Development and infrared applications of chalcogenide glass optical fibers

Chalcogenide glass fibers based on sulphide, selenide, telluride, and their rare earth doped compositions are being actively pursued both at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. NRL and worldwide. Great strides have been made in reducing optical losses using improved chemical purification techniques, but further improvements are needed in both purification and fiberization technology to attain the theoretical optical losses. Despite this, current singlemode and multimode chalcogenide glass fibers are enabling numerous applications. Some of these applications include laser power delivery, chemical sensing, imaging, scanning near field microscopy / spectroscopy, fiber infrared IR sources / lasers, amplifiers, and optical switches. The authors assert that the research and development of chalcogenide glasses will grow in the foreseeable future, especially with respect to improvements in the optical quality of the fibers and the performance of the fibers in existing and future applications.