Infrared Suspended-Core Fiber Fabrication Based on Stacked Chalcogenide Glass Extrusion

Abstract

A combined infrared suspended-core fiber (SCF) is fabricated using a stacked glass extrusion method. As2S3 glass is used as the center core host material, and Ge20As20Se15Te45 glass is used to form supporting bridges and act as the ring host material. In this paper, a continuous and robust extrusion process was used to fabricate the SCFs on stacked chalcogenide glass substrates. Glass flow disruption and shear band formation at the interfaces between the different glasses were avoided while the suspended core was formed directly from the core glass. The near-field optical energy distribution image of the resulting multimaterial SCF shows that light propagates effectively in the core. The losses of the multimaterial SCF were also measured at wavelengths ranging between 2.5 and 7 μm, and the lowest transmission loss was 1.86 dB/m at 4.8 μm. The spectral behavior of the supercontinuum (SC) in the SCF is investigated by varying the pump wavelength and the pump power. A mid-infrared SC spanning a wavelength range from 2.05 to 6.95 μm is generated in a 19-cm-long combined chalcogenide SCF that is pumped at 4.5 μm using an optical parametric amplifier laser system.