Photonic nanowires directly drawn from bulk glasses

High-uniform nanowires with diameters down to 50 nm are directly taper-drawn from bulk glasses. Typical loss of these wires goes down to 0.1 dB/mm for single-mode operation. Favorable photonic properties such as high index for tight optical confinement in tellurite glass nanowires and photoluminescence for active devices in doped fluoride and phosphate glass nanowires are observed. Supporting high-index tellurite nanowires with solid substrates (such as silica glass and MgF2 crystal) and assembling low-loss microcoupler with these wires are also demonstrated. Photonic nanowires demonstrated in this work may open up vast opportunities for making versatile building blocks for future micro- and nanoscale photonic circuits and components. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.