JP2010186868A - Rare earth element doped-fiber with bf3 added therein, and method of manufacturing same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rare earth element doped-fiber with BF<SB>3</SB>added therein, and a method of manufacturing the same. <P>SOLUTION: This method of manufacturing this rare earth element doped-fiber includes: a deposition process of forming a glass particulate layer by depositing one or more layers of glass particulates on the inner surface of a pipe; an immersion process of impregnating the glass particulate layer with a solution containing a rare-earth element; a drying process of drying the glass particulate layer after the immersion process; a transparency process of converting the glass particulate layer to transparent glass after the drying process; and a collapsing process of collapsing an anhydrous quartz pipe; deposited at 1,200-1,500°C, and another deposition process of forming a glass particulate layer with BF<SB>3</SB>doped therein is executed at 1,000-1,190°C after the deposition process. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a rare earth element-doped fiber having BF ₃ added to a core and a method for manufacturing the same.

Since fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers doped with rare earth elements have high conversion efficiency and high beam quality, they have attracted a lot of interest in the field of laser processing technology. As a method for producing a base material doped with a rare earth element, a VAD (Vapor Phase Axial Deposition) method, an OVD (Outside Vapor Deposition) method, an MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition) method, a vapor phase CVD (Ve. For example, a manufacturing method of an optical fiber preform having a rare earth element-doped core obtained by applying a liquid immersion method to the MCVD method is known (Patent Document 1).
In order to obtain a high-quality laser from a rare earth element-doped fiber, physical properties such as a wide gain spectrum, low reabsorption, laser stability, and particularly high conversion efficiency are required. In particular, it is necessary to manufacture a rare earth element-doped fiber having high conversion efficiency from the viewpoint of energy utilization efficiency and weight reduction of the apparatus.

  For example, in order to manufacture a Yb-doped fiber with high conversion efficiency, it is necessary to increase the Yb doping concentration and increase the absorption coefficient. However, when the Yb doping concentration is increased, quenching occurs due to the influence of Yb clustering, and conversion efficiency and reliability are increased. It is pointed out that there is a problem of lowering the sex. In order to solve the problem, a method of co-doping Al or the like has been proposed (Patent Document 2 and Non-Patent Document 1). However, by adding Al, the refractive index of the core increases and NA increases. It becomes difficult to manufacture a low NA fiber necessary for improving the quality of the laser beam.

Therefore F the refractive index can be lowered, a method of doping element such as B in the core may be considered, BF ₃ doped layer in order to perform the BF ₃ doped soot deposition and Yb doped individually in MCVD method And the Yb doped layer may be separated. When such separation occurs, it is difficult to produce a core having a uniform refractive index profile, and the problem of flattening of the core occurs when it is solidified because the thermal expansion coefficients of the BF ₃ layer and the Yb doped layer are different.

JP 2003-277098 A JP-A-8-46278

Optics Express Vol. 16 (no. 20), pp. 15540-15545 (2008)

It is an object of the present invention to provide a rare earth element-doped fiber in which BF ₃ is added to a core and a manufacturing method thereof.

Accordingly, as a result of intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the inventors have made a processing temperature of 1200 to 1500 ° C. when forming a glass fine particle layer by depositing one or more glass fine particles on the inner surface of an anhydrous quartz pipe. In addition, after the deposition, the BF ₃ doped layer and the Yb doped layer are separated by performing a deposition process for forming a glass fine particle layer doped with BF ₃ at a temperature of 1000 to 1190 ° C. The present inventors have found that a rare earth element-doped fiber having BF ₃ added to the core can be produced without causing the above problem.
That is, the present invention is as follows.
[1] A deposition step in which one or more glass fine particles are deposited on the inner surface of the pipe to form a glass fine particle layer, an immersion step in which the glass fine particle layer is impregnated in a solution containing a rare earth element, and glass after the immersion step. A production method comprising a drying step of drying the fine particle layer, a transparentization step of converting the glass fine particle layer into a transparent glass after the drying step, and a collapse step of collapsing the anhydrous quartz pipe,
A method for producing a rare earth element-doped fiber, wherein the temperature during the deposition step is 1000 to 1190 ° C.
[2] The method according to [1], wherein BF ₃ is further doped during the deposition step.
[3] The temperature during the deposition step is 1200 to 1500 ° C., and after the deposition step, a deposition step for forming a glass fine particle layer doped with BF ₃ is performed at a temperature of 1000 to 1190 ° C. The method according to [1] above.
[4] A rare earth element-doped fiber manufactured by the manufacturing method according to [3].
[5] The rare earth element-doped fiber is a fiber composed of a core and a clad,
The core is continuously doped with rare earth elements, the BF ₃ is discontinuously doped into the core, and the BF ₃ doping concentration in the vicinity of the interface between the cladding and the core is smaller than the concentration at the core center. The rare earth element-doped fiber according to the above [4], wherein

It is possible to provide a rare earth or the like doped fiber having BF ₃ added to the core and a method for manufacturing the same.

Explanatory drawing which showed one embodiment of this invention in process order. Explanatory drawing which showed one embodiment of this invention in process order. 3 is a schematic diagram of a refractive index profile of Example 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a refractive index profile of Example 2.

  In this specification, the clad refers to a quartz layer around the core. In addition, continuous doping means that a material to be added, such as rare earth elements, is not locally doped, but is entirely contained without any break, and there is a layer that does not contain the material to be added. The state that does not. On the other hand, discontinuous doping refers to a case where there are a layer containing a material to be added such as a rare earth element and a layer not containing it.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of the present invention in the order of steps, and Example 1 described later includes this step.

O ₂ is supplied to the inner surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 from one end to the other end, and the inner wall surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 is baked at 1200 to 1500 ° C. by the burner 2 (see FIG. 1A). The flow rate of O ₂ is desirably 0.5 to 2.5 SLM. The anhydrous quartz pipe 1 means a quartz pipe whose amount containing OH groups is 1 ppm or less, which is the limit of measurement by an infrared spectrometer. This is because, in the MCVD method, it is desirable to prevent the OH group from being mixed in order to increase the transmission loss due to the OH group contained in the organometallic raw material or the OH group mixed during the core preparation, and to deteriorate the laser characteristics.

Next, Cl ₂ is supplied, and the inner wall surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 is dehydrated by the burner 2 at 1000 to 1300 ° C. (see FIG. 1B).

Next, glass raw material gas such as SiC1 ₄ and gas of He and O ₂ are supplied to the inner surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 and heated at 1000 to 1200 ° C. by the burner 2 to form the glass fine particle layer 3. In the conventional MCVD deposition process, the deposition process is generally heated at 1100 to 1700 ° C., but in the present invention, it is heated at a relatively low temperature of 1000 to 1200 ° C. (see FIG. 1C). This affects the doping concentration of the rare earth element soaked into the glass fine particle layer 3 because the size of the glass fine particles becomes smaller or directly vitrifies when deposited at a high temperature in the liquid immersion process described later. This is because it is not desirable to deposit the glass fine particle layer 3 at a high temperature of less than 1000 ° C., and the adhesion between the glass fine particles and the inner surface of the quartz pipe becomes weak at a temperature below 1000 ° C. The glass particle layer 3 differs depending on the pipe used and the purpose of production, and may be deposited in one or more layers. From the viewpoint of the refractive profile, the glass particle layer 3 has a thickness of 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm. Is desirable. In the case differs by each gas flow rate using pipes and be fabricated at this time, to produce, for example, rare earth doped core mother goods, SiCl ₄ is 0.4～0.6SLM, the He is 0.3～0.6SLM, O ₂ is preferably 0.4 to 0.6 SLM. Furthermore, when the glass fine particle layer 3 is deposited, since the internal pressure of the glass pipe is affected by the gas flow inside the pipe, the pressure difference between the internal pressure of the anhydrous quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure becomes −4 to −10 Pa. Thus, it is desirable to control the glass internal pressure with a pressure controller.

In the above deposition step, not only He and O ₂ but also BF ₃ gas may be supplied (see FIG. 1C). The flow rate of BF ₃ is desirably 20 to 100 SCCM. Since the refractive index of BF ₃ -added glass is lower than that of quartz, the refractive index of the Yb-added core can be reduced. B instead of BF _3, F, _SiF4, BCl 3, BBr is ₃ and the like may also be substituted, in view of coupling efficiency and ease of handling BF ₃ is desirable. BF ₃ delta (Δ, refractive index difference) reduction effect [(BF ₃ added core delta−no BF ₃ core delta) / no BF ₃ core delta × 100)] (%) is BF ₃ flow rate Is 15.7% for 9 SCCM, -63% for 25 SCCM, -136% for 40 SCCM, and increasing the flow rate of BF ₃ increases the charging efficiency. This is because the core refractive index is decreased by increasing BF ₃ . Charge of Yb / Al (Yb = 0.075g, Al = 0.25g) was doped, when comparing the core preform without adding 9SCCMBF ₃ doped core preform and BF _3, clarified by the addition _of BF ₃ At the same time, the core Δ falls, and the change in Δ becomes −15.7%.

After the deposition is completed, the glass fine particle layer 3 is immersed in the rare earth element-containing solution 4 (see FIG. 1D). In order to permeate the solution into the glass fine particle layer, for example, a method of pouring into the pipe can be mentioned. Moreover, in order to fully infiltrate, it is desirable to rotate the lathe chuck at a speed of 5 to 20 revolutions / minute. The additive to be added to the core in the present invention, for example, Er (ErCl _3, etc.), Nd (NdCl _3, etc.), Yb (YbCl _3, etc.), Tm (TmCl _3, etc.), Pr (PrCl _3, etc.), La ( LaCl ₃ etc.), Al (Al (NO ₃ ) etc.), P (P ₂ O ₅ , H ₃ PO ₄ etc.) and other rare earth elements and compounds of other elements or hydrates thereof. From the viewpoint of ease of handling, the hexahydrate of YbCl ₃ and AlCl ₃ is desirable, and a single addition or a combination of two or more may be added. The rare-earth-doped fiber is greatly affected by the solution concentration. When Yb and Al are co-added, the solution concentration (wt%) is preferably about 0.05 to 1.5 for Yb and about 0.05 to 2 for Al. For example, if dissolved in ethanol, to ethanol 30cc, YbCl ₃ · 6H ₂ O is 0.06~0.09g, AlCl ₃ · 6H ₂ O becomes 0.2～0.25G. The clustering of Yb is affected by the photodarkening of the glass, and the molar ratio of Al to Yb is also an important parameter for the Yb-doped fiber characteristics because it adversely affects the fiber laser characteristics. That is, in order to suppress Yb clustering, it is desirable to set the molar ratio R (= Al / Yb) of Al to Yb to 3-15. By setting the ratio within this range, an optical fiber preform having an NA of 0.05 to 0.2 can be provided. Examples of the solvent additive is added, for example water, alcohol chlorides such as ethanol, compounds such as salts can be sufficiently dissolved, yet added to volatilize most by natural drying, and easily by the reactive gas such as Cl ₂ Since it can be removed sufficiently, it is convenient. Ethanol is preferred. Examples of conditions for the immersion process include conditions such as a temperature of 20 to 60 ° C. and 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Next, O ₂ is supplied, and natural drying is performed for 1 to 2 hours. Thereafter, the temperature of the burner is raised to 50 to 1400 ° C., and the liquid-permeable glass fine particle layer is heated and dried.

After the residual moisture is sufficiently removed, the pressure difference between the internal pressure and the atmospheric pressure is maintained at −4 Pa, and gas of He, O ₂ and C ₁₂ is supplied to remove residual traces of moisture and foreign matter, and anhydrous quartz The temperature of the pipe 1 is raised to 1500 to 1600 ° C., and the rare earth element-containing glass fine particle layer 5 is made into transparent glass to form the rare earth element-containing glass layer 6 (see FIG. 1E)). The flow rate of each gas at this time, He is 0.1~1.0SLM, _{O 2} is 0.1~5SLM, C1 ₂ is 0.12~0.02SLM is desirable.

  After the clarification, the anhydrous quartz pipe is further heated at 1500 to 1800 ° C. to be collapsed. Collaps means making the transparent glass particle layer solid without space. By this step, a rare earth element-doped core is obtained, and an optical fiber preform 8 using this as a core is obtained (see FIG. 1 (f)).

Here, the reaction of BF ₃ gas with MCVD method different deposition conditions of the glass particles to take place at a lower temperature than SiCl _4. Then together supply _of BF ₃ and SiCl ₄ at a low temperature as described above, when depositing glass particles, falling from the deposited glass particles are glass surface, whereas a high density of the deposited glass particles soot at high temperature As a result, the rare earth element-containing solution hardly penetrates deeply and the collapsed core base material may be separated into a low refractive index layer and a high refractive index layer. Therefore, it can be produced by the steps shown in FIG. 2 as necessary.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention in the order of steps, and Example 2 described later includes this step.

According to the preform analyzer profile of the Yb-doped base material doped with BF ₃ at a high temperature, the core portion is separated into a BF ₃ added layer and a Yb-doped layer to form a W-type core. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of soot adhesion that occurs at low temperature and the problem that the BF ₃ added layer and the Yb doped layer are separated, first, glass particles are attached at a high temperature without flowing BF ₃ . it is desirable to carry out the soot deposition while supplying BF _3. Moreover, in order to reinforce the adhesiveness at the soot-glass interface, it is necessary to reduce the burner feed speed from 650 mm / min to 325 mm / min. From such a viewpoint, the following steps are advantageous.

  The details of the empty baking process (FIG. 2A) and the dehydration process (FIG. 2B) are the same as those in FIGS. 1A and 1B.

Next, glass raw material gas such as SiC1 ₄ and gas of He and O ₂ are supplied to the inner surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 to deposit 0.005 mm to 0.05 mm glass fine particles not doped with BF _3. Therefore, the glass fine particle layer 3 is formed by heating at 1200-1500 degreeC with the burner 2 (refer FIG.2 (c)). The flow rate of each gas at this time, SiCl ₄ is 0.2～0.4SLM, the He is 0.4~0.6SLM, _{O 2} is 0.4～0.6SLM is desirable. Furthermore, when the glass fine particle layer 3 is deposited, the internal pressure of the glass pipe is affected by the gas flow inside the pipe, so that the differential pressure between the internal pressure of the quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure is −10 to −4 Pa. It is desirable to control the internal pressure of the glass with a pressure controller.

Next, glass raw material gas such as SiC1 _4, gas of He, O ₂ and BF ₃ is supplied to the inner surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe 1 and heated at 1000 to 1200 ° C. by the burner 2, thereby further forming the glass fine particle layer 3. It forms (refer FIG.2 (d)). The glass particle layer 3 may be deposited in a single layer or in a plurality of layers, but it is desirable to form a plurality of layers having a thickness of 0.1 to 0.5 mm four times continuously from the viewpoint of film quality. The flow rate of each gas at this time, SiCl ₄ is 0.4～0.6SLM, the He is 0.4~0.6SLM, _{O 2} is 0.4~0.6SLM, BF ₃ has 20~100SCCM desirable. Furthermore, when the glass fine particle layer 3 is deposited, the internal pressure of the glass pipe is affected by the gas flow inside the pipe, so that the differential pressure between the internal pressure of the quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure is −10 to −4 Pa. It is desirable to control the internal pressure of the glass with a pressure controller.

  Details of the subsequent immersion process (FIG. 2 (e)), drying process, clearing process (FIG. 2 (f)) and collapse process (FIG. 2 (g)) are shown in FIG. 1 (d), (e) and Same as (f). The optimum film thickness of the glass fine particles formed on the inner wall surface of the glass is influenced by the inner diameter of the quartz pipe used and the core structure, and it is difficult to accurately define it, but is preferably 0.01 mm to 1 mm.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples. The present invention is not limited by these.

An anhydrous quartz pipe having an outer diameter of 28 mm, a thickness of 1.5 mm, and a length of 400 mm is mounted on a lathe, O ₂ is supplied at 1.4 SLM from one end to the other end of the anhydrous quartz pipe, and 1200 by a burner. 1400 after baking of the inner wall surface of the anhydrous silica glass pipe at ° C., and the dehydration was conducted of the inner wall surface of the anhydrous silica glass pipe at 1130 ° C. the burner while supplying C1 ₂ at 50 SCCM. Thereafter, SiC1 ₄ at 0.56 SLM, He at 0.4 SLM, O _{2 at} 0.5 SLM, and BF ₃ at 45 SCCM were supplied, and deposition of 0.2 mm-thick glass particles was performed four times at 1180 ° C. went. When depositing the glass fine particles, the glass internal pressure was controlled so that the differential pressure between the internal pressure of the quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure was 4 Pa. Thereafter, 0.06 g of YbC1 ₃ · 6H ₂ O and 0.2 g of AlCl ₃ · 6H ₂ O were dissolved in 30 cc of ethanol as a solvent (Al: Yb molar ratio = 5.7: 1) to deposit glass particles. The glass was poured into a glass pipe, and the lathe chuck was rotated for immersion for 1 hour at a speed of 5 revolutions / minute and at a temperature of 20 ° C. until it was fully adapted. Next, after supplying O ₂ and performing natural drying for 1 hour, the temperature of the burner was raised to 50 to 1400 ° C., and the quartz pipe was heated and dried. Thereafter, the differential pressure between the internal pressure and the atmospheric pressure is maintained to be a differential pressure of −4 Pa. While supplying He gas at 0.7 SLM, O _{2 at} 0.3 SLM, and C ₁₂ gas at ₂₀ SCCM, the anhydrous quartz pipe The temperature was raised to 1500-1750 ° C., transparency and glass pipe collapse were performed, and a core was produced. As a result of the preliminary analysis, the core diameter was about 2 mm.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the refractive index profile of the doped fiber prepared in Example 1, and passes from the outermost surface of the fiber to the outermost surface of the opposite body through the central axis of the fiber along the diameter. The change in refractive index (vertical axis) is shown. The same applies to FIG.
As shown in the figure, in the interface region between the core and the clad, it can be seen that the refractive index is locally lower than the central region of the core and lower than the refractive index of quartz glass. This is because at the interface between the core and the clad, the glass fine particle layer was deposited while being doped with BF ₃ , so that the glass fine particles became small and Yb and Al did not easily penetrate into the core interface.

An anhydrous quartz pipe having an outer diameter of 28 mm, a thickness of 1.5 mm, and a length of 400 mm is attached to a lathe, O ₂ is supplied at 1.4 SLM from one end to the other end of the anhydrous quartz pipe, and 1200 to 1400 ° C. by a burner. in after baking of the inner wall surface of the anhydrous silica glass pipe, to perform dehydration of the inner wall surface of the anhydrous quartz pipe supplying 1130 ° C. the C1 ₂ at 50 SCCM. Thereafter, SiCl ₄ gas was supplied at 0.3 SLM, He gas was supplied at 0.4 SLM, and O ₂ gas was supplied at 0.5 SLM. At 1240 ° C., 0.05 mm-thick glass fine particles not doped with BF ₃ were deposited. When depositing fine glass particles, the internal pressure of the glass was controlled so that the differential pressure between the internal pressure of the anhydrous quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure was −4 Pa. Then, SiCl ₄ at 0.56 SLM, He at 0.4 SLM, O _{2 at} 0.5 SLM, and BF ₃ gas at 75 SCCM were supplied, and the thickness of the 0.2 mm film thickness was 4 times continuously at 1180 ° C. at the temperature of the quartz pipe. Glass particulates were deposited. When depositing fine glass particles, the internal pressure of the glass was controlled so that the differential pressure between the internal pressure of the anhydrous quartz pipe and the atmospheric pressure was −4 Pa. After the glass fine particles were deposited, the adhesion of the glass fine particles was confirmed with a gum tape. As a result, it was found that the glass fine particles had almost the same adhesion as the glass fine particle layer without BF ₃ doping.
The subsequent liquid immersion process, drying process, clearing process, and collapse process are the same as in Example 1. As a result of the preaner evaluation, the core diameter was about 1.9 mm.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the refractive index profile of the doped fiber produced in Example 2. According to the schematic diagram, a single refractive index distribution is shown throughout the core, and it can be seen that Yb and Al are sufficiently penetrated to the core interface and are uniformly diffused throughout the core. The effect of reducing the refractive index by BF ₃ doping was Δ = −60%.
When the doping concentration of the rare earth element-doped fiber manufactured by the method of Example 2 was confirmed by EPMA (Electron Probe Micro-Analyzer), the rare earth element was continuously doped in the entire core, while BF ₃ was discontinuous. The core was doped, and the F-doped concentration at the core center was 0.6 mol%, but B was not detected. On the other hand, B and F in the vicinity of the interface between the clad and the core were not detected. The reason why B was not detected in the EPMA evaluation regardless of the addition of BF ₃ is that the B incorporation efficiency is lower than that of F. Also in the preanalysis evaluation, it is understood that BF ₃ is not doped at the core interface because the refractive index in the vicinity of the interface is almost the same as the refractive index of quartz glass.
In addition, laser characteristics were evaluated in order to confirm the effectiveness of the BF ₃ doped Yb-doped fiber. The core base material was produced by soot deposition under the condition of supplying 10 SCCM BF ₃ (CYW-150) and 25 SCCM (CYW-151) BF ₃ . It has been found that increasing the BF ₃ flow rate decreases the core refractive index. Furthermore, it was found that even if the BF ₃ flow rate was increased, the BF ₃ added layer and the Yb doped layer were not separated, indicating a single core structure. Laser evaluation was performed according to the configuration of the external resonator. The total fiber length of CYW-151 was 9 m, and CYW-152 was 5.8 m. The slope efficiency of the fiber laser with respect to the pump light absorption is 59% and 63%, respectively, indicating good characteristics. Therefore, even if BF ₃ was added, the effectiveness of the present invention was confirmed because it was not particularly affected by the laser characteristics.

  The optical fiber according to the present invention is used for a fiber laser, an optical amplifier, and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Anhydrous quartz pipe 2 Burner 3 Glass particulate layer 4 Rare earth element containing solution 5 Rare earth element containing glass particulate layer 6 Rare earth element containing glass layer 7 Rare earth element doped core 8 Optical fiber preform

Claims (5)

A deposition step in which one or more glass fine particles are deposited on the inner surface of the pipe to form a glass fine particle layer, an immersion step in which the glass fine particle layer is impregnated in a solution containing a rare earth element, and a glass fine particle layer is formed after the immersion step. A drying method for drying, a transparentizing step for transparent vitrification of the glass fine particle layer after the drying step, and a collapsing step for collapsing the anhydrous quartz pipe,
A method for producing a rare earth element-doped fiber, wherein the temperature during the deposition step is 1000 to 1190 ° C. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein BF ₃ is further doped during the deposition step. The temperature during the deposition step is 1200 to 1500 ° C., and after the deposition step, a deposition step of forming a glass fine particle layer doped with BF ₃ is further performed at a temperature of 1000 to 1190 ° C. The manufacturing method according to claim 1.   A rare earth element-doped fiber manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 3. The rare earth element-doped fiber is a fiber composed of a core and a clad,
The core is continuously doped with rare earth elements, the BF ₃ is discontinuously doped into the core, and the BF ₃ doping concentration in the vicinity of the interface between the cladding and the core is smaller than the concentration at the core center. The rare earth element-doped fiber according to claim 4, wherein:

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