Hughes Aircraft Company

Roger R Turk

Antonio C Pastor

Morton Robinson

Arlie G Standlee

Nelson Ramirez

James A Harrington

Optical fibers formed by rolling crystals of infrared transmissive material, such as potassium chloride, have been made into a smooth optical fiber by rolling between smooth grooved rolls (16) and (20) in a heated, atmosphere controlled environment.

Optical fibers formed by rolling process

This invention provides a method for conversion of congruently melting polycrystalline fibers to single crystal fibers. The method is particularly useful for production of fibers ranging from about 30 .mu.m to about 1,000 .mu.m in diameter, which are capable of infrared (IR) transmission and of functioning in nonlinear optical applications. The polycrystalline fiber is converted to a single crystal fiber by creating a melt zone near one end of said polycrystalline fiber and then causing said melt zone to travel a length of said polycrystalline fiber at least once, so that the fiber continuously melts and recrystallizes into a single crystal along the length so that such length becomes one continuous crystal. In another embodiment of the invention, the method described above is utilized to improve the surface characteristics of a single crystal. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the method disclosed above is utilized to produce a fiber comprised of a polycrystalline core surrounded by a single crystal sleeve or large grained crystal sleeve which evidences single crystal behavior. This method is particularly useful for production of fibers ranging from about 30 .mu.m to 1,000 .mu.m in diameter, which are capable of infrared (IR) transmission. If the sleeve is a sufficiently large proportion of the fiber produced, this method is particularly useful for production of fibers which may be capable of functioning in nonlinear optical applications.

Fabrication of single crystal fibers from congruently melting

Hot pressing of fluoride glasses is provided. These glasses are synthesized from ZrF.sub.4 -BaF.sub.2 and HfF.sub.4 -BaF.sub.2 systems. Hot pressing rough blanks in a closed die made of hard, polished, optically-figured material, such as cobalt-bonded tungsten carbide, is done by pressing the glasses at a temperature between that of the softening point of the glass and its crystallization temperature and at a pressure sufficient to cause flow of the glass at the pressing temperature. As a consequence, mechanical polishing steps on all glass surfaces is eliminated, thereby minimizing surface contamination.

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Woodland Hills, CA, United States of America

Roger R Turk