Self-assembled fibre optoelectronics with discrete translational symmetry

Fibres with electronic and photonic properties are essential building blocks for functional fabrics with system level attributes. The scalability of thermal fibre drawing approach offers access to large device quantities, while constraining the devices to be translational symmetric. Lifting this symmetry to create discrete devices in fibres will increase their utility. Here, we draw, from a macroscopic preform, fibres that have three parallel internal non-contacting continuous domains; a semiconducting glass between two conductors. We then heat the fibre and generate a capillary fluid instability, resulting in the selective transformation of the cylindrical semiconducting domain into discrete spheres while keeping the conductive domains unchanged. The cylindrical-to-spherical expansion bridges the continuous conducting domains to create ∼10⁴ self-assembled, electrically contacted and entirely packaged discrete spherical devices per metre of fibre. The photodetection and Mie resonance dependent response are measured by illuminating the fibre while connecting its ends to an electrical readout.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (DMR-1419807)United States. Army Research Office. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (contract number W911NF-13-D-0001)United States. Air Force Medical Servic

Electrostrictive microelectromechanical fibres and textiles

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) enable many modern-day technologies, including actuators, motion sensors, drug delivery systems, projection displays, etc. Currently, MEMS fabrication techniques are primarily based on silicon micromachining processes, resulting in rigid and low aspect ratio structures. In this study, we report on the discovery of MEMS functionality in fibres, thereby opening a path towards flexible, high-Aspect ratio, and textile MEMS. The method used for generating these MEMS fibres leverages a preform-To-fibre thermal drawing process, in which the MEMS architecture and materials are embedded into a preform and drawn into kilometers of microstructured multimaterial fibre devices. The fibre MEMS functionality is enabled by an electrostrictive P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) ferrorelaxor terpolymer layer running the entire length of the fibre. Several modes of operation are investigated, including thickness-mode actuation with over 8% strain at 25 MV m -1 , bending-mode actuation due to asymmetric positioning of the electrostrictive layer, and resonant fibre vibration modes tunable under AC-driving conditions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award DMR-1419807)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract W911NF-13-D-0001

Silicon-in-silica spheres via axial thermal gradient in-fibre capillary instabilities

The ability to produce small scale, crystalline silicon spheres is of significant technological and scientific importance, yet scalable methods for doing so have remained elusive. Here we demonstrate a silicon nanosphere fabrication process based on an optical fibre drawing technique. A silica-cladded silicon-core fibre with diameters down to 340 nm is continuously fed into a flame defining an axial thermal gradient and the continuous formation of spheres whose size is controlled by the feed speed is demonstrated. In particular, spheres of diameter \u3c 500 nm smaller than those produced under isothermal heating conditions are shown and analysed. A fibre with dual cores, p-type and n-type silicon, is drawn and processed into spheres. Spatially coherent break-up leads to the joining of the spheres into a bispherical silicon \u27p-n molecule\u27. The resulting device is measured to reveal a rectifying I-V curve consistent with the formation of a p-n junction

A Bragg grating embedded in a slab waveguide fabricated by the implantation of high-energy light ions in KLTN substrate

Electro-optically tunable transmission grating was imprinted in potassium lithium tantalate niobate by irreversible spatial patterning of the dielectric constant. While embedded into waveguided architecture, it provides a reliable and versatile building block for opto-electronic circuitry, capable of both active switching and multiplexing. Realization of such a block is critical for the fabrication of integrated photonic circuits in electro-optic substrates by means of Refractive Index Engineering by fast ion implantation.Israel. Ministry of Science (Grant No. 3-6473)Eshkol Fellowships Foundation (Grant No. 3-6435

Confined In-Fiber Solidification And Structural Control Of Silicon And Silicon-Germanium Microparticles

Crystallization of microdroplets of molten alloys could, in principle, present a number of possible morphological outcomes, depending on the symmetry of the propagating solidification front and its velocity, such as axial or spherically symmetric species segregation. However, because of thermal or constitutional supercooling, resulting droplets often only display dendritic morphologies. Here we report on the crystallization of alloyed droplets of controlled micrometer dimensions comprising silicon and germanium, leading to a number of surprising outcomes. We first produce an array of silicon - germanium particles embedded in silica, through capillary breakup of an alloy-core silica-cladding fiber. Heating and subsequent controlled cooling of individual particles with a two-wavelength laser setup allows us to realize two different morphologies, the first being a silicon - germanium compositionally segregated Janus particle oriented with respect to the illumination axis and the second being a sphere made of dendrites of germanium in silicon. Gigapascal-level compressive stresses are measured within pure silicon solidified in silica as a direct consequence of volume-constrained solidification of a material undergoing anomalous expansion. The ability to generate microspheres with controlled morphology and unusual stresses could pave the way toward advanced integrated in-fiber electronic or optoelectronic devices

FAMES Lab Bio-Synthetic Interface - CIS-IEEE 2017.pdf

Our Vision is to incorporate nano-device properties in macroscale products using multimaterial fibers as building blocks. Applying a new hybrid manufacturing approach, which involves 3D printing of multimaterial preforms consisting of semiconducting and metallic cores, thermal drawing of those preforms into fibers and axial patterning of the multimaterial cores by selective spatially coherent capillarity instabilities, we are able to produce integrated device arrays spanning the entire length of the fiber. The tremendous aspect ratio of the internal fiber features, kilometers long and submicron in cross section, have numerous applications. Being made of biocompatible materials, such as silica, silicon, and platinum, fiber devices could be used for bio-synthetic interfacing with living tissue, if arranged into 3D scaffolds

Multimaterial fiber as a physical simulator of a capillary instability

Abstract Capillary breakup of cores is an exclusive approach to fabricating fiber-integrated optoelectronics and photonics. A physical understanding of this fluid-dynamic process is necessary for yielding the desired solid-state fiber-embedded multimaterial architectures by design rather than by exploratory search. We discover that the nonlinearly complex and, at times, even chaotic capillary breakup of multimaterial fiber cores becomes predictable when the fiber is exposed to the spatiotemporal temperature profile, imposing a viscosity modulation comparable to the breakup wavelength. The profile acts as a notch filter, allowing only a single wavelength out of the continuous spectrum to develop predictably, following Euler-Lagrange dynamics. We argue that this understanding not only enables designing the outcomes of the breakup necessary for turning it into a technology for materializing fiber-embedded functional systems but also positions a multimaterial fiber as a universal physical simulator of capillary instability in viscous threads

Optoelectronic Fibers via Selective Amplification of In-Fiber Capillary Instabilities

Thermally drawn metal–insulator–semiconductor fibers provide a scalable path to functional fibers. Here, a ladder-like metal–semiconductor–metal photodetecting device is formed inside a single silica fiber in a controllable and scalable manner, achieving a high density of optoelectronic components over the entire fiber length and operating at a bandwidth of 470 kHz, orders of magnitude larger than any other drawn fiber device.MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore)Accepted versio