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US 2018/0052279 A1Published application
Sol-Gel Cladding for Optical Fiber
AssigneeShasta Crystals, Inc.
InventorsGisele Maxwell, Bennett Ponting, Eminet Gebremichael, Ruben Magana
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Abstract
Sol-gel methods, apparatus and compositions for cladding optical fiber cores provide optical fibers, including single crystal optical fiber cores with polycrystalline cladding, having improved performance in a variety of applications, such as fiber lasers.
Claims26
A method of making an optical fiber, the method comprising:
- applying to an optical fiber core a coating of a sol-gel of material having a refractive index lower than that of the optical fiber core, forming a cladding precursor;
- evaporating solvent from the cladding precursor;
- and
- sintering the cladding precursor to form an optical fiber having a cladding comprising a concentric layer of the material on the optical fiber core.
1 more element
12-14. (canceled)
18-20. (canceled)
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26-27. (canceled)
A sol-gel coating apparatus, comprising:
- a sol-gel reservoir having a bottom and sidewalls;
- a fiber feed guide mounted in the bottom of the reservoir, the fiber feed guide for feeding a fiber entering the fiber feed guide from below into a sol-gel contained in the reservoir;
- a tether mounted above the fiber feed guide and the reservoir, the tether for attachment of a fiber fed through the fiber feed guide to draw the fiber through a sol-gel in the reservoir.
29-35. (canceled)
An all-crystalline optical fiber, comprising:
- a single crystal core;
- and
- a polycrystalline cladding.
37-41. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.