Chemically Etched Sharpened Tip of Transparent Crystallized Glass Fibers with Nonlinear Optical Ba2TiSi2O8 Nanocrystals

Abstract

Glass fibers with a diameter of~100 μm are drawn by just pulling up melts of 40BaO•20TiO2•40SiO2 glass, and transparent crystallized glass fibers consisting of nonlinear optical fresnoite Ba2TiSi2O8 nanocrystals (particle size:~100-200 nm) are fabricated by crystallization of glass fibers. Precursor glass fibers and nanocrystallized glass fibers are etched chemically using a meniscus method, in which an etching solution of 0.1 wt%-HF/hexane is used. Glass fibers with sharpened tips (e.g., the taper length is~L=200 μm and the tip angle is~θ=23°) are obtained. It is found that etched nanocrystallized glass fibers also have sharpened tips (L=50 μm, θ=80°). Compared with precursor glass fibers, nanocrystallized glass fibers show a high resistance against chemical etching in a 0.1 wt%HF solution. Although sharpened tips in nanocrystallized glass fibers do not have nanoscaled apertures, the present study suggests that nanocrystallized glass fibers showing second harmonic generations would have a potential for fiber-type light control optical devices.