Multistage Modified Fiber Drawing Process and Related Diameter Measuring System

Recent progress on the drawing of micro and nanowires shows the length could only reach several millimeters because of the lack of material feeding mechanism. We report here a multistage modified fiber drawing process which allows a fiber preform to be drawn several times in the heating zone so that the desired diameter of microns and nanometers can be achieved more than 1 m long. Current results show that by this approach the micro/nano optical wires (MNOWs) could be drawn with the length up to 165 cm and the diameter down to 1.9 mum. A real-time diameter measuring system is also developed to monitor the diameter in situ and hence to optimize our fabrication process.