Toward low-loss mid-infrared Ga2O3-BaO-GeO2 optical fibers.

The development of efficient and compact photonic systems in support of mid-infrared integrated optics is currently facing several challenges. To date, most mid-infrared glass-based devices are employing fluoride or chalcogenide glasses (FCGs). Although the commercialization of FCGs-based optical devices has rapidly grown during the last decade, their development is rather cumbersome due to either poor crystallization and hygroscopicity resilience or poor mechanical-thermal properties of the FCGs. To overcome these issues, the parallel development of heavy-metal oxide optical fiber from the barium-germanium-gallium oxide vitreous system (BGG) has revealed a promising alternative. However, over 30 years of fiber fabrication optimization, the final missing step of drawing BGG fibers with acceptable losses for meters-long active and passive optical devices had not yet been reached. In this article, we first identify the three most important factors that prevent the fabrication of low-loss BGG fibers i.e., surface quality, volumic striae and glass thermal-darkening. Each of the three factors is then addressed in setting up a protocol enabling the fabrication of low-loss optical fibers from gallium-rich BGG glass compositions. Accordingly, to the best of our knowledge, we report the lowest losses ever measured in a BGG glass fiber i.e., down to 200 dB km-1 at 1350 nm.

Transparent Glasses and Glass-Ceramics in the Ternary System TeO2-Nb2O5-PbF2.

Transparent fluorotellurite glasses were prepared by melt-quenching in the ternary system TeO2-Nb2O5-PbF2. The synthesis conditions were adjusted to minimize fluorine loss monitored as HF release. It was found that 10 mol% of Nb2O5 is the optimum content for PbF2 incorporation up to 35 mol% in the tellurite matrix without loss of glass forming ability. Such glass compositions exhibit a wide optical window from 380 nm to about 6 µm. Crystallization properties were carefully investigated by thermal analysis and compositions with higher PbF2 contents exhibit preferential precipitation of lead oxyfluoride Pb2OF2 at lower temperatures. The lead oxyfluoride crystallization mechanism is also governed by a volume nucleation, barely reported in tellurite glasses. Eu3+ doping of these glass compositions also promotes a more efficient nucleation step under suitable heat-treatments, resulting in transparent Eu3+-doped glass-ceramics whereas undoped glass-ceramics are translucent. Finally, Eu3+ spectroscopy pointed out a progressive, more symmetric surrounding around the rare earth ions with increasing PbF2 contents as well as higher quantum efficiencies. These new fluorotellurite glass compositions are promising as luminescent hosts working in the middle infrared.

Author Correction: Understanding the effect of wet etching on damage resistance of surface scratches.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Understanding the effect of wet etching on damage resistance of surface scratches.

Fused silica optics often exhibit surface scratches after polishing that radically reduce their damage resistance at the wavelength of 351 nm in the nanosecond regime. Consequently, chemical treatments after polishing are often used to increase the damage threshold and ensure a safe operation of these optics in large fusion-scale laser facilities. Here, we investigate the reasons for such an improvement. We study the effect of an HF-based wet etching on scratch morphology and propose a simple analytic model to reflect scratch widening during etching. We also use a finite element model to evaluate the effect of the morphological modification induced by etching on the electric field distribution in the vicinity of the scratch. We evidence that this improvement of the scratch damage resistance is due to a reduction of the electric field enhancement. This conclusion is supported by secondary electron microscopy (SEM) imaging of damage sites initiated on scratches after chemical treatment.

Effects of deep wet etching in HF/HNO3 and KOH solutions on the laser damage resistance and surface quality of fused silica optics at 351 nm.

We investigate the interest of deep wet etching with HF/HNO3 or KOH solutions as a final step after polishing to improve fused silica optics laser damage resistance at the wavelength of 351 nm. This comparison is carried out on scratches engineered on high damage threshold polished fused silica optics. We evidence that both KOH and HF/HNO3 solutions are efficient to passivate scratches and thus improve their damage threshold up to the level of the polished surface. The effect of these wet etchings on surface roughness and aspect is also studied. We show that KOH solution exhibit better overall surface quality that HF/HNO3 solution in the tested conditions. Given the safety difficulties associated with the processing with HF, KOH solution appears as a pertinent alternative to HF deep wet etching.

Enhancement of nanograting formation assisted by silver ions in a sodium gallophosphate glass.

We investigated the influence of silver ions during the direct femtosecond laser-induced formation of nanogratings (NGs) at the surface of a tailored sodium gallophosphate glass. We observed that the silver ions had a remarkable influence because the silver-containing glass showed (1) lower fluence thresholds for the formation of the NGs; (2) much smoother NG shapes; and (3) a bifunctional behavior because fluorescence from laser-induced silver clusters occurs prior to the formation of the NGs. We demonstrate for the first time, to our knowledge, the formation of NGs assisted by noble metal ions, such as ions playing a kind of catalytic-like role that enhances and improves the NG formation and its incubation process. Our innovative approach provides promising potential for further improvements in processes for NG formation.

Laser induced damage of fused silica polished optics due to a droplet forming organic contaminant.

We report on the effect of organic molecular contamination on single shot laser induced damage density at the wavelength of 351 nm, with a 3 ns pulse length. Specific contamination experiments were made with dioctylphthalate (DOP) in liquid or gaseous phase, on the surface of fused silica polished samples, bare or solgel coated. Systematic laser induced damage was observed only in the case of liquid phase contamination. Different chemical and morphological characterization methods were used to identify and understand the damage process. We demonstrate that the contaminant morphology, rather than its physicochemical nature, can be responsible for the decrease of laser induced damage threshold of optics.

Large second-harmonic generation of thermally poled sodium borophosphate glasses.

Second harmonic generation (SHG) has been obtained in a rich in sodium niobium orophosphate glass by a thermal poling treatment. The thermally poled glass SHG signal has been studied through an original analysis of both transmitted and reflected polarized Maker-fringe patterns. Therefore, the second order nonlinear optical (NLO) efficiency was estimated from the simulation of the Maker-fringe patterns with a stepwise decreasing profile from the anode surface. A reproducible chi(2) susceptibility value as high as 5.0 +/-0.3 pm/V was achieved at the anode side. The nonlinear layer, found to be sodium-depleted up to 5 microm deep inside the anode side, identical to the simulated nonlinear zone thickness, indicates a complex space-charge-migration/ nonlinear glass matrix response process.