MAIL
The PCF fabrication facilities mainly include a ~12 m high silica tower. It is equipped with a high-temperature graphite furnace, a fibre diameter gauge, a cane/capillary puller, and two coating systems (one is with a split die design for a single coating layer, and the other is a wet+dry double coating). These components are mounted on a double-side gantry, enabling the potential to upgrade to the 2nd tower using the same frame. The first tower has been installed. The other two towers are for silica and soft glasses/polymers, planned for late this year or early next year. The idea is to avoid the excessive use of the first drawing tower and explore fibre fabrication with novel materials.
We have built an ISO5 stacking room (~30 m2) for stacking capillaries and fibre preforms and another ISO7 cleanroom (~250 m2) of 14 m high for three drawing towers. In addition, we also have a 150 m2 ISO7 preparation room for fibre re-winding, preform treatment with different acids, preform extension, etc.
All fibre drawing facilities were installed in the new building of Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (H-SIOM). The main construction of the building has been finished in 2023, and internal decorations has been ready by the end of the same year.
Left: fibre drawing cleanroom. Middle: fibre drawing furnace: a drop-off of a stacking bundle.
Right: fibre preform for single-ring anti-resonance hollow-core fibre. @RCALS
RCALS has a planned experimental area of over 1200 m2, including a fibre fabrication area of 260 m2, a cleanroom-standard optical-lab area of 310 m2 and a non-cleanroom-standard optical-lab area of 360 m2. RCALS has established several initiative research projects, including fibre characterization, ultrafast laser and nonlinear optics, fibre imaging and sensing. RCALS is now continuing the construction of new lab areas as planned.
RCALS has fibre drawing towers and cleanroom facilities for material preparation and fibre drawing installed just beside our research labs, in order to enhance the design-fabrication-research-redesign loop, accelerating our research progress. The design of fibre drawing tower and cleanroom has been finished. The first fibre drawing tower will be delivered and installed in 2023, and the cleanroom construction will be finished within the same year.
