title: Crystalline silicon core fibres from aluminium core preforms.
abstract: Traditional fibre-optic drawing involves a thermally mediated geometric scaling where both the fibre materials and their relative positions are identical to those found in the fibre preform. To date, all thermally drawn fibres are limited to the preform composition and geometry. Here, we fabricate a metre-long crystalline silicon-core, silica-cladded fibre from a preform that does not contain any elemental silicon. An aluminium rod is inserted into a macroscopic silica tube and then thermally drawn. The aluminium atoms initially in the core reduce the silica, to produce silicon atoms and aluminium oxide molecules. The silicon atoms diffuse into the core, forming a large phase-separated molten silicon domain that is drawn into the crystalline silicon core fibre. The ability to produce crystalline silicon core fibre out of inexpensive aluminium and silica could pave the way for a simple and scalable method of incorporating silicon-based electronics and photonics into fibres.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [2] Institute of Soldier Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [3] Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Soldier Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [2] Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoting
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117575, Singapore.
authors.forename: Swee-Ching
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Soldier Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [2] Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [3] Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Joannopoulos
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [2] Institute of Soldier Nanotechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [3] Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [4] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Yoel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fink