Optical assembly of a hollow core fibre gas cell spliced to fibre ends and methods of its production
An optical assembly includes a gas cell and an optical fiber portion in which the gas cell is contiguously attached to the optical fiber portion. The gas cell can be made, for example from hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF).
1. An optical assembly comprising:
a gas cell comprising a waveguide formed of hollow core photonic crystal fibre (HCPCF); and
at least one optical fibre portion in which the gas cell is contiguously attached to the at least one optical fibre portion.
2. The optical assembly of claim 1 , wherein opposing ends of the gas cell are attached to respective ones of the optical fibre portions.
3. The optical assembly of claim 1 , wherein the gas cell is spliced to the at least one optical fibre portion.
4. The optical assembly of claim 1 , wherein the gas cell contains a gas.
5. The optical assembly of claim 4 , wherein the gas may be one or more gases of the group consisting of Hydrogen and Acetylene, Iodine, Rubidium and Carbon Dioxide.
6. A method of fabricating an optical assembly, the assembly including a gas cell comprising a waveguide formed of a hollow core photonic crystal fibre (HCPCF) and having a first end and an opposing second end, the first and second ends contiguously attached to a corresponding optical fibre portion, the method comprising the following steps in any order:
splicing the first end of the gas cell to an end of one of the optical fibre portions;
splicing the second end of the gas cell to an end of another one of the optical fibre portions; and
filling the gas cell with a gas.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first end is spliced, then the gas cell is filled using a gas chamber, and then the second end is spliced.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein the gas cell is filled with gas and then spliced at the first and second ends to the corresponding optical fibre portions.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the gas cell is clamped adjacent the first and second ends prior to filling.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the gas cell is clamped using thermal clamps.
11. The method of claim 6 , wherein the gas cell is filled with one or more gases of the group consisting of Hydrogen, Acetylene, Iodine, Rubidium and Carbon Dioxide.
12. The method of claim 7 , comprising the step, after the gas cell has been filled with the gas and before the second end is spliced, of forming a flow restriction in the gas cell.
13. A stimulated Raman scattering apparatus including an optical assembly as claimed in claim 1 .
14. A method of carrying out stimulated Raman scattering using an optical assembly as claimed in claim 1 .