Fabrication and characteristics of silica optical fiber doped with InP nano-semiconductor material

Abstract

We fabricated a novel special silica optical fiber doped with nano-semiconductor material InP in double cladding layers by using conventional modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. During the deposition process, InP powder was placed at the entrance of silica substrate tube and vaporized by high temperature. With the help of nitrogen gas flow, the vaporized InP was carried into silica substrate tube and deposited on the inner surface in the form of nano-particle. The physical structure and amplification characteristics of the special fiber were investigated. From the refractive index distribution of the preform, we can observe obvious increase in inner cladding index, which attributes to InP dopant. By using 532 nm LD as pump, a broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) was demonstrated in the wavelength range from 1,080 to 1,350 nm. The proposed nano- semiconductor doped fiber with optical amplification is expected to a wide application in optical fiber communications.