IR-Fiber.com uses an upgraded process originally developed by Amorphous Materials Inc (AMI). This process has been in use since 1990 when AMI began manufacturing IR fiber and has been consistently producing fiber with a loss minimum in the 0.1 dB/m range since then. The core glass, an As-Se-Te composition designated C1 was specially developed for use as a fiber material. To develop the glass a survey of chalcogenide compositions was conducted using wavelength range, attenuation, fiber strength, and flexibility as the evaluation criteria, and the best candidate was then optimized to yield the glass composition we are now using.

The core and cladding glasses are made from the highest purity starting materials available and melted in sealed high purity fused quartz vessels under ultra-high vacuum conditions. The core glass is then crucible drawn and the cladding glass applied in-line as a coating using a high temperature coating die. The fiber is then coated in-line with molten polymer.

Throughput of Remspec C1 fiber in wavenumbers and in microns

The glass is chemically stable, it is not water sensitive, it does not age optically, it is not darkened by UV or visible light and it is not darkened by ionizing radiation. The ability of the C1 fiber to carry laser power is limited by thermal lensing to about 5W at the CO₂ wavelength of 9.27 µm, although under special conditions 10 W has been achieved.

The composition of all IR-transparent glasses means that they less mechanically strong than conventional silica-based glass. However, careful design and good manufacturing control has allowed us to develop mid-IR fibers with the best possible mechanical properties.