Abstract

This paper reviews the past, present and prospective future of silicon optical fibres. The incorporation of silicon with its rich optoelectronic functionality into existing glass fibre technologies presents a route to controlling and manipulating the transmitted light in an unprecedented manner – opening the door to new and wide-ranging applications. Currently, there are two main fabrication approaches to producing these fibres – one involving chemical deposition inside glass capillary templates and the other a more traditional drawing tower technique starting from a rod-in-tube preform – each of which offers different advantages in terms of the material, geometry and waveguiding properties. As 2016 represents the 10th anniversary of the first silicon optical fibre, it is timely to evaluate and speculate on the future of this technology – in all its forms.

Details

Title
Silicon optical fibres – past, present, and future
Author
Peacock, A C 1 ; Gibson, U J 2 ; Ballato, J 3 

1  Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK 
2  Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 
3  Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET), Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 
End page
127
Publication year
2016
Publication date
Feb 2016
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
23746149
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/23746149.2016.1146085
ProQuest document ID
2277432501
Copyright
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.