Preparation and Applications of Low-loss As-S Chalcogenide Glass Fibers

High-purity As-S glasses were prepared by repetitive distillation and open-type dynamic distillation methods. The intensities of impurities' absorptions were obviously reduced at 2.9 μm, 4 μm and 6.3 μm. Chalcogenide glass tubes with precise wall thickness and fine surface properties were prepared by tube-rotating technique and the fibers with core of 40 μm, cladding of 50 μm and error of 1% in diameter were drawn by rod-in-tube method. The fiber had good mechanical and optical performances, which general optical loss was less than 0.5 d B/m and the bending radius was less than 4 mm based on the bending test. The line-plane-switching fiber bundle which format was 64×9 quadrate array to implement 192×3 linear array was made from these chalcogenide glass and long-array infrared push-broom image was successfully demonstrated. The results prove that the fibers and bundle have excellent properties and push-broom infrared system based on the line-plane-switching fiber bundle being feasibility.