Dielectric optical waveguides
AssigneeThe Post Office
InventorsGeorge Reginald Newns, Keith John Beales
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Abstract
Dielectric optical waveguides can be made having a core of vitreous silica doped with nitrogen in the form of silicon nitride, and a cladding of pure vitreous silica. Silicon nitride may be present in the core material in quantities varying between .1% to 10% by weight. The silicon nitride doped silica glass can be formed in a boule by passing a mixture of gaseous compounds containing silicon and nitrogen through a induction coupled plasma discharge. The outside of the doped silica boule may be oxidized to reduce the nitrogen content.
Claims3
A telecommunication dielectric optical waveguide in the form of a drawn fiber having a core region and a cladding region, said core region comprising a glass containing between 90% and 99.9% silica by weight and 0.1% to 10% by weight of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.