Optical mode confinement and selection in single-crystal sapphire fibers by formation of nanometer scale cavities with hydrogen ion implantation

The excellent material properties of single crystal sapphire fibers promise great advantages in applications related to harsh environment optical sensing, high laser power delivery, and high-resolution/sensitivity optical spectroscopy. However, the lack of viable cladding for confining light propagation in sapphire fibers with negligible transmission loss has restricted their practical applications. Despite great efforts in engineering either a low-refractive-index cladding layer or highly reflective mirror layer as sapphire fiber surface coatings, confining light propagation within sapphire fibers remains difficult in practice since such surface coatings fail to function due to increased thermal stress and fast erosion in environments with extremely high temperatures (>1000 °C) and chemically reactive species/gases. Here, we demonstrate a method for creating nanoscale cavities/voids in sapphire as effective fiber cladding structures that are thermally robust even at 1700 °C using hydrogen ion implantation. Material analysis of implanted sapphire crystals indicates that such nanoscale cavities play a key role in reducing the refractive index in sapphire crystals.