Method for the production of one-material optical fibers

Abstract

A method for the production of single-material optical fibers having a light conducting core supported within a protective sleeve by at least one extremely thin support component characterized by providing a blank having a core and at least one support component disposed within a protective sleeve, heating the blank to a drawing temperature, drawing the blank into a form of an optical fiber and either during the drawing or subsequent thereto, transversely stretching the support component to reduce the ratios of the thickness of the support component to its transverse width and to the thickness of the core of the fiber. In one embodiment of the invention, subsequent to the drawing, a fluid such as a gas under excessive pressure is applied internally to the protective sleeve to expand and inflate the sleeve to transversely stretch the support component. In a second embodiment of the invention, a transverse stretching of the support component is accomplished by asymmetric radial deformation of a circular or noncircular fiber or blank.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.