APPLICATIONS OF CHALCOGENIDE GLASS OPTICAL FIBERS AT NRL

Chalcogenide glass fibers based on sulphide, selenide, telluride and their rare earth doped compositions are being actively pursued both at the Naval Research Laboratory (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, chalcogenide glass fibers are enabling numerous applications which include laser power delivery, chemical sensing, imaging, scanning near field microscopy/spectroscopy, IR sources/lasers, amplifiers and optical switches.