Thin-film diodes using chalcogenide glass

Results are presented of an investigation of the current-voltage characteristics of metal-dielectric-metal systems in which one of the electrodes interacts with the dielectric. The systems investigated have unipolar conductivity. It is shown that the forward current is limited by space charge, and the reverse current is caused by a Schottky mechanism.     

Three-dimensional mid-infrared photonic circuits in chalcogenide glass

We report the fabrication of single-mode buried channel waveguides for the whole mid-IR transparency range of chalcogenide sulphide glasses (λ ≤ 11 μm), by means of direct laser writing. We have explored the potential of this technology by fabricating a prototype three-dimensional three-beam combiner for future application in stellar interferometry that delivers a monochromatic interference visibility of 99.89% at 10.6 μm and an ultrahigh bandwidth (3-11 μm) interference visibility of 21.3%. These results demonstrate that it is possible to harness the whole transparency range offered by chalcogenide glasses on a single on-chip instrument by means of direct laser writing, a finding that may be of key significance in future technologies such as astrophotonics and biochemical sensing.     

Ge-As-S硫系玻璃的结构与性能调控

制备了系列具有不同化学配比特征的Ge-As-S硫系玻璃,并研究了玻璃的结构、折射率和光学带隙(Eg).Ge-As-S玻璃具有以[Ge S_4]四面体和[As S_3]三角锥为骨架结构单元相互交联形成的连续网络结构,当S过量时,结构中出现S链或S_8环;当S不足时,结构中形成As_4S_4/As_4S_3分子,甚至出现大量AsAs/Ge-Ge同极键.玻璃的组成元素在2—10μm波段的摩尔折射度分别为R_(Ge)=9.83—10.42 cm~3/mol,RAs=11.72—11.87 cm~3/mol和R_S=7.78—7.86 cm3/mol.Ge-As-S玻璃的折射率与密度和组成元素的摩尔折射度之间存在较好的定量关系,可根据该定量关系在1%偏差内对玻璃的折射率进行预测或调控.提出了采用玻璃粉末的漫反射光谱确定可靠Eg的方法,通过该方法可获得玻璃的强吸收数据用于确定Eg.Ge-As-S玻璃的Eg与玻璃的平均键能之间存在较好的关联,S含量较高的玻璃更倾向于具有较大的平均键能,因此具有较大的Eg.     

Pulsed infrared radiation transmission through chalcogenide glass fibers

Two different kinds of chalcogenide glass IR fibers were evaluated relative to transmission of pulsed IR radiation produced by several laser sources in the wavelength range from 1 to 10 μm. Fibers composed either from As-Se-Te or from As₂S₃ glass, of 250, 500, 750 and 1000 μm and 250, 750 and 1000 μm core diameters were studied, respectively. Attenuation measurements were obtained as a function of the laser energy input and as a function of curvature, wherever this was possible. The output beam quality was also studied using a beam profiler. The lasers used were a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, emitting at 1.06 μm, a free-running or Q-switched Er:YAG laser emitting at 2.94 μm and a tunable pulsed CO₂ laser emitting in the range of 9.3-10.6 μm. The fibers exhibited better behavior when tested with the Er:YAG laser and they were found fragile in pulsed radiation from the Nd:YAG and the CO₂ laser. The output beam profiles generally showed a central multi-spiking energy distribution.     

Planar defects in three-dimensional chalcogenide glass photonic crystals

Here we report on the direct laser writing fabrication of Fabry-Perot-type planar microcavities in a three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal (PhC) embedded within a high-refractive nonlinear chalcogenide glass (ChG) film. The fabricated planar microcavities in a nonlinear ChG 3D PhC facilitate the observation of resonant modes inside the stop gap. The experimental results show that the length of the planar cavity can be well controlled by the fabrication power and thus be used to tune the defect modes. The tunability of the observed defect modes is confirmed by the theoretical prediction.     

Strong self-phase modulation in planar chalcogenide glass waveguides

Single-mode planar waveguides were fabricated from chalcogenide glass compounds with large Kerr nonlinearities. Strong self-phase modulation of subpicosecond pulses along with low linear and nonlinear absorption losses demonstrates the potential for ultrafast, low-power, all-optical processing applications.     

Domain microscopy in chalcogenide alloy glass thin films

We report the observation of very well resolved polygonal domain (not island) trough networks in thin glass films. The linear troughs are observed by electron microscopy to be as narrow as 30 A and the hexagonal domain diameters are as large as 1000 (± 100) A. The composition dependence of the average diameters of the polygonal structures correlates well with the glass-forming tendency and agrees very well with the predictions of a recent topological model.     

Single-mode low-loss chalcogenide glass waveguides for the mid-infrared

We demonstrate the design, fabrication, and characterization of single-mode low-loss waveguides for mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths. Planar waveguide structures were fabricated from multilayer thin films of arsenic-based chalcogenide glasses followed by the creation of channel waveguides by using the photodarkening effect. Propagation losses as low as 0.5 dB/cm were measured for a quantum cascade laser end-fire coupled into the waveguides. This is a first step toward the design and fabrication of integrated optical components for MIR applications.     

Ge-Sb-Se硫系玻璃的折射率和热光系数

Ge-Sb-Se硫系玻璃被认为是极佳的红外传输材料和有潜力的非线性光学材料.在光学设计中,玻璃的线性折射率(n)及其热光系数(ζ)是关键技术参数.以预测和调控Ge-Sb-Se玻璃的n和ζ为目的,考察了玻璃的n,ζ,密度(d)和体积膨胀系数(β)与化学参数dSe和拓扑网络结构参数r的内在联系.研究发现,玻璃的n随d的增加而增大;ζ随β的增大而近似线性减小;β随dSe的减小或r的增大而减小;当Ge含量固定时, d随dSe的减小或r的增大而增大,当Sb含量固定时, d在dSe=0时具有最小值.基于实测d和n,拟合获得了Ge, Sb和Se元素在2—12μm波段的摩尔折射度(R_i),分别为R_(Ge)=10.16—10.50 cm~3/mol,RSb=16.71—17.08 cm~3/mol和RSe=11.15—11.21 cm~3/mol,根据d和R_i计算得到的n与实测值的偏差小于1%.基于实测ζ和β,拟合得到了Ge, Sb和Se元素在2—12μm波段的摩尔折射度温度系数(φ_i),分别为φ_(Ge)=21.1—22.6 ppm/K,φ_(Sb)=7.2—8.4 ppm/K和φ_(Se)=90.2—94.2 ppm/K,根据β和φ_i计算得到的ζ与实测值的偏差小于6 ppm/K.     

Localized rapid heating process for precision chalcogenide glass molding

Precision glass molding is an important process for high volume optical fabrication. However, conventional glass molding is a bulk heating process that usually requires a long thermal cycle, where molding assembly and other mechanical parts are heated and cooled together. This often causes low efficiency and other heating and cooling related problems, such as large thermal expansion in both the molds and molded optics. To cope with this issue, we developed a localized rapid heating process to effectively heat only very small part of the glass. This localized rapid heating study utilized a fused silica wafer coated with a thin graphene layer to heat only the surface of the glass. The graphene coating functions as an electrical resistant heater when a power source was applied across the thin film coating, generating heat on and near the coating. The feasibility of this process was validated by both experiments and numerical simulation. To demonstrate the advantages of the localized rapid heating, both localized rapid heating process and bulk heating process were performed and carefully compared. The uniformity and quality of the molded sample by localized rapid heating process was also demonstrated. In summary, localized rapid heating process by using graphene coated fused silica wafer was characterized and can be readily implemented in replication of micro scale chalcogenide glasses.     

Third-harmonic generation in slow-light chalcogenide glass photonic crystal waveguides

We demonstrate third-harmonic generation (THG) in a dispersion-engineered slow-light photonic crystal waveguide fabricated in AMTIR-1 chalcogenide glass. Owing to the relatively low loss and low dispersion in the slow-light (c/30) regime, combined with the high nonlinear figure of merit of the material (～2), we obtain a relatively large conversion efficiency (1.4×10(-8)/W(2)), which is 30× higher than in comparable silicon waveguides, and observe a uniform visible light pattern along the waveguide. These results widen the number of applications underpinned by THG in slow-light platforms, such as the direct observation of the spatial evolution of the propagating mode.     

Current-voltage characteristics of diodes based on a four-component chalcogenide glass

An experimental study was made of film diodes based on a chalcogenide glass with symmetric and asymmetric electrodes and with two lower symmetric electrodes. Film diodes with aluminum electrodes can be used as varistors. The electrodes affect the shape of the current-voltage characteristics. Diodes having two lower electrodes have a longer useful lifetime than do those having an upper electrode and a lower one. Generation in the negative-resistance region is described.Translated from Izvestiya VUZ. Fizika, No. 12, pp. 30–33, December, 1969.The author thanks P. T. Oreshkin for constant interest in this study.     

Heat action of pumping radiation on a chalcogenide glass microcylinder

The character of the intensity distribution inside a cylindrical microparticle of chalcogenide glass is established to be nonuniform and determined by the cylinder radius. Depending on the microcylinder radius, regions of maximal intensities of the internal field are located in the illuminated or shadow parts of the cylinder (or in both the parts simultaneously) near the surface of the cylindrical particle and can exceed the incident radiation intensity by a factor of 2–4 as R < 2 μm. Heating occurs first in the shadow part of the microcylinders, then in both parts simultaneously, and then only in the illuminated part of the cylinders near their surface. This depends on the microcylinder radii and is caused by the manifestation of optical properties of the microcylinder substance and by the action of the heat transfer mechanism.     

Polarization-dependent characteristics of a racetrack waveguide resonator fabricated by ion exchange in K9 glass

A racetrack waveguide resonator filter was fabricated by ion exchange technology in K9 optical glass.The filter responses of the waveguide resonator were measured with two polarized input lightwaves. The polarization-dependent characteristics of the waveguide resonator were analyzed, and the results of effective indices of Nte = 1.5721 and Ntm = 1.5548, coupling ratios of Rte = 0.731 and Rtm = 0.761, and losses of Αte = 4.35 Db/cm and Αtm = 6.05 Db/cm were obtained for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes, respectively. The causes of large loss and effective index differences between TE and TM modes were discussed.     

Evanescent wave holographic recording in nanosize thick chalcogenide glass films

The results of holographic gratings recording in 29, 15 and 8 nm thick As₂S₃ films are presented in the paper. The method is based on the interference of surface-propagating evanescent waves, created by total internal reflection. The condition for successful recording is the penetration depth of these inhomogeneous waves to be greater than the films thickness. In this case, the film’s refractive index does not affect the total internal reflection (TIR) condition and could be greater than the input glass prism. The experimentally obtained low diffraction efficiencies by this holographic recording technique is due to the very low refractive index modulation, but the good signal-to-noise ratio - better than 50:1 and Bragg-type diffraction are a base for future applications of this grating formation method in nanotechnology.     

Ultra broadband flat dispersion tailoring on reversed-rib chalcogenide glass waveguide

In this paper,we introduce a horizontal slot in the reversed-rib chalcogenide glass waveguide to tailor its dispersion characteristics.The waveguide exhibits a flat and low dispersion over a wavelength range of 1080 nm,in which the dispersion fluctuates between-10.6 ps·nm~(-1)·km~(-1) and +11.14 ps·nm~(-1)·km~(-1).The dispersion tailoring effect is due to the mode field transfer from the reversed-rib waveguide to the slot with the increase of wavelength,which results in the extension of the low dispersion band.Moreover,the nonlinear coefficient and the phase-matching condition of the fourwave mixing process in this waveguide are studied,showing that the waveguide has great potential in nonlinear optical applications over a wide wavelength range.     

Design of highly birefringent chalcogenide glass PCF: A simplest design

In this article, a new simplified structure of a highly birefringent chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is designed and analyzed by using fully vectorial finite element method. The effective indices, confinement loss, birefringence, and chromatic dispersion of fundamental polarized mode are calculated in the proposed PCF for a wide wavelength range. To maintain the polarization in chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass PCF, we enlarged two of the central air holes and reduced two transverse air holes for achieving high birefringence. This helps in creating an effective index difference between the two orthogonal polarization modes. It is also shown that As₂Se₃ glass PCF provides lower chromatic dispersion and less confinement loss compared to silica PCF of the same structure in wavelength range 1.3 to 1.8 μm and hence such chalcogenide As₂Se₃ glass PCF have high potential to be used in dispersion compensating and birefringence application in optical communication systems. In addition to this, the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) result of the proposed PCF is also reported.     

Observation of multiple higher-order stopgaps from three-dimensional chalcogenide glass photonic crystals

For the first time to our knowledge the observation of near-IR multiple higher-order stopgaps in three-dimensional photonic crystals (PhCs) fabricated using the direct-laser-writing method in thick chalcogenide glass films is reported. The fabrication and etching conditions necessary to realize well-defined structures are presented. The fabricated PhCs exhibit higher-order stopgaps, which are only evident in high-quality structures. The higher-order stopgaps observed permit these high-refractive-index and high-nonlinear PhCs to be used directly as functional photonic devices operating at telecommunication wavelengths without further miniaturizing structural dimensions.     

硫系玻璃在现代红外热成像系统中的应用

介绍了硫系红外玻璃的组成成分,分析了其独特的优势,建立了红外热成像系统中各个参数和温度之间关系的数学模型。基于硫系玻璃折射率温度系数小、成本低的优点,将硫系玻璃应用于红外热成像探测系统,并给出了一种折射式的中波红外热成像消热差探测系统实例,评价结果表明,该系统在低温-40 ℃、常温20 ℃、高温60 ℃都取得了良好的成像质量,适用于像元数为320 pixel×256 pixel,像元尺寸为30 μm×30 μm的中波红外凝视型焦平面阵列探测器。