NSF Materials World Network: Semiconductor photonic materials inside microstructured optical fibers

光纤的发展直接导致了20世纪末的数据通信革命。今天，它们的应用基础已经扩大，它们现在正在影响从遥感到生物医学的许多其他领域。这种影响在一定程度上是因为有源器件的快速发展，对有源器件来说，光纤不仅充当无源波导，而且作为直接调制、产生或以其他方式操纵光的介质。由于这种多功能性，光纤在几乎任何用光的应用中都构成了系统的关键组件。当前有源光纤器件的材料在很大程度上限于那些与光纤拉伸工艺兼容的材料。这个由宾夕法尼亚州立大学和南安普顿大学光电子研究中心合作的多学科项目致力于将新材料引入光纤，以拓宽可能的有源光纤器件的范围，特别是在中红外应用方面，许多有机分子的基本转动和振动结构具有强大的、特征的指纹吸收特征。因此，半导体填充光纤在坚固、紧凑、强大和具有成本效益的中红外领域具有巨大潜力，包括塑料和其他废物再处理的回收管理、用于污染监测、遥感、工业过程控制的光学气体传感器、光谱分析、红外对策以及医药和医疗保健。这项研究的更广泛影响包括加强跨学科的联系以及英国和美国研究努力之间的联系。

The development of optical fibres led directly to the data communications revolution of the late 20th century. Today their application base has expanded and they are now impacting many other fields from remote sensing to biomedicine. This impact is growing in part because of rapid advances in active devices for which the fibre serves not merely as a passive waveguide, but as a medium to directly modulate, generate, or otherwise manipulate light. As a result of this versatility, fibres form key components of systems in almost any applications that use light. 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 is focused on incorporating new materials into optical fibers to broaden the range of possible active fiber devices, focusing particularly on mid-IR applications where the fundamental rotational and vibrational structure of many organic molecules have strong, characteristic fingerprint absorption features. Semiconductor filled optical fibres thus have enormous potential for robust, compact, powerful and cost-effective mid-IR including recycling management of plastics and other waste reprocessing, optical gas sensors for pollution monitoring, remote sensing, industrial process control, spectroscopy, infrared countermeasures as well as medicine and health care. The broader impacts of the research include strengthening ties across disciplines and between UK and US research efforts.