Quantum dot optical fiber for distributed chemical and
This technology creates optical fibers that contain tiny semiconductor particles called quantum dots, either placed inside the microscopic holes of specially structured fibers or embedded directly into low-melting-point glass. The quantum dots can amplify light signals traveling through the fiber or change their optical behavior when they encounter specific chemicals, biological agents, radiation, or physical forces. The key manufacturing insight is that quantum dots are destroyed by the high heat needed to make conventional glass fibers, so this approach uses either room-temperature liquid delivery into holey fibers or low-melting glasses (like lead oxide or phosphate glass) that can be drawn at under 700°C without damaging the dots. The result is a fiber that is both a light-transmission medium and an active sensing or amplifying element in a single integrated structure.
What you could build
Specialty optical fiber cables with built-in chemical, biological, or radiation sensing capability, sold to defense, industrial safety, and medical diagnostics equipment makers who need compact, distributed sensing in a fiber format.
Who in Virginia should care
Defense contractors and federal labs in Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads corridor with fiber-optic sensing or photonics programs would be natural partners or licensees.
Readiness: Lab validated
Concept — described but not yet demonstrated. Lab validated — supported by experimental results in the patent. Prototype likely — the text describes a built, working embodiment.
Readiness is inferred from the patent text, not from a lab visit.
The record
- Inventors
- Erik Herz, Carvel Holton, Kenith Meissner, Corey Paye
- Granted
- April 22, 2008
- Status
- Granted patent
- Patent number
- 7362938
Ready to talk?
Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties handles licensing for this technology.
Prosim summaries are generated from public patent text and are not legal advice.