<title>Advances in gallium lanthanum sulphide glass for optical fiber and devices</title>

Abstract

The advantages of gallium lanthanum sulphide (GLS) based glass over other competing glasses for active and infrared applications are evident through its low-phonon energy, high rare-earth solubility, high transition temperature and non-toxicity. However this glass often devitrifies during fibre drawing due to a small separation between the crystallisation and fibre thawing temperatures. Improving GLS fabrication technology may hold the key to achieving practical optical waveguide devices. In this paper, we describe the cunent GLS research status, methods ofimproving glass purity and our directions toward alternatives to traditional fibre technology, in particular planar channel waveguides and holey or microstructured fibres.