A study of tellurite glasses for electro-optic optical fibre devices.
Date
2011
Authors
Manning, Sean
Editors
Advisors
Monro, Tanya Mary
Munch, Jesper
Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Heike
Ottaway, David J.
Munch, Jesper
Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Heike
Ottaway, David J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Thesis
Citation
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
Optical fibre devices that can control light via the application of electric fields are of enormous technological interest. These so called electro-optic devices have potential applications in many varied places, such as data systems, pulsed lasers and sensing technologies. We have identified tellurium dioxide (tellurite) based glasses as being especially suitable for electro-optic fibre devices owing to their large nonlinear coefficients and high crystallisation stabilities. Furthermore, tellurite glass is compatible with the extrusion technique for producing optical fibre preforms, this being a fabrication strength of our research group. We developed tellurite glasses based on the general formula 10Na2O.xMO.(90-x)TeO₂ with M=Magnesium, Zinc and Barium and x = 5, 10, 15 and 20. Raman spectroscopy was utilised to determine the structure of the glasses under study, from which definite compositional trends were observed. Further, we measured physical, thermal and optical
properties of these glasses that are critical for the design of electro-optical optical fibres. Certain of these properties displayed compositional trends that were correlated with the
structural data, thus indicating physical origins for the properties. This information can thus be used to guide future glass composition design. We investigated thermal poling as a potential post processing technique for inducing second order nonlinearities thereby enhancing the efficiency of the electro-optic effects. The Maker fringes technique was applied to measuring the induced second order nonlinearities. We have made refinements to the standard way in which these measurements are made, both in terms of the experimental technique as well as the analysis of the data. We developed computational models of optical fibres with internal electrodes for determining the properties, such as optical attenuation resulting from the presence of internal electrodes. The results of these computations in combination with the measurements of the glass properties are used to guide the design of prototype electro-optic fibres. Finally, we developed various techniques for the fabrication of electro-optic fibre devices, such as optical fibre preform extrusion, fibre drawing techniques and electrode insertion.
School/Discipline
School of Chemistry and Physics
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Chemistry and Physics, 2011
Provenance
Copyright material removed from digital thesis. See print copy in University of Adelaide Library for full text.