Light-transmitting fibres in fibre-optic devices are mostly made of glasses such as silica. The fabrication of crystalline compound semiconductor fibres made of zinc selenide (ZnSe), which have a wider range of desirable properties than previous fibres, opens up the possibility of developing fibre-based lasers and amplifiers for photonic applications.

Credit: J. SPARKS, PENN STATE UNIV.

John Badding at Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his collaborators deposited Zn and Se inside a hollow silica fibre (pictured) using a technique for high-pressure chemical vapour deposition. The micrometre-sized fibres had low loss of light transmission in the mid-infrared region. Their optical characteristics can be tuned by changing the composition of the material, the authors say.

Adv. Mater. doi:10.1002/adma.201003214 (2011)