Abstract:
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of manufacturing a long and narrow glass product effectively. SOLUTION: The narrow glass products is manufactured as follows: a tubular glass handle is provided with a mandrel on its end part, and an assembly of the mandrel and the glass tube is rotated and reciprocated in a flow of glass particle composed of SiO2 doped with at least 15 wt.% B2O3, while blowing the glass particle to the end part of the mandrel and the tube, and forming porous glass coating, then the mandrel is removed, the assembly of the handle and a tubular porous preform is formed. The tubular porous preform is heated and consolidated so as to form a close packed glass preform having an axial hole, and fused on the handle, while keeping temperature higher than 600 deg.C but lower than the temperature that effectively expands the preform, and making flow NF3 in the hole.
Abstract:
Optical fiber is provided with a periodically reversing spin while the fiber is pulled through a melt zone. A cooled region of the fiber downstream from the melt zone passes between a pair of opposed elements. The opposed elements are moved so that surface regions engaging the fiber move in opposite lateral directions relative to one another, thus spinning the fiber about its axis. The lateral movement of the engaged surface portions is periodically reversed to reverse the spin direction. The opposed elements may include belts or rollers, which can be tilted to orientations oblique to the longitudinal direction of the fiber.
Abstract:
A single-mode elliptical core optical fiber (15) suitable for the transmission of solitons has a core aspect ratio that changes along the length of the fiber to provide a fiber dispersion that monotonically decreases along the fiber from one end thereof to the other. The fiber preform (30) is drawn from a draw blank (10) having a glass core (11) surrounded by cladding glass (12) and having apertures (13) that are diametrically opposed with respect to the core (11). The cross-sectional area of the void space within the apertures (13) varies with respect to the longitudinal distance along the apertures.
Abstract:
Disclosed is a method of making a polarization retaining single-mode optical fiber. Longitudinal grooves are formed on opposite sides of a cylindrically-shaped core preform having a glass core surrounded by cladding glass. The core preform is inserted into a glass tube, the tube is shrunk onto the core preform, and the interface between the core preform and the tube is fused to form a solid preform having longitudinal apertures on opposite sides of the core. An etchant gas is flowed through the apertures to enlarge the apertures into holes having a substantially round cross-section. Inserted into each aperture is a stress rod formed of glass having a coefficient of expansion different from that of the cladding glass. The resultant draw blank is drawn to form a single-mode optical fiber having a core that is subjected to a stress-induced birefringence.
Abstract:
This invention relates to a method of drawing twist-free optical fibers; it is particularly useful for drawing polarization retaining single-mode (PRSM) optical fibers having azimuthal inhomogeneities. In one embodiment, there is applied to the fiber, during the drawing thereof, a coating having a non-circular cross-section, the azimuthal inhomogeneity of the fiber being positioned in a substantially constant orientation with respect to the non-circular cross-section of the coating. In another embodiment, a plurality of fibers having azimuthal inhomogeneities are drawn through the same coater so that the azimuthal inhomogeneity of each fiber is oriented in a substantially constant relationship with respect to the the azimuthal inhomogeneities of the remaining fibers in the coating. The coated PRSM fibers are particularly useful for making polarization retaining fiber optic couplers.
Abstract:
Optical fiber is provided with a periodically reversing spin while the fiber is pulled through a melt zone. A cooled region of the fiber downstream from the melt zone passes between a pair of opposed elements. The opposed elements are moved so that surface regions engaging the fiber move in opposite lateral directions relative to one another, thus spinning the fiber about its axis. The lateral movement of the engaged surface portions is periodically reversed to reverse the spin direction. The opposed elements may include belts or rollers, which can be tilted to orientations oblique to the longitudinal direction of the fiber.
Abstract:
Disclosed is a method of making a polarization retaining single-mode optical fiber. There is initially formed a draw blank having diametrically opposed longitudinal apertures in the cladding glass parallel to the core glass region. The draw blank is drawn into a fiber under such conditions that the apertures close as the fiber is being drawn. The flow of surrounding glass, including the core glass region, toward the collapsing apertures, causes the core to assume an elliptical shape. The apertures are of such cross-sectional area and spacing from the core that the core develops the desired aspect ratio.
Abstract:
The disclosed fiber optic filter structure includes an optical fiber having a single-mode core surrounded by cladding material, and at least one light-attenuating light path in the cladding material uniformly spaced from the single-mode core. The propagation constants of the single-mode core and the light path are different at wavelengths except for at least one wavelength .lambda.f. The spacing between the single-mode core and the light path are sufficiently small that light within a first band of wavelengths centered around .lambda.f couples between the single-mode core and the light path. At least a portion of the light within the first band of wavelengths is absorbed in the light path. In that embodiment in which the single-mode core is a fiber amplifier gain core, the filtering function of the light path modifies the fiber amplifier gain spectrum.
Abstract:
Disclosed are a single mode waveguide fiber and a multimode waveguide fiber which have a radially non-uniform and azimuthally asymmetric core, and methods of making such a waveguide fiber. This asymmetry provides additional degrees of freedom for use in forming a waveguide having particular performance characteristics.
Abstract:
A single-mode elliptical core optical fiber (15) suitable for the transmission of solitons has a core aspect ratio that changes along the length of the fiber to provide a fiber dispersion that monotonically decreases along the fiber from one end thereof to the other. The fiber preform (30) is drawn from a draw blank (10) having a glass core (11) surrounded by cladding glass (12) and having apertures (13) that are diametrically opposed with respect to the core (11). The cross-sectional area of the void space within the apertures (13) varies with respect to the longitudinal distance along the apertures.