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...
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 it
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Objectives of the fiber drawing process -
The draw process takes a specialty fiber preform that may measure one meter in length and stretches it into hundreds of meters or even multiple kilometers of fiber. The preform is designed and fabricated with dopants and
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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...
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...
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
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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. This was the first demonstration of laser...
"Trial and error." These two words sum up my 24 years developing and manufacturing specialty preforms and fibers where I operated an MCVD gas delivery system. Our team was constantly testing new ideas to improve fiber strength and yield as well as the
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You can manufacture optical fiber preforms with a very basic system, essentially a gas delivery system in a room with an MCVD lathe. Or you can enhance your system by adding many accessories that will improve fiber strength and yield as well as the
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Ensure the gas deposition stream is tightly controlled
Prior to starting deposition, a key activity is ensuring the rotary seal is leak tight to prevent issues with fiber quality. In a previous article (“Comparing the 2 types of MCVD gas delivery systems”),
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