Fabrication and characterization of uniform conformal thin films of SiO2 and SiNx on optical fibers

This paper reports the fabrication and characterization of uniform conformal dielectric thin films on optical fibers using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. We show convincingly that, using both iridescence and scanning electron microscopy, uniform deposition on the fiber can only be obtained if it is rotated at a constant speed during deposition. Our study is important for depositing single or multiple uniform dielectric thin films on objects with cylindrical or spherical symmetry, which could enable new optical functionalities.