NSF Materials World Network: Semiconductor photonic materials inside microstructured optical fibers

The development of optical fibres led directly to the data communications revolution of the late 20th century. Today their application base has expanded and they are now impacting many other fields from remote sensing to biomedicine. This impact is growing in part because of rapid advances in active devices for which the fibre serves not merely as a passive waveguide, but as a medium to directly modulate, generate, or otherwise manipulate light. As a result of this versatility, fibres form key components of systems in almost any applications that use light. Materials for current active fiber devices are largely limited to those that are compatible with the fiber drawing process. This multidisciplinary and collaborative project between Penn State University and the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Centre is focused on incorporating new materials into optical fibers to broaden the range of possible active fiber devices, focusing particularly on mid-IR applications where the fundamental rotational and vibrational structure of many organic molecules have strong, characteristic fingerprint absorption features. Semiconductor filled optical fibres thus have enormous potential for robust, compact, powerful and cost-effective mid-IR including recycling management of plastics and other waste reprocessing, optical gas sensors for pollution monitoring, remote sensing, industrial process control, spectroscopy, infrared countermeasures as well as medicine and health care. The broader impacts of the research include strengthening ties across disciplines and between UK and US research efforts.

The primary goal of this project is to develop semiconductor-filled microstructured optical fibre technology, which is still in its infancy and thus has considerable potential academic impact in the near term. Looking further ahead, the rich functionality and broad operational wavelength range of silicon, germanium, ZnSe and other group II-VI materials could be exploited to realise devices with applications not only in telecoms, but also in medicine, imaging, spectroscopy, and sensing. During the project lifetime, we will significantly improve the understanding of fibre-based semiconductor functionality. By training new staff (the RA and research students) and consolidating our US/UK collaborative network, we will ensure that the UK has a solid skill and knowledge base in this area for future industrial and academic developments. Our efforts will also be applicable to other commercially relevant areas of nonlinear photonics, including planar waveguides technologies, high power lasers and materials research. In the near term, the technology has the potential to be employed in a specialised range of high-end optical devices operating at novel mid-infrared wavelengths, in particular for environmental and bio-sensing and medical imaging. The results will be disseminated to the research community through publication in international journals and presentations at international conferences. Significant breakthroughs will also be publicised to the wider public through non-specialist journals, such as 'New Scientist' and professional magazines such as 'Laser Focus World', and via our website. The Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) has a highly successful history of industrial collaborations and is ideally placed to ensure that the relevant industrial beneficiaries will hear about our research. It is at the centre of a cluster of local photonic companies and is maintaining close links to the wider UK and overseas industry through research contracts and through its large alumnus. The ORC also has a notable track record in the generation of patentable work and the protection of intellectual property. Patents will be applied for when applicable and the process will be administered via the Research and Innovation Services (RIS).