Advances in Multimaterial Fibers and Devices

Dear Colleagues,

In the 1960s, Dr. Charles Kuen Kao (The Nobel Prize Winner of Physics 2009) discovered optical fibers, which were multimaterial silica fibers in a broad sense with a higher refractive index of doped silica cores and a relatively lower refractive index of pure silica claddings. Multimaterial silica fibers open a new door for transmitting light and information to thousands of homes by total internal reflection at the core/cladding interface. Furthermore, increasing efforts have been made to develop the field of optical fiber networks and optical data communications, which has become an indispensable part of modern life. With the development of optical fiber theory and multimaterial fabrication techniques, in the last three decades, multimaterial fibers have witnessed outstanding improvement. Many new multimaterial fibers have been discovered, motivated by the novel concept of “Special functional fiber”, fiber-drawing dissimilar core-clad composite technologies, and in-fiber crystallization mechanisms. Although most of these fibers are used for “conventional” telecommunication applications, there is a growing need for multimaterial fibers relevant in other applications, such as light generation using fiber lasers, remote sensing, nonlinear optics, medicine and health, laser imaging, and so on. Aiming at the practical application of multimaterial fiber technology, more research has been undertaken in the design and fabrication of multimaterial fiber devices in recent years. However, many scientific and engineering problems still need to be solved. If the multifunctional materials can be integrated into multimaterial fibers and devices, the multifunction will be transmitted to thousands of homes.

It is high time to collect high-quality studies or reviews to highlight the cutting-edge development of multimaterial fibers and discuss the device applications of multimaterial fiber technology. In this Special Issue, we welcome research on multimaterial fibers and devices, including, but not limited to, the discovery of new fiber materials by preparing glass-clad/polymer multimaterial fibers and designing fiber-based devices comprising conductor, semiconductor, single crystal, polycrystal, nanocrystal, quantum dot, low-temperature glass, rare-earth ions doped core glass, and dissimilar core-clad materials.

Dr. Min Sun
Dr. Minghui Du
Guest Editors

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• multimaterial fiber
• glass fiber
• glass–ceramic fiber
• single-crystal fiber
• semiconductor fiber
• polymer fiber
• interface engineering
• nanostructure engineering
• crystal growth
• size effect
• fiber-based device