Molecular dynamics study of the growth of optical fibers

We have carried out molecular dynamics simulations that model a special growth technique for optical fibers, the so-called laser heated pedestal growth. Although the simulations are a crude representation of the experimental process, they demonstrate that it is possible to simulate such experiments on a microscopic scale. We measure properties of both the growth process and the resulting fibers and find some of those properties to match our intuitive expectations while others show a more complicated behavior.