Fabrication of an IR hollow-core Bragg fiber based on chalcogenide glass extrusion

The theoretical analysis and experimental preparation of a hollow-core Bragg fiber based on chalcogenide glasses are demonstrated. The fiber has potential applications in bio-sensing and IR energy transmission. Two chalcogenide glasses with, respectively, high and low refractive indexes are investigated in detail for the fabrication of hollow-core Bragg fibers. The most appropriate structure is selected; this structure is composed of four concentric rings and a center air hole . Its band gap for the Bragg fiber is analyzed by the plane wave method. The chalcogenide glasses Ge15Sb20S58.5I13 and Ge15Sb10Se75 are chosen to extrude the robust multi-material glass preform with a specialized punch and glass container. The glass preform is simultaneously protected with a polyetherimide polymer. The hollow-core Bragg fibers are finally obtained after glass preform extrusion, fiber preform fabrication, and fiber drawing. Results showed that the fiber has a transparency window from 2.5 to 14 mu m, including a low-loss transmission window from 10.5 to 12 mu m. The location of this low-loss transmission window matches the predicted photonic band gap in the simulation.