High Purity Gas Control System for MCVD Optical Fiber Preform Manufacturing
Abstract
The goal of the requested funding is to adquiere a High-Purity Gas Control System required in order to commission our recently installed modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) system. The commission of the MCVD fiber lathe will allow the development of new laser glasses to support high energy fiber laser research. The requested high purity gas control system is paramount to deliver high purity gases (O2, N2, Cl2, SF6, He, Chlorine, BCl3) required for the MCVD operation and to eliminate hazardous components from the exhaust gases produced by the glass deposition process. The activation of our MCVD lathe is a keystone to CREOLs Fiber Fabrication Facility, to provide the nation with a comprehensive facility in the fabrication of advanced optical fibers for high power lasers. The MCVD lathe will allow us to fabricate fiber high purity, large diameter active preform cores with engineered rare-earth doping concentration and refractive index profiles. With the commissioning of the MCVD lathe, the breadth of fiber development capabilities available at CREOL will be unparalleled for many years to come. The MCVD system will have particular impact on all DoD supported high power fiber lasers development projects at CREOL including the fabrication of advanced fibers for our ARO HEL-JTO MRI program Fiber Laser Light Engines and our AFOSR BRI program Fundamental Fiber Laser Science for High Powers. The proposed Research Instrumentation investment in our MCVD lathe facility will leverage an initial investment of $870,400 in MCVD equipment which has been installed in a new $1.8M building. When commissioned, our modern preform fabrication system will not only support the large number of DoD high energy laser-related contracts ongoing at CREOL/UCF, it will create a unique resource to all fiber related DoD programs in universities and national laboratories across the nation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 05, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1078030
Entities
People
- Rodrigo A. Correa
Organizations
- University of Central Florida