Fabricating nanoporous silica structure on D-fibres through room temperature self-assembly

John Canning*, Lucas Moura, Lachlan Lindoy, Kevin Cook, Maxwell J. Crossley, Yanhua Luo, Gang Ding Peng, Lars Glavind, George Huyang, Masood Naqshbandi, Martin Kristensen, Cicero Martelli, Graham Town

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
31 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The room temperature deposition of self-assembling silica nanoparticles onto D-shaped optical fibres ("D-fibre"), drawn from milled preforms fabricated by modified chemical vapour deposition (MCVD), is studied. Vertical dip-and-withdraw produces tapered layers, with one end thicker (surface coverage >0.85) than the other, whilst horizontal dip-and-withdraw produces much more uniform layers over the core region. The propagation of induced fracturing over the core region during drying is overcome using a simple protrusion of the inner cladding. Thick coatings are discernible through thin film interference colouring, but thinner coatings require scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. Here, we show that fluorescence imaging, using Rhodamine B, in this example, can provide some qualitative and speedy assessment of coverage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2356-2369
Number of pages14
JournalMaterials
Volume7
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2014

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2014. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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