Observation and practical implications of nano-scale phase separation in aluminosilicate glass optical fibers

This communication provides direct experimental evidence of nano-scale phase separation in as-fabricated high-alumina content (>25 mole percent) optical fibers, experimentally corroborating recent molecular dynamic simulations. In addition, previously incorrect assumptions of glass homogeneity in low-loss binary aluminosilicate optical fibers are corrected and practical implications for such intrinsically low nonlinearity glass optical fiber amplifiers and lasers are discussed.