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Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

Silica Fibers

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Definition: optical fibers based on fused silica or related materials

Optical fibers are long and flexible kinds of optical waveguides. They are essentially always based either on some glass or on polymers (→ plastic optical fibers). Among the glasses, fused silica (amorphous silicon dioxide, SiO2) is the strongly dominating material (particularly for optical fiber communications, → telecom fibers), because it has a number of very favorable properties:

Silica fibers dominate many applications, such as optical fiber communications (except for very short distances with plastic optical fiber), most fiber lasers and amplifiers, and fiber-optic sensors. The large efforts which have been invested into the development of various kinds of silica fibers have further increased the performance advantages of such fibers over fibers based on other materials (see below).

There are also pure silica fibers in the form of photonic crystal fibers, containing tiny air holes. Here, the guidance (waveguide function) is achieved either by a reduced effective index of the cladding (caused by a larger fraction of air) or by a photonic bandgap effect.

For special applications, certain non-silica fibers are required:

Bibliography

[1]W. A. Gambling, "The rise and rise of optical fibers" (an informative review on the development of glass fibers), IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 6 (6), 1084 (2000)

See also: fibers, telecom fibers, rare-earth-doped fibers, photodarkening, photonic crystal fibers, optical fiber communications, fluoride fibers

Categories: fibers and other waveguides, materials

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