Sol-gel-based optical preforms and methods of manufacture
OwnerShiho Wang, Yasar Halefoglu +1inventors
InventorsShiho Wang, Yasar Halefoglu, Chih-Hsing Cheng
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Abstract
An optical preform includes plural material components including a core material and a cladding material. A component of the optical preform is manufactured by a process of preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 3 mole % of a catalyst. The process further includes forming a wet gel monolith by allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation. The process further includes drying and shrinking the wet gel monolith by exposing the wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile.
Claims27
A component of an optical preform comprised of plural material components including a core material and a cladding material, the component manufactured by the process of:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 3 mole % of a catalyst;
- forming a wet gel monolith by allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation;
- and
- drying and shrinking the wet gel monolith by exposing the wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile.
A method of forming a tubular gel monolith, the method comprising:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 3 mole % of a catalyst;
- forming a tubular wet gel monolith by allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation;
- and
- drying and shrinking the tubular wet gel monolith by exposing the tubular wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming the tubular gel monolith.
A method of forming a sol-gel-derived tube, the method comprising:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 3 mole % of a catalyst;
- allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation while confined to a predetermined tubular volume to form a tubular wet gel monolith;
- drying and shrinking the tubular wet gel monolith by exposing the tubular wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming a tubular gel monolith;
- and
- consolidating the tubular gel monolith, thereby forming the sol-gel-derived tube.
A method comprising:
- forming a sol-gel-derived tube having a first diameter, said forming comprising:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 3 mole % of a catalyst;
- allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation while confined to a predetermined tubular volume to form a tubular wet gel monolith;
- drying and shrinking the tubular wet gel monolith by exposing the tubular wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming a tubular xerogel monolith;
- and
- consolidating the tubular xerogel monolith, thereby forming the sol-gel-derived tube;
- and
- drawing the sol-gel-derived tube to substantially reduce its diameter to a second diameter less than the first diameter.
A component of an optical preform comprised of plural material components including a core material and a cladding material, the component manufactured by the process of:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 1 mole % of a catalyst;
- forming a wet gel monolith by allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation;
- and
- drying and shrinking the wet gel monolith by exposing the wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile.
A method of forming a tubular gel monolith, the method comprising:
- preparing a sol-gel solution comprising at least 1 mole % of a catalyst;
- forming a tubular wet gel monolith by allowing the sol-gel solution to undergo gelation;
- and
- drying and shrinking the tubular wet gel monolith by exposing the tubular wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming the tubular gel monolith.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.