Shaping Nanowire Tapers… With A CO2 Laser Powered Micro-Furnace
Aim:
•To test a CO2 Laser Powered Micro-Furnace in tapering fibres.
Method:
•Stretching heated fibres so that they thin down.
•Pass light in, detect light out, work out optical loss.
•Fibre Optic Cable: “Flexible, optically transparent wire through which light can be transmitted by total internal reflection.”
•Taper: “A section of optical fibre that has a continuously changing outer dimension along its length.”
•Taper’s waist included!
•Nanowire: Optical fibre with diameter on the micron or, ideally, submicron scale.
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Why do we care?
•Nanowires transmit some of the light energy OUTSIDE cladding!
•This is called ‘Evanescent Field’.
•Other fibres and crystals can interact with this field.