Yuehao Wu

Fabrication and characterization of multimaterial chalcogenide glass fiber tapers with high numerical apertures

This paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of multimaterial chalcogenide fiber tapers that have high numerical apertures (NAs). We first fabricated multimaterial As(2)Se(3)-As(2)S(3) chalcogenide fiber preforms via a modified one-step coextrusion process. The preforms were drawn into multi- and single-mode fibers with high NAs (≈1.45), whose core/cladding diameters were 103/207 and 11/246 μm, respectively. The outer diameter of the fiber was tapered from a few hundred microns to approximately two microns through a self-developed automatic tapering process. Simulation results showed that the zero-dispersion wavelengths (ZDWs) of the tapers were shorter than 2 μm, indicating that the tapers can be conveniently pumped by commercial short wavelength infrared lasers. We also experimentally demonstrated the supercontinuum generation (SCG) in a 15-cm-long multimaterial As(2)Se(3)-As(2)S(3) chalcogenide taper with 1.9 μm core diameter and the ZDW was shifted to 3.3 μm. When pumping the taper with 100 fs short pulses at 3.4 µm, a 20 dB spectral of the generated supercontinuum spans from 1.5 μm to longer than 4.8 μm.

Low Temperature Fabrication of Chalcogenide Microsphere Resonators for Thermal Sensing

We report microsphere resonators fabricated with a gallium germanium antimony sulfide (2S2G) chalcogenide glass and demonstrate whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the wavelength range of 1.65-2 μm. Typical quality factors (Q factors) measured with 2S2G microspheres fabricated in our lab are approximately 6×104. Compared with other chalcogenide glasses used in microsphere resonators, this 2S2G glass has a lower melting temperature and a higher characteristic temperature, and therefore, the fabrication temperature in the sphere-forming process can be reduced and the crystallization problem can be mitigated. We also demonstrate apparent shifts of resonant peaks in the measured WGMs as the environmental temperature varies, implying that these 2S2G microspheres can be used as compact temperature sensors. The thermal sensitivity measured with a 108.52-μm-diameter 2S2G microsphere is 28 pm/°C.

Novel Ge–Ga–Te–CsBr glass system with ultrahigh resolvability of halide

CO2 molecule, one of the main molecules to create new life, should be probed accurately to detect the existence of life in exoplanets. The primary signature of CO2 molecule is approximately 15 μm, and traditional S- and Se-based glass fibers are unsuitable. Thus, Te-based glass is the only ideal candidate glass for far-infrared detection. In this study, a new kind of Te-based chalcohalide glass system was discovered with relatively stable and large optical band gap. A traditional melt-quenching method was adopted to prepare a series of (Ge15Ga10Te75)100-x (CsBr)x chalcogenide glass samples. Experiment results indicate that the glass-forming ability and thermal properties of glass samples were improved when CsBr was added in the host of Ge-Ga-Te glass. Ge-Ga-Te glass could remarkably dissolve CsBr content as much as 85 at.%, which is the highest halide content in all reports for Te-based chalcohalide glasses. Moreover, ΔT values of these glass samples were all above 100 °C. The glass sample (Ge15Ga10Te75)65 (CsBr)35 with ΔT of 119 °C was the largest, which was 7 °C larger than that of Ge15Ga10Te75 host glass. The infrared transmission spectra of these glasses show that the far-infrared cut-off wavelengths of (Ge15Ga10Te75)100-x (CsBr)x chalcogenide glasses were all beyond 25 μm. In conclusion, (Ge15Ga10Te75)100-x (CsBr)x chalcogenide glasses are potential materials for far-infrared optical application.

Tapered chalcogenide–tellurite hybrid microstructured fiber for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation

Fibers exhibiting flattened and decreasing dispersion are important in nonlinear applications. Such fibers are difficult to design, particularly in soft glass. In this work, we develop a preliminary design of a highly nonlinear tapered hybrid microstructured optical fiber (TH-MOF) with chalcogenide glass core and tellurite glass microstructure cladding. We then numerically studied its dispersion, loss, and nonlinearity-related optical properties under fundamental mode systematically using the infinitesimal method. The designed TH-MOF exhibits low chromatic dispersion that is similar to a convex function with two zero-dispersion wavelengths and decreases with fiber length from 2 to 5 μm band. The potential use of the TH-MOF in nonlinear applications is demonstrated numerically by a supercontinuum spectrum of 20 dB bandwidth covering 1.96–4.76 μm generated in 2-cm-long TH-MOF using near 3.25-μm fs-laser pump.

Low threshold fiber taper coupled rare earth ion-doped chalcogenide microsphere laser

We report the applications of a low-cost and environmentally friendly chalcogenide glass, 75GeS2-15Ga2S3-10CsI, in building active microsphere laser oscillators. A silica fiber taper is used as the coupling mechanism. With an 808-nm laser diode as a pump source, we show that a high-Q (~ 6×104) laser mode could be obtained from a 75-μm diameter microsphere that is coupled with a 1.77-μm waist-diameter fiber taper. The threshold of the incident pump power is 1.39 mW, which is considerably lower than those of previously reported free-space coupled chalcogenide microsphere lasers. We also note an apparent enhancement in laser power generated from this chalcogenide microsphere laser.