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Silica nanowires

Using a two-step drawing process, we fabricate long freestanding silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that show atomic-level surface smoothness and excellent diameter uniformity. While other researchers have synthesised nanowires with smaller diameters, previous work has not yielded such uniform and smooth structures. The length of the wires can be up to tens of millimeters, giving them an aspect ratio larger than 50,000. Light can be launched along these wires by optical evanescent coupling. The wires allow single-mode operation and have very low optical losses within the visible to near-infrared spectral range. Mechanical tests show that the wires have tensile strength in excess of 5 GPa -- stronger than spider silk. The wires are also resilient and flexible, easily bending into microscopic loops.
Wrapping light around a hair, at InternationalConference on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics 2004 (San Francisco, CA), Monday, October 4, 2004:
talk_1070.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a very uniform diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it possible to... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Wrapping light around a hair: silica nanowires for optical components, at Hanscom Sigma Xi Chapter Joint Meeting with the IEEE Life Members, MIT Lincoln Labs (Lincoln, MA), Tuesday, November 8, 2005:
talk_1170.pdf
Silica — glass — fibers are widely used in optical communication, sensors and other applications. These fibers have roughly the same diameters as human hair. Device applications benefit from minimizing the width of these fibers, but fabricating low-loss optical waveguides with subwavelength diameters is challenging because of the strict requirements on surface roughness and diameter uniformity.

We have developed a process for fabricating silica nanowires with a diameter of only one thousandth the diameter of a hair. Although significantly narrower than the wavelength of light, these...

Read more about Wrapping light around a hair: silica nanowires for optical components
Wrapping light around a hair, at RET/REU Seminar, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Wrapping light around a hair, at Physics Seminar, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN), Thursday, March 4, 2010:
talk_1560.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials Symposium, Universiteit Groningen (Groningen, Netherlands), Thursday, October 25, 2012:
talk_2018.pdf
We explore nonlinear optical phenomena at the nanoscale by launching femtosecond laser pulses into long silica nanowires. Using evanescent coupling between wires we demonstrate a number of nanophotonic devices. At high intensity the nanowires produce a strong supercontinuum over short interaction lengths (less than 20 mm) and at a very low energy threshold (about 1 nJ), making them ideal sources of coherent white-light for nanophotonic applications. The spectral broadening reveals an optimal fiber diameter to enhance nonlinear effects with minimal dispersion. We also present a device that... Read more about Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at University of Florida (Gainesville, FL), Monday, February 16, 2015:
talk_2398.pdf
We explore nonlinear optical phenomena at the nanoscale by launching femtosecond laser pulses into long silica nanowires. Using evanescent coupling between wires we demonstrate a number of nanophotonic devices. At high intensity the nanowires produce a strong supercontinuum over short interaction lengths (less than 20 mm) and at a very low energy threshold (about 1 nJ), making them ideal sources of coherent white-light for nanophotonic applications. The spectral broadening reveals an optimal fiber diameter to enhance nonlinear effects with minimal dispersion. We also present a device that... Read more about Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale
Subwavelength-diameter silica wires for microscale optical components, at SPIE Europe International Symposium: Microtechnologies for the New Millennium (Sevilla, Spain), Tuesday, May 10, 2005:
talk_1078.pdf
Optical components built from structures that are tens of micrometers wide are playing a key role in current optical communication networks, optical sensors, and medical optical devices. The demand for improved performance, broader applications, and higher integration density, together with rapid advances in nanotechnology for electronics and optoelectronics, has spurred an effort to reduce the size of basic optical components. However, the miniaturization of optical components with subwavelength and nanometer-sized optical guiding structures through established fabrication methods is... Read more about Subwavelength-diameter silica wires for microscale optical components
Wrapping light around a hair, at Australian Institute of Physics 17th Biennial Congress 2006, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), Tuesday, December 5, 2006:
talk_1215.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Wrapping light around a hair, at Baetjer Colloquium, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ), Thursday, November 15, 2007:
talk_1339.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was ‘no’. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at Physics Colloquium, Temple University (Philadelphia, PA), Monday, September 21, 2009:
talk_1495.pdf
We explore nonlinear optical phenomena at the nanoscale by launching femtosecond laser pulses into long silica nanowires. Using evanescent coupling between wires we demonstrate a number of nanophotonic devices. At high intensity the nanowires produce a strong supercontinuum over short interaction lengths (less than 20 mm) and at a very low energy threshold (about 1 nJ), making them ideal sources of coherent white-light for nanophotonic applications. The spectral broadening reveals an optimal fiber diameter to enhance nonlinear effects with minimal dispersion. We also present a device that... Read more about Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at Physics Colloquium, Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), Thursday, April 28, 2011:
talk_1746.pdf
We explore nonlinear optical phenomena at the nanoscale by launching femtosecond laser pulses into long silica nanowires. Using evanescent coupling between wires we demonstrate a number of nanophotonic devices. At high intensity the nanowires produce a strong supercontinuum over short interaction lengths (less than 20 mm) and at a very low energy threshold (about 1 nJ), making them ideal sources of coherent white-light for nanophotonic applications. The spectral broadening reveals an optimal fiber diameter to enhance nonlinear effects with minimal dispersion. We also present a device that... Read more about Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale
Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale, at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA), Monday, April 28, 2014:
talk_2312.pdf
We explore nonlinear optical phenomena at the nanoscale by launching femtosecond laser pulses into long silica nanowires. Using evanescent coupling between wires we demonstrate a number of nanophotonic devices. At high intensity the nanowires produce a strong supercontinuum over short interaction lengths (less than 20 mm) and at a very low energy threshold (about 1 nJ), making them ideal sources of coherent white-light for nanophotonic applications. The spectral broadening reveals an optimal fiber diameter to enhance nonlinear effects with minimal dispersion. We also present a device that... Read more about Nonlinear optics at the nanoscale
Supercontinuum and second harmonic generation in amorphous silica nanowires, at Glass & Optical Materials Division Fall 2004 Meeting (Cocoa Beach, FL), Wednesday, November 10, 2004:
talk_1075.pdf
We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica nanowires with diameters down to 50 nm and lengths up to 40 mm. The wire core is amorphous and of very uniform diameter. The wire surface has atomic level smoothness. The wire can guide a single mode of visible or near-infrared light. Because the diameter of the fiber is smaller than the wavelength, however, a large portion of the guided light is in the form of an evanescent field surrounding the nanowire. When amplified femtosecond laser pulses are coupled into these wires, surprising nonlinear optical effects are observed: in... Read more about Supercontinuum and second harmonic generation in amorphous silica nanowires
Supercontinuum in silica nanowires, at Photonics West 2006 (San Jose, CA), Thursday, January 26, 2006:
talk_1180.pdf
Fibers are gaining widespread acceptance for generating ultra-broad spectra. The most common approach involves a photonic crystal fiber with carefully designed core size and dispersion characteristics. Although this system provides confinement of light to micrometer (and sometimes sub-micrometer) dimensions, this confinement is achieved at the expense of a complex core structure. An alternative to microstructured fibers is the use of silica fibers with sub-wavelength diameters whose waveguiding properties were initially demonstrated by our group. Silica nanowires are a model system because... Read more about Supercontinuum in silica nanowires

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