CVD based specialty optical fibre technology: a review
Résumé
The high transparency of optical fibres is one of the key parameters that allowed for the success of optical telecommunication systems. Their development has changed our lives in many ways ; however none of these would operate without components based on custom-tailored optical fibres. Besides telecommunications, many other fields of application of these so-called « specialty optical fibres » (SOF) are identified. Many functions are expected to be performed on the light travelling along a SOF : amplify or attenuate, control the polarization, filter in a spectrally resolved manner, select or couple or transform propagation mode(s), convert wavelengths, etc. Further, the sensitivity to external physical effects can be minimized (resistance to bending, resistance to radiodarkening, etc) or reversely maximized (for sensing).Many fabrication techniques of SOF have been explored to implement new functions, or improve performances, or adapt existing SOF to new applications. Among all, those based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) have proved to be effective and able to feed the market of fibre-based components in the fields of telecommunications, metrology (sensor systems) and industry (fibre lasers).In this talk, we will present a review of the CVD-based technologies that are adapted to the manufacture of SOF. The basics of CVD to fabricate optical fibres will be recalled, respective advantages vs applications will be discussed, and exemplary recent achievements will be presented.