TECH FOCUS OPTICAL FIBRES
AirGuide Photonics programme seeks to reinvent optical fibres
Initiative will bring together 25 organisations across research and industry A
£6.1 million research programme led by the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics
Research Centre (ORC) is aiming to develop and demonstrate the potential of hollow-core optical fibres. Bringing together more than 25
research organisations and industry partners, the AirGuide Photonics programme hopes to develop ‘the next generation of optical fibres’ and realise their enormous potential across a multitude of uses – ranging from a more responsive internet, through space exploration, to laser-based manufacturing and bioengineering. Today’s conventional optical fibres contain a glass ‘core’ at the centre of the fibre, through which light is transmitted. However, not only does this glass centre limit the speed of the light as it passes through, but it also adversely affects other aspects of its propagation, thereby limiting the performance of the fibre and the associated optical system. AirGuide Photonics will replace this conventional glass core with air, or a vacuum, to produce hollow-core ‘light pipes’. By guiding light through air, rather than through glass, these new optical fibres
“These optical fibres offer the potential for increased bandwidth”
offer the potential for increased bandwidth with lower latency, greatly improved power handling and improved overall quality of light transmission. The AirGuide Photonics programme partners include universities and research
Optical fibres in harsh environments
In May, fibre specialist iXblue, and the Hubert Curien Laboratory at the Institut d’Optique Graduate School in France, announced the creation of the LabH6, a joint research laboratory focusing on the study of optical fibres and optical fibre-based sensors in harsh environments. The new LabH6 combines
iXblue’s R&D capabilities in fibres and components and the experimental and modelling tools of the Hubert Curien Laboratory. One goal of the LabH6 is to
understand and identify the main mechanisms at the origin of the degradation of materials and optical fibres exposed to radiative environments. This knowledge will in turn allow the team to develop and validate simulation tools designed to predict accurately both material and optical fibre response to radiation exposure. This approach applies to many domains such as space, medical, nuclear or high energy physics and the technical and scientific results will allow, we
believe, potential breakthroughs in these fields. The LabH6 project is structured
within the framework of a national policy to establish closer ties between those working in scientific research and economic partners in France. ‘LabH6 means we can define a joint scientific programme in which we will both take part,’ said Sylvain Girard, scientific lead of the project. ‘The idea of this laboratory is to make breakthroughs in the field of
photonics by managing to control the response of optical fibres under conditions of irradiation, either to make them insensitive to radiation, or to enable them to be used as means of detection. It is by developing models which we hope to be predictive, that we will be able to know, in advance, how the systems are going to age. This will enable us, by working backwards from the predicted results, to anticipate problems ahead of time and to design new architectures for the systems.’
institutes, optical components suppliers such as Oclaro and II-VI (UK) as well as potential end-users of hollow-core fibre products like BT and Microsoft. The programme intends to develop bespoke, application-specific fibres based on the project partners’ particular interests, and will work with the partners to demonstrate real world uses of the technology that will serve to showcase its unique properties. Microsoft’s participation is particularly
g
28 Electro Optics August/September 2019
@electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
Andrey VP/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
