Shaping effects of the fiber-drawing on particle-rich silica optical fibers, numerical and experimental study

Abstract

Multiphasic optical fibers are promising systems to develop new optical devices. The main issue for their optimization is the control of the structure of the phases. To improve the structuring capabilities, fiber drawing has been evidenced to modify the size and shape of the multiphasic structure of optical fibers. This possibility comes from the occurence of capillary effects during the flow of the material during the fiber drawing. To use the fiber drawing as a structure tailoring step, the main hindrance is the lack of information on the physical properties of the systems of interest. To that aim, this article presents the work done to measure these properties. Based on experimental results, the characterization of the flow of the fiber drawing of silica-based optical fibers containing nanoparticles is presented. A numerical model for the simulation of the flow of particles and its validation are detailed. Preliminary results of the deformation of particles of various properties in the flow of the fiber drawing are finally presented, indicating a possible non-newtonian behaviour of the particles.