Formation and photoluminescence property of PbS quantum dots in silica optical fiber based on atomic layer deposition

The PbS Quantum Dots (QDs)-doped silica optical fiber is fabricated using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique in combination with modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) technology. PbS materials are introduced into the fiber core and then formed to QDs in the optical fiber materials during the preparation process. Its structure features and optical properties are investigated. The element distribution and stoichiometry of the core materials are revealed by mu-X-ray absorption near edge structure (mu-XANES), mu-X-ray fluorescent (mu-XRF) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) analysis. The experiment results indicate that PbS QDs are distributed at the region between core and cladding layers with the concentration about 0.11 mol%. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) further reveals the dispersion of PbS QDs is uniform and its nanocrystalline size is about 2-6 nm. This is basically in agreement with the evolution results with effective-mass method. Additionally, PbS QDs-doped optical fiber pumped with 980 nm exhibits photoluminescence property in the 1050-1350 nm range. The special doping fibers will show application potential in optical fiber amplifiers, fiber lasers and optical sensing. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America