Crystalline silicon core fibres from aluminium core preforms

• Main Authors: Hou, Chong (Contributor), Jia, Xiaoting (Contributor), Wei, Lei (Author), Tan, Swee-Ching (Author), Zhao, Xin (Contributor), Fink, Yoel (Contributor), Joannopoulos, John (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor), Joannopoulos, John D. (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2015-10-15T12:05:48Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Traditional fibre-optic drawing involves a thermally mediated geometric scaling where both the fibre materials and their relative positions are identical to those found in the fibre preform. To date, all thermally drawn fibres are limited to the preform composition and geometry. Here, we fabricate a metre-long crystalline silicon-core, silica-cladded fibre from a preform that does not contain any elemental silicon. An ​aluminium rod is inserted into a macroscopic ​silica tube and then thermally drawn. The aluminium atoms initially in the core reduce the ​silica, to produce silicon atoms and ​aluminium oxide molecules. The silicon atoms diffuse into the core, forming a large phase-separated molten silicon domain that is drawn into the crystalline silicon core fibre. The ability to produce crystalline ​silicon core fibre out of inexpensive ​aluminium and ​silica could pave the way for a simple and scalable method of incorporating silicon-based electronics and photonics into fibres.
National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (Award DMR-0819762)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract W911NF-13-D-0001)