Semiconductors Deposited in Fiber Preforms

Researchers at Syracuse University have developed a technique that could lead to the production of more efficient optical fiber devices. They employed optical deposition to create fiber preforms with a semiconductor layer at the core-cladding boundary.

Graduate student Nitipun Navatrong filled glass ampoules with a borosilicate glass rod and either GaSb, Cd₃P₂ or CdTe. He illuminated them with a 1000-W halogen lamp, which caused the semiconductor material to coat the rods. The ampoules were subsequently collapsed without exposing the semiconductor layer to air.

Philipp Kornreich, a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science at the Syracuse, N.Y., university and member of the team, said the semiconductor cylinder fibers could find applications as fiber light amplifiers, nonlinear optical devices and sensors.

The researchers have fabricated optical fiber with CdTe and are working on the commercialization of Cd₃P₂ and GaSb film-clad fiber with Dove Photonics of Rome, N.Y.