Fiber end face void closing method, a connectorized optical fiber assembly, and method of forming same
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsSeldon David Benjamin, Robert Stephen Wagner, Percil Watkins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for closing the holes on the end face of a nano-engineered fiber having a core, a cladding with non-periodically disposed voids, and at least one of a coating and a buffer, comprises the steps of: (i) cleaving the fiber portion, thereby forming a cleaved end face; and (ii) applying a predetermined amount of energy via a laser beam to the cleaved end face, the amount of energy being sufficient to collapse and seal the voids exposed at the cleaved end face only to a depth of less than 11 μm.
Claims19
A method for closing the voids on the end face of a nano-engineered fiber having a core, a cladding with non-periodically disposed voids, and at least one of a coating and a buffer, the method comprising the steps of:
- (i) cleaving the fiber portion, thereby forming a cleaved end face;
- and
- (ii) applying a predetermined amount of energy via a laser beam to the cleaved end face, the amount of energy being sufficient to collapse and seal the voids exposed at the cleaved end face only to a depth of less than 11 μm.
A method of connectorizing an optical fiber comprising, in order, the steps of:
- (a) providing a nano-engineered fiber having a core, a cladding with non-periodically disposed voids, and at least one of a coating and a buffer;
- (b) stripping a length of the at least one of the coating and the buffer to expose an end portion of the optical fiber;
- (c) mounting the optical fiber within a connector ferrule having a ferrule end face so that the exposed portion of the fiber protruding beyond the ferrule end face;
- and
- (d) cleaving the exposed optical fiber portion that protrudes beyond the ferrule end face, forming a cleaved end face;
- (e) applying a predetermined amount of energy to cleaved end-face sufficient to collapse and seal the voids exposed at the cleaved end face, to provide a fiber end face having no voids to a depth of not more than 11 μm.
A connectorized nano-engineered optical fiber assembly, comprising:
- (a) a connector ferrule having at least one bore and a ferrule end face;
- (b) at least one nano-engineered fiber having a bare fiber section arranged in the at least one bore, the bare fiber section having a core, a cladding with non-periodically disposed voids formed therein, a bare-fiber diameter, and an end face formed by cleaving that is substantially to be co-planar with the ferrule end face;
- and
- (c) wherein the bare fiber section comprises an airline-free portion that includes the bare fiber section end face that has (i) a void-free bare-fiber diameter substantially the same as the void-inclusive bare-fiber diameter and (ii) an indentation in the bare fiber section end face, said indentation being less than 0.5 μm deep.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.