Viridis Materials Supports Production of Ultra-High Purity Rare Earth Chloride for Photonics Research
Material Science in Optical Fiber Technology
Optical Fiber Technology is one of the most demanding applications for material science. Ultra-high purity is required for optical fibers to function properly and even the slightest impurities can interfere in data transmission. Nevertheless, dopants are often added to fibers to obtain unique properties.
An optical fiber doped with certain rare-earth elements such as Erbium can be used as the gain medium of a laser or optical amplifier. Rare-earth doped optical fibers can be used to provide signal amplification by splicing a short section of doped fiber into a regular, undoped optical fiber line. The doped fiber is optically pumped with a second laser wavelength that is coupled into the line in addition to the signal wave. Both wavelengths of light are transmitted through the doped fiber, which transfers energy from the second pump wavelength to the signal wave. The process that causes the amplification is stimulated emission.
Our Challenge, Our Solution, Our Results
The Centre for Optical Fibre Technology in Singapore endeavored to enhance the properties of doped optical fibers for amplification, communication, and sensor applications. Viridis Materials provided guidance and consulting to sustainable chemical manufacturers for the synthesis and purification of ultra-high purity (99.9999%+) rare-earth chlorides such as Erbium Chloride, Ytterbium Chloride, Neodymium Chloride, Thulium Chloride, Praseodymium Chloride, and Holmium Chloride.
These high purity rare-earth chlorides were used as dopants in optical fibers for next-generation amplifiers, ultra-broadband supercontinua, and highly sensitive microfibers.
Other applications for rare-earth chlorides include chemical synthesis, rare-earth metal production, pharmaceutical intermediates, and catalysis.
Research on the Use of Dopants in Optical Fiber Technology
- Z. C. Wu, S. N. Fu, K. Jiang, J. Song, H. Z. Li, M. Tang, P. Shum, D. M. Liu, “Switchable thulium-doped fiber laser from polarization rotation vector to scalar soliton”, Scientific Reports, vol, No., pp,01-Jan-2016.
- Yongmin Jung, Qiongyue Kang, Raghuraman Sidharthan, Daryl Ho, Seongwoo Yoo, Patrick Gregg, Siddharth Ramachandran, Shaif-Ul Alam, and David J. Richardson, “Optical Orbital Angular Momentum Amplifier Based on an Air-Hole Erbium-Doped Fiber”, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 35, 3, 430-436, 01-Jan-2017.
- D. Jain, R. Sidharthan, P. Moselund, S. Yoo, D. Ho, and O. Bang, “Record power, ultra-broadband supercontinuum source based on highly GeO2 doped silica fiber”, Optics Express, vol 24, No.23,pp26667-26677,01-Nov-2016.
If you’d like to learn more about how Viridis Materials can help you with your research chemical needs, please reach out to us here for a consultation.
