Fabrication and characterization of Ge20Sb15S65 chalcogenide glass for photonic crystal fibers

Chalcogenide glasses are known for their high transparency in the mid-infrared (IR) range, which includes two atmospheric windows that lie from 3 to 5 μm and 8 to 12 μm, respectively. Chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers have numerous potential applications in the field of IR, such as spectroscopy, microscopy, astronomy, biology, and sensing. In this paper, Ge₂₀Sb₁₅S₆₅ chalcogenide glass was fabricated and systematically studied. Chalcogenide glass has high transmission property (>70 %), good thermal stability, and good mechanical stability. The glass transition temperature T _g is 296 °C, and no exothermic peak was associated with crystallization up to 500 °C, which indicates its suitability for fiber drawing. As a result of its excellent mechanical properties, preforms with a variety of geometrical patterns were fabricated by using mechanical drilling. The near-field intensity distribution image of the drawn fiber shows a strong light propagation confinement.