Abstract
The use of powder-based technologies for the production of rare earth (RE)-doped fibers and preforms is discussed. Although these technologies cannot compete with vapor-based technologies such as modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) with respect to purity of the silica material obtained, they offer a high degree of versatility with respect to the material composition and the obtainable topology of microstructured fibers.
The production of core rods starting from powder technologies and the powder-in-tube method are discussed. The challenges when using powder-based technologies lie in obtaining homogeneously doped and co-doped material as well as avoiding scattering by ion clusters. To reach a homogeneous distribution of dopants, the use of the sol-gel technology is discussed. Especially the incorporation of aluminum (Al) and phosphorus (P) to enhance the solubility of the rare earth activators as well as to control the index raise is found to be considerably eased.
Considerations from materials science point of view are made and serve as guidelines to understand the process. In this context, extremely precise characterization techniques such as wavelength dispersive x-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), scanning transmission electron microscopy with high-angle annular dark-field (STEM-HAADF), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) are discussed in order to mature the tuning of glass composition and drawing process. The thermodynamic properties of the doped glass powders discussed here could be crucial in assessing the thermal stability of the glass, required cooling rate, and its susceptibility to temperature changes during vitrification, devitrification, and fiber drawing steps.
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Romano, V., Pilz, S., Najafi, H. (2019). Powder Process for Fabrication of Rare Earth-Doped Fibers for Lasers and Amplifiers. In: Peng, GD. (eds) Handbook of Optical Fibers. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7087-7_51
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