A new chemical technique developed at Penn State, the first of its kind, can help scientists to make more-efficient and more-flexible optical fibers.
University pledges continued cooperation with NCAA inquiry Hotels to support RAINN over commencement weekend A message from President Rodney Erickson As lawmakers review child abuse laws, Erickson expresses support Blue out, canning efforts raise $47,000 to fight child abuse, rape A new chemical technique for depositing a noncrystalline form of silicon into the long, ultra-thin pores of optical fibers has been developed by an international team of scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom. The technique, which is the first of its kind to use high-pressure chemistry for making well-developed films and wires of this particular kind of silicon semiconductor, will help scientists to make more-efficient and more-flexible optical fibers. The findings, by an international team led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will be published in a future print edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Badding said hydrogenated amorphous silicon - a noncrystalline form of silicon - is ideal for applications such as solar cells. The substance also would be useful for the light-guiding cores of optical fibers; however, depositing the silicon compound into an optical fiber - which is thinner than the width of a human hair - presents a challenge. "Traditionally, hydrogenated amorphous silicon is created using an expensive laboratory device known as a plasma reactor," Badding said. "Such a reactor begins with a precursor called silane - a silicon-hydrogen compound.
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