，但用于传感器、激光和非线性光学的有用特种光纤的潜力在很大程度上尚未开发。光纤传感器需要在波导传播、材料特性和制造方面具有专业知识的多学科方法。拟议中的研究旨在提高加工技术以实现更高的纯度，并加入稀土掺杂以产生各种非线性光纤器件所需的不对称性，这是这一快速发展领域的前沿。

This award supports Professor Theodore F. Morse and a graduate student from Brown University for several short term research visits to Ruhr University in Bochum, West Germany, to collaborate with Professor Gerhard Schiffner, head of the Opto-Electronics Laboratory and Professor Martin Fiebig, head of the Heat and Mass Transfer Laboratory. They are collaborating in several aspects of the design, fabrication and testing of novel optical fibers for sensor and other opto-electronic applications. Brown is one of the few U.S. universities equipped for the fabrication of such special sensor fibers. Their research program emphasizes new techniques of preform fabrication, the study of specially doped preforms for use as sensors, fiber lasers, polarization maintaining fibers, and studies of stress induced effects in fibers. They are also studying how processing affects the manner in which rare earth dopants are incorporated into a glass matrix. Prof Schiffner has extensive experience in opto-electronics, special fibers, applications of fiber sensors, and fiber lasers. Collaboration with his lab will include a study of frequency doubling in silica based fibers, using a variety of dopants to increase efficiency of second harmonic conversion. This will be helpful in guiding the special fiber designs at Brown to achieve optimum performance in specific sensor applications. The main focus of the cooperative research with Prof. Fiebig will be fundamental studies of the fluid mechanics, combustion and deposition mechanisms responsible for the success of preform fabrication by the Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition Process (MCVD). Significant advances in state of the art materials research should result from the interdisciplinary expertise and facilities possessed by these collaborators. While the technology of silica communications fiber is maturing, the potential for useful specialty fibers for sensors, lasers, and nonlinear optics is largely untapped. Optical fiber sensors require a multidisciplinary approach with expertise in waveguide propagation, materials properties and fabrication. The proposed research to enhance processing techniques to achieve increased purity, and also to incorporate rare earth dopants to produce the asymmetry needed for a variety of nonlinear fiber devices, is at the forefront of this rapidly moving field.