Séminaire régulier IUSTI – 10 mars 2017 – 11h salle 250

Mathematical models for microstructured optical fibre (MOF) fabrication

Darren Crowdy – Imperial College, UK

This talk will discuss the mathematical modelling challenges in the fabrication process for a new breed of technologically important optical fibres known as “microstructured optical fibres”, or MOFs. In contrast to traditional fibres which typically guide light along a core of one material surrounded by a cladding of another material, MOFs typically consist of a single material, such as glass, which guide light by virtue of an arrangement of air “channels” running along the length of the fibre. They have revolutionized fibre optic technologies by vasting expanding the possible design space. But the challenge lies in how to actually produce MOFs with a desired geometry of channels since a number of physical effects enter into the so-called draw process used to fabricate them. Mathematically it is an interesting (but ill-posed) inverse problem involving free surface capillary flows at low Reynolds number. The talk will survey recent work in which a variety of novel mathematical techniques have been employed by the speaker (and collaborators) to produce useful predictive models.