Annealing of silicon optical fibers

作者：Gupta N; McMillen C; Singh R; Podila R; Rao A M; Hawkins T; Foy P; Morris S; Rice R; Poole K F; Zhu L; Ballato J^*

来源：Journal of Applied Physics, 2011, 110(9): 093107.

DOI：10.1063/1.3660270

The recent realization of silicon core optical fibers has the potential for novel low insertion loss rack-to-rack optical interconnects and a number of other uses in sensing and biomedical applications. To the best of our knowledge, incoherent light source based rapid photothermal processing (RPP) was used for the first time to anneal glass-clad silicon core optical fibers. X-ray diffraction examination of the silicon core showed a considerable enhancement in the length and amount of single crystallinity post-annealing. Further, shifts in the Raman frequency of the silicon in the optical fiber core that were present in the as-drawn fibers were removed following the RPP treatment. Such results indicate that the RPP treatment increases the local crystallinity and therefore assists in the reduction of the local stresses in the core, leading to more homogenous fibers. The dark current-voltage characteristics of annealed silicon optical fiber diodes showed lower leakage current than the diodes based on as-drawn fibers. Photons in UV and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) regions play a very important role in improving the bulk and carrier transport properties of RPP-treated silicon optical fibers, and the resultant annealing permits a path forward to in situ enhancement of the structure and properties of these new crystalline core optical fibers.

• 出版日期2011-11-1