Evolutive multi-material fibered infrared components – EVO-FIBIR

The ongoing growth of photonics, with applications in healthcare, energy, defense, and telecommunications, is posing new technological challenges in terms of development and structuration of materials. Components for optics are becoming increasingly complex, evolving towards greater intricacy through miniaturization and simultaneous integration of multiple functions. In addition, efforts are underway to make these components agile, meaning giving them a certain degree of adaptability after manufacturing. In this context, the EVO-FIBIR project aims to develop evolutive fibered thermo-optic components (couplers, waveguides for nonlinear optics, interferometers, etc.) from multi-material elongated structures. These components will operate in the Mid-Infrared (MIR) and will take advantage of the ability to induce within the fabricated objects controlled refractive index changes through localized heating.
The foundational idea behind the EVO-FIBIR project is that the fiber drawing process provides practical solutions for creating adaptable photonic components and devices for the MIR. Multi-material fiber drawing involves the elaboration of a macroscopic preform, which is then stretched through localized heating into an arbitrary long fiber with structured cross-section. This fiber can consist of different materials like glass, polymers, metals, or ceramics with each material adding a specific property, i.e. a functionality (optical, electrical, mechanical, etc.), to the final hybrid fiber. What makes this process significant is that the initial preform structure is homothetically transferred to the produced fiber, which offers multiple advantages. The present project’ objective is to take advantage of the highly scalable fiber-drawing process to create a new class of customizable optical devices in the all-important MIR range and possessing optimized functionalities emerging from new compositions or arrangements of materials.