Low-loss fusion splices of optical fibers

A low-loss splicing method, based on discharge fusion of optical fibers by a simple apparatus and by applying pressure between fibers before fusion, was developed. Average splice losses of about 0.07 and 0.15 dB for single-mode (SM) fibers having core diameters of 10 and 7μm, respectively, and 0.02 dB for 50-μm core diameter graded-index (GI) fibers are obtained. Fusion loss and fusion time are obtained minimum for better end preparation having low initial alignment losses at critical pressure and temperature. Mathematical expressions for the variation of fusion time and splice loss with effect of applied pressure between the fibers, for different practical axis alignment, showing the optimum condition to have minimum splice loss are made. Experimental fusion losses are analyzed in terms of residual misalignment of off axis, angular tilt of the fibers during aligning, and air gaps in the splicing zone. Optimum fusion time is obtained by considering the forces due to applied pressure, thermal expansion, and surface tension in the viscous melted glass of the fiber. Theoretical curves of fusion times and splicing losses versus applied pressure agree with the experimental results. The decrease of fusion time to about 1.3 times and splice loss to about two times were found when applied pressure is varried from low to its critical value of 20-25 g. The splice losses are found at a minimum for the operating temperature range of 1980°C to 2140°C for silica fibers. Experimental results of the histogram of bar chart of splice losses agree with the derived mathematical expressions assuming a statistical distribution function of splice losses.     

Hydroxyl group formation caused by hydrogen diffusion into optical glass fibre

Transmission loss increase of optical glass fibre caused by hydrogen diffusion is measured as a function of temperature and partial pressure of hydrogen gas. The activation energy of hydroxyl group formation from the diffused molecular hydrogen was found to be 15.9 kcal/mole. Also the hydroxyl absorption loss increase at 200°C was found to be proportional to the square root of the partial pressure of hydrogen gas.     

High-speed drawing of optical fibers with pressurized coating

To make progress in high-speed drawing of optical fibers, a pressurized coating method was developed on the basis of viscous flow behavior of the coating resin. In a pressurized die, when the shear rate at the fiber surface is minimized, the pressure which is affected by the resin viscosity reaches on optimum condition, resulting in the coating diameter being dependent only on fiber and die diameters. Coating tension is given as a function of pressure so that it is closely related to the optimum pressure through the viscosity. Based on these fundamentals, a 1200-m/min drawing speed was achieved, indicating a smooth and uniform coating with good concentricity. It is clarified that fiber transmission loss does not fundamentally change in relation to the speed.     

Effect of temperature rise and hydrostatic pressure on microbending loss and refractive index change in double-coated optical fiber

This paper presents an analysis of the effect of temperature rise and hydrostatic pressure on microbending loss, refractive index change, and stress components of a double-coated optical fiber by considering coating material parameters such as Young's modulus and the Poisson ratio.

It is shown that, when temperature rises, the microbending loss and refractive index changes would decrease with increase of thickness of primary coating layer and will increase after passing through a minima. Increase of thickness of secondary coating layer causes the microbending loss and refractive index changes to decrease.

We have shown that the temperature rise affecting the fiber makes the microbending loss and refractive index decrease, linearly. At a particular temperature, the microbending loss takes negative values, due to tensile pressure applied on the fiber.

The increase of Young's modulus and the Poisson ratio of primary coating would lower the microbending loss and refractive index change whereas in the secondary coating layer, the condition reverses.     

Improved chemical vapour deposition method for long-length optical fibre

The deformation of the supporting tube during the c.v.d. process for optical fibre fabrication is completely suppressed by controlling the internal pressure of the tube. A 14 km length single-mode fibre with attenuation loss of about 3.2 dB/km at 0.85 ?m was fabricated by this improved method.     

Low-loss fluoride optical fibers for midinfrared optical communication

Attempts to improve transmission loss characteristics in fluoride fibers are described. Optical loss in current fibers is dominated by two major extrinsic loss factors, defect scatterers and impurities. Scatterer analysis using a Raman microprobe has revealed that the majority of them are ZrO2crystallites. These crystallites dominate the fiber scattering characteristics, having both wavelength independent and Rayleigh wavelength^-4dependencies according to their size. Excess loss due to OH groups which causes absorption at around 2.9 μm is quantified as 2000-5000 dB/km/ppm, depending on glass composition. These results suggest that further efforts in glass synthesis should concentrate on eliminating oxide and hydroxide impurities, and on the further purification of the raw materials. The key for realizing high-quality, low-loss, and long-length fluoride fibers is currently related to whether or not oxide scatterers can be completely eliminated.     

Effects of hydrogen diffusion on optical fibre loss increase

The time dependence of fibre loss increase due to hydrogen diffusion for different pressures and temperatures is reported. It is found that the optical fibre loss increases with increasing hydrogen pressure as well as temperature, and decreases with increasing temperature when removed from the hydrogen environment.     

Self-calibrated interferometric-intensity-based optical fibersensors

This paper presents self-calibrated interferometric-intensity-based optical fiber sensors, which combine for the first time fiber interferometry and intensity-based devices into a single sensor system. The sensor involves an extrinsic Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometric cavity. The broadband light returned from the FP cavity is split into two channels in such a way that one channel has a coherence length much longer than the doubled air-gap separation in the sensor so the FP generates effective interference, while the coherence length in the other channel is so short that no effective interference takes place. As a result, the optical signal in the channel with a long coherence length yields information about the FP cavity length while the signal in the other channel is proportional only to the source power, fiber attenuation, and other optical loss factors in the optical path. To eliminate fringe direction ambiguity and relative measurement limitations associated with interferometric sensors, the sensor is designed such that it is operated over the linear range between a valley and a peak of one interference fringe in the first channel. Moreover, the ratiometric signal-processing method is applied for the signals in the two channels to obtain self-calibrating measurement to compensate for all unwanted factors, including source power variations and fiber bending losses. Various pressure and temperature sensors based on the self-calibrated interferometric/intensity-based scheme are designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental results show that a resolution as high as 0.02% of full scale can be obtained for both the pressure and temperature measurements     

Optical loss change caused by hydraulic pressure in multimode optical fibres

The optical loss change caused by hydraulic pressure in a multimode plastic-coated fibre with a buffer layer was examined. The relationship between loss change and fibre dimensions was found. A large-outer-diameter fibre exhibits a small change in the optical loss caused by hydraulic pressure.     

Transient thermal loading induced optical effects in single-coated optical fibers with interlayer thermal resistance

The transient microbending loss and refractive index changes in a single-coated optical fiber subjected to thermal loading with stress-dependent interlayer thermal resistance are investigated. The effects of interlayer thermal resistance on the transient microbending loss and refractive index changes of the optical fiber are analyzed and discussed. Results show that the interlayer thermal resistance will increase the transient thermal loading induced lateral pressure in the single-coated optical fiber and, thus, the microbending loss. To the contrary, the interlayer thermal resistance will decrease the transient thermal loading induced refractive index changes.     

Practical microbending loss formula for single-mode optical fibers

Microbending loss in a step-index single-mode fiber is formulated in an expression which provides an explicit dependence on wavelength λ and relative index difference Δ. For the permissible mean bending radiusRdaggercorresponding to a given loss,Delta^{3/2}Rdagger/lambdais the functionfof only a normalized frequency υ. This property resembles that for the uniform-bending loss. However,fin the microbending loss depends less critically on υ than in the uniform-bending loss.     

Characteristics of wire-space-type submarine optical cable

A new type of submarine optical cable, called wire space cable, is proposed for utilisation in shallow sea areas. In the cable, optical fibres are inserted into spaces formed between stranded wires, which are used as tension members. It has been found from a cable pulling test that nonarmoured cable elongation at 8000 m in water depth is 0.3% and armoured cable elongation at 6000 m is 0.5%. Furthermore, a hydraulic pressure test has shown that single-mode-fibre loss at 1.3 ?m wavelength does not increase up to a water depth of 2700 m.     

Low loss GaAs optical waveguides

To realize an optical integrated circuit, various losses in the semiconductor waveguide such as absorption loss, waveguide loss, bending loss, and coupling loss, have to be minimized. Theoretical and experimental considerations for the reduction of these losses have been presented. A propagation loss of less than 0.5 dB/cm has been observed for a well-designed GaAs ridge waveguide. Moreover its coupling loss with a polarization-maintaining optical fiber decreased below 1.5 dB.     

Low loss GaAs optical waveguides

To realize an optical integrated circuit, various losses in the semiconductor waveguide such as absorption loss, waveguide loss, bending loss, and coupling loss, have to be minimized. Theoretical and experimental considerations for the reduction of these losses have been presented. A propagation loss of less than 0.5 dB/cm has been observed for a well-designed GaAs ridge waveguide. Moreover its coupling loss with a polarization-maintaining optical fiber decreased below 1.5 dB.     

InP/benzocyclobutene optical nanowires

A report is presented on the optical propagation loss of waveguides based on InP nanowires embedded in a benzocyclobutene matrix and fabricated through a wafer bonding process. Propagation loss was evaluated on waveguides of varying width; it can be as low as 0.8 dB/mm for a 300 x 300 nm InP.     

Waveguide parameter design of graded-index plastic optical fibers for bending-loss reduction

The waveguide structure of graded-index plastic optical fibers (GI POFs), such as index profile, numerical aperture (NA), and core diameter, is appropriately designed for eliminating bending losses, even under a severe bending condition. The bending loss of GI POFs under a severe bending condition is drastically reduced when the core diameter is smaller than 200 /spl mu/m and when the NA is higher than 0.25. The bending loss of GI POFs even under a severe bending condition vanishes with a core diameter of 200 /spl mu/m and an NA of 0.24. It is experimentally confirmed for the first time that the mode coupling due to the bending induces the bending loss. The mode coupling strength before the fiber is bent affects the bending loss seriously. Moreover, the mode-coupling strength is evaluated by the propagation constant difference /spl Delta//spl beta/ between the adjacent modes. The /spl Delta//spl beta/ value, which is a function of the core diameter and NA, affects the bending loss. Therefore, based on the calculation of the /spl Delta//spl beta/, we propose a guideline for the appropriate design of waveguide parameters for GI POF, in order to suppress the bending loss.     

Buffering in optical packet switches

This paper consists of a categorization of optical buffering strategies for optical packet switches, and a comparison of the performance of these strategies both with respect to packet loss/delay and bit error rate (BER) performance. Issues surrounding optical buffer implementation are discussed, and representative architectures are introduced under different categories. Conclusions are drawn about packet loss and BER performance, and about the characteristics an architecture should have to be practical. It is shown that there is a strong case for the use of optical regeneration for successful cascading of these architectures     

Germanium-dopant effect on hydroxyl loss increase in optical fibers

The germanium-dopant effect on hydroxyl loss increase in optical fibers is studied experimentally. The distribution profile of hydroxyl absorption which is caused by hydrogen diffusion is measured for GeO2-doped silica glasses. From the experiment, it is found that the distribution profile of induced hydroxyl absorption is similar to the GeO2concentration profile. Moreover, the absorption loss increases due to hydrogen diffusion are measured for GeO2-doped silica fibers. From the experiment, it is concluded that the induced molecular hydrogen loss as well as the induced hydroxyl loss increases with an increase in the GeO2concentration.     

Loss/gain characterization of optical waveguides

Finite element analysis employing the vector H-field formulation, with the aid of the perturbation technique, is used to calculate modal loss or gain for several different types of optical waveguides. Further, the complex propagation constant of an optical waveguide is obtained from the solution of the complex transcendental equation and the use of the effective index approach. Results obtained by both methods for different optical waveguides are found to be in good agreement for a wide range of gain/loss values. The accuracy limit for modal loss or gain calculation using the perturbation technique is also examined     

GaAs/polymer optical nanowires: fabrication and characterisation

The fabrication and propagation loss measurement of GaAs/polymer optical nanowires are reported. Their design consists of a 300/spl times/300 nm cross-section GaAs core buried into a polymer matrix bonded on a Si host substrate. The propagation loss at /spl lambda/=1.55 /spl mu/m is measured as about 5 dB/mm for both polarisations.