Research on key factors of pulsed CO2 laser annealing of Ge core fiber

Abstract

The germanium (Ge) core fiber with a core diameter of 29–32 μm and a cladding diameter of 158–162 μm was annealed by pulsed CO2 laser, exploring the key factors determining the properties of annealed Ge core fiber. The experimental results shown that the single pulse energy and the laser scanning speed are key factors of pulsed CO2 laser annealing of Ge core fibers. The reasons for experimental results were preliminarily analyzed from the perspectives of Ge atomic instantaneous kinetic energy and temperature field of Ge core during annealing. For different frequencies of laser annealing, optimal samples with similar properties can be obtained by adjusting the single pulse energy and laser scanning speed. For the samples annealed by 30 kHz, 50 kHz, 60 kHz, and 70 kHz lasers, the optimal Raman frequency average value is 301.191 cm−1, 301.107 cm−1, 301.153 cm−1, and 301.174 cm−1; the lowest propagation loss is 2.174 dB/cm, 2.596 dB/cm, 2.387 dB/cm, and 2.312 dB/cm respectively, which were measured using a quantum cascade laser with the wavelength range from 4.7 to 4.9 μm.