Abstract

The silica Microstructured Optical Fibers (MOFs) are now a mature technology and are particularly efficient to enhance nonlinear effects such as the supercontinuum generation used for spectroscopy applications from visible to near infrared. Beyond 2.5 μm, in the mid infrared, the situation is different, the “soft glasses” based MOFs are not yet a mature technology. The chalcogenides are attractive glasses, they are known for their large transparency window covering the wavelength range of numerous chemicals species fingerprint. They are also known for their high nonlinearity which can be more than two orders of magnitude greater than that of silica. In the future, the chalcogenides MOFs could be important optical components for the development not only for the supercontinuum generation in mid IR but also for sensors based on Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs).

© 2015 IEEE