Active and passive chalcogenide glass optical fibers for IR applications: a review

Chalcogenide glass fibers based on sulfide, selenide, telluride and their r are earth doped compositions are being actively investigated worldwide. Gre at strides have been made in reducing optical losses using improved chemica l purification techniques, but further improvements are needed in both puri fication and fiberization technology to attain the theoretical optical loss es. Despite these problems, current single mode and multimode chalcogenide glass fibers are enabling numerous applications. Some of these applications include laser power delivery, chemical sensing, imaging, scanning near fie ld microscopy/spectroscopy, fiber IR sources/lasers, amplifiers and optical switches. The authors assert that the research and development of chalcoge nide glasses will grow in the foreseeable future, especially with respect t o improvements in the optical quality of the fibers and the performance of the fibers in existing and future applications. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.