Chalcogenide glass fibers for photonic devices

Abstract

Chalcogenide glasses are non-silica materials whose transparency extends well beyond 3 μm in the infrared. This broad infrared transparency is due to the low phonon energies of chalcogenide matrices, which contain heavy chemical elements (S, Se, Te) as compared to their oxide counterparts. Applications are directly related to these unique optical properties. Thus, chalcogenide glasses possess a high potential for applications as mid-infrared sources above 3 μm, where rare-earth-doped silica glass cannot operate. Also, chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers (PCF) might lead to new devices with unique optical properties in the mid-infrared domain like multimode or endlessly single-mode transmission of light, small or large mode area fibers, non-linear properties for wavelength conversion or generation of supercontinuum sources.