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Fabrication of optical fiber

Fabrication of optical fiber
Fabrication of optical fiber
The drawing of optical fibers from silica preforms has, over a short period of time, progressed from the laboratory to become a manufacturing process capable of producing millions of kilometers of telecommunications fiber a year. Modern optical fiber fabrication processes produce low-cost fiber of excellent quality, with transmission losses close to their intrinsic loss limit. Today, fiber with transmission losses of 0.2 dB per kilometer of fiber are routinely drawn through a two-stage process that has been refined since the 1970s. In the second stage, the rod, or preform as it is known, is heated to its softening temperature and stretched to diameters of the order of 125 microns. Tens to hundreds of kilometers of fiber are produced from a single preform, which is drawn continuously, with minimal diameter fluctuations. During the drawing process one or more protective coatings are applied, yielding long lengths of strong, low-loss fiber, ready for immediate application.
0122276000
440-445
Academic Press
Hewak, Dan
87c80070-c101-4f7a-914f-4cc3131e3db0
Guenther, Bob
Steel, Duncan
Bayvel, Leopold
Hewak, Dan
87c80070-c101-4f7a-914f-4cc3131e3db0
Guenther, Bob
Steel, Duncan
Bayvel, Leopold

Hewak, Dan (2004) Fabrication of optical fiber. In, Guenther, Bob, Steel, Duncan and Bayvel, Leopold (eds.) Encyclopedia of Modern Optics. Oxford, UK. Academic Press, pp. 440-445.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

The drawing of optical fibers from silica preforms has, over a short period of time, progressed from the laboratory to become a manufacturing process capable of producing millions of kilometers of telecommunications fiber a year. Modern optical fiber fabrication processes produce low-cost fiber of excellent quality, with transmission losses close to their intrinsic loss limit. Today, fiber with transmission losses of 0.2 dB per kilometer of fiber are routinely drawn through a two-stage process that has been refined since the 1970s. In the second stage, the rod, or preform as it is known, is heated to its softening temperature and stretched to diameters of the order of 125 microns. Tens to hundreds of kilometers of fiber are produced from a single preform, which is drawn continuously, with minimal diameter fluctuations. During the drawing process one or more protective coatings are applied, yielding long lengths of strong, low-loss fiber, ready for immediate application.

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Encyclopedia of Modern Optics - Contents
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More information

Published date: November 2004
Additional Information: Volume 1 of 5-volume set

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 47898
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/47898
ISBN: 0122276000
PURE UUID: e2741451-f9be-46c1-9cc5-6a917ffd04b4
ORCID for Dan Hewak: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2093-5773

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Aug 2007
Last modified: 13 Mar 2024 17:45

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Contributors

Author: Dan Hewak ORCID iD
Editor: Bob Guenther
Editor: Duncan Steel
Editor: Leopold Bayvel

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