This article continues FOC’s latest series on optical fiber manufacturing processes, providing an overview of coatings for a wide range of standard communication and specialty optical fibers. The main job of coatings is to protect the glass fiber, but there are...
In this article, the latest in FOC’s series covering specialty fibers and their fabrication, we discuss polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers and the various approaches used to make them. There are several PM fiber designs – all quite different and each with its...
This article continues FOC’s series on specialty optical fibers. An article posted in January 2021, Fabricating Doped Fiber Preforms, discussed problems encountered in making preforms for specialty fibers. The article below focuses on the second part of the...
Since 2018, FOC has provided more than 10 articles on making fiber and preforms. One series of seven articles, launched in January 2018 and written by Larry Donalds, focuses on MCVD technology and issues in making preforms. The second series, started in July 2020 and...
Every step requires precision, starting with the core rod This is the third in FOC’s new series on doped fiber technology. The first article, “Rare Earth Doped Fibers,” reviewed the main methods for making doped-fiber preforms. The second article, “Thulium-Doped...
This new series of articles from FOC will focus on the production of rare earth doped fiber. The first article in this series, Rare Earth Doped Fibers, discussed the evolution of the main processes for making doped fiber preforms. This article discusses factors in...
Believe it or not, rare earth doped optical fiber has been around for about 60 years. Eli Snitzer was the first to report on laser action in a neodymium-doped silicate glass fiber emitting at 1.06 µm back in 1961 [1]. This was the first demonstration of laser action...
