4D Optical fibers based on shape-memory polymers.

Adaptative objects based on shape-memory materials are expected to significantly impact numerous technological sectors including optics and photonics. In this work, we demonstrate the manufacturing of shape-memory optical fibers from the thermal stretching of additively manufactured preforms. First, we show how standard commercially-available thermoplastics can be used to produce long continuously-structured microfilaments with shape-memory abilities.

Co-drawing of technical and high-performance thermoplastics with glasses via the molten core method.

Among the different fundamental aspects that govern the design and development of elongated multimaterial structures via the preform-to-fiber technique, material association methodologies hold a crucial role. They greatly impact the number, complexity and possible combinations of functions that can be integrated within single fibers, thus defining their applicability. In this work, a co-drawing strategy to produce monofilament microfibers from unique glass-polymer associations is investigated.

Spatial beam reshaping and large-band nonlinear conversion in rectangular-core phosphate glass fibers.

Here we present the ability of Nd-doped zinc-phosphate glasses to be shaped into rectangular core fibers. At first, the physico-chemical properties of the developed PO-based materials are investigated for different concentrations of neodymium oxide and core and cladding glass compositions are selected for further fiber development. A modified stack-and-draw technique is used to produce multimode large rectangular-core optical fibers.

Physicochemical Properties and Fiber-Drawing Ability of Tellurite Glasses in the TeO-ZnO-YO Ternary System.

Glasses in the TeO-ZnO-YO (TZY) ternary system are examined in the present work. The vitrification domain of the chosen oxide matrix is determined and differential scanning calorimetry as well as X-ray diffraction measurements are carried out. The material characterizations reveal that YO incorporation cannot exceed 5 mol.

Optical Emission Detector Based on Plasma Discharge Generation at the Tip of a Multimaterial Fiber.

Experimental development of a compact optical emission detector based on the assembly of a polymer-metal and a standard silica fiber is presented in this paper. This device is exploited in a proof-of-principle experiment for gas detection application by means of plasma spectroscopy in the visible-Near Infrared spectral region. A multimode fiber (MMF) is associated with a functional hollow dual-electrodes elongated structure fabricated by the direct preform-to-fiber homothetic co-drawing.

Tailoring supercontinuum generation beyond 2 μm in step-index tellurite fibers.

We report numerical and experimental demonstrations of flexible group-velocity dispersion regimes in step-index tellurite fibers by fine control of the fiber core diameter. Our simple fiber design allowed us to explore various nonlinear propagation regimes beyond 2 μm, which involved careful control of four-wave mixing processes. Combined with the recent development of 2 μm fiber lasers, we present an easy way to tailor supercontinuum generation and related coherence features in the high-demand 1.