High-purity As-S-Se and As-Se-Te glasses and optical fibers

M. F. Churbanov , V. S. Shiryaev , A. I. Suchkov , A. A. Pushkin , V. V. Gerasimenko , R. M. Shaposhnikov , E. M. Dianov , V. G. Plotnichenko , V. V. Koltashev , Y. N. Pyrkov , Jacques Lucas (1) , Jean-Luc Adam (1)

1 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes

We describe a procedure for the preparation of As-S-Se and As-Se-Te glasses with low contents of gas-forming impurities (hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon) via melting of extrapure-grade elements in an evacuated silica ampule and purification of the melt by chemical distillation. The impurity concentrations in the glasses thus prepared have been reduced to the following levels: hydrogen, <0.02; oxygen, 0.2; carbon, <0.02; silicon, <0.4 ppm by weight. Using the double-crucible method, we have fabricated glass fibers with various ratios of the core and cladding diameters (1: 25 to 9: 10), protected with a tetrafluoroethylene/1,1-difluoroethylene copolymer coating, which have an average bending strength of 0.5-1 GPa. The minimal optical losses are 150 dB/km at 6.6 μm in multimode As-Se-Te glass fibers and 60 dB/km at 4.8 μm in As-S-Se glass fibers. The effect of microinhomogeneities in the melt on the optical performance of arsenic sulfoselenide glass fibers fabricated by the double-crucible method is examined.

Domaines: Matériaux

M. F. Churbanov, V. S. Shiryaev, A. I. Suchkov, A. A. Pushkin, V. V. Gerasimenko, et al.. High-purity As-S-Se and As-Se-Te glasses and optical fibers. Inorganic Materials, 2007, 43 (4), pp.441-447. ⟨10.1134/S0020168507040206⟩. ⟨hal-00369234⟩