PNIPU: Technology for creating sensitive optical devices

2023: Development of technology for the creation of sensitive optical devices

On January 12, 2023, the Perm Polytechnic announced the development of technology for creating sensitive optical devices. Fiber is a glass filament that allows you to transmit a light signal over long distances without loss and at high speed. Small dimensions, low power consumption, resistance to temperature differences and aggressive environments allow the use of quartz fibers for lasers, gyroscopes, data transmission in oil wells and even in space. In this regard, the requirements for fiber for strength, radiation resistance, operating temperature and other properties are constantly increasing. Scientists of the Perm Polytechnic, together with colleagues from the IFM Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the city of Yekaterinburg, have assembled an experimental installation that made it possible to investigate the effect of a magnetic field on a plasma spark moving in an optical fiber. The results of this study will help in the development of methods for the formation of intra-fiber microscopic structures, on the basis of which sensitive optical sensors or radiation diffusers can be created.

Experimental Installation Diagram

In experiments, an optical fiber sample was placed between the poles of a heavy duty permanent magnet. Laser radiation was applied to one end of the sample fiber, and the other end was applied to a measuring device for determining optical power. Next, laser breakdown was initiated in the fiber, which led to a blue-white flash (plasma spark) that moved along the optical fiber. In propagation, the plasma spark interacted with the magnetic field and formed bizarre microdefects in the fiber. The entire process was recorded on a high-speed video camera. Microscopic examination of optical fiber sections was performed.

Under the conditions of the experiment, it was proved that the magnetic field has an effect on the size, shape and speed of the plasma spark along the fiber. Thus, in the test sample, a structure of microneodiogeneities filled with oxygen with a bullet-like shape appeared, which can later be used as a sensor for an optical sensor or an optical radiation diffuser, explained the scientific director of the project, head of the Department of General Physics of the Perm Polytechnic University, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Associate Professor Anatoly Perminov.

The data obtained during the work will make it possible to create fiber-optic devices with increased performance. Such devices are widely used, for example, for monitoring parameters in oil wells, submarines, aircraft and nuclear power plants. Optical fiber radiation diffusers are used in medicine.