Glass-ceramic coated optical waveguides
AssigneeCorning Glass Works
InventorHermann L. Rittler
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Abstract
There are disclosed a composite optical waveguide characterized by a glass-ceramic coating over a vitreous waveguide member, and methods of producing this composite waveguide by drawing a glass coated waveguide and thermally crystallizing the glass coating.
Claims8
An optical waveguide composite filament comprising a waveguide member and an outer coating layer, the waveguide being a vitreous material composed of one or more oxides, and the outer coating layer having a thickness up to about 250 microns and being composed of a glass-ceramic material wherein the primary crystal phase is selected from the group of beta-eucryptite solid solution and beta-quartz solid solution and the average crystal size is below 7000 A so that said coating layer is transparent.
A method of producing an optical waveguide composite filament which comprises drawing a radially laminated filament composed of a vitreous waveguide preform and a glass outer coating capable of being crystallized to a glass-ceramic by heat treatment, heat treating the composite for less than a minute to develop a polycrystalline phase in the outer coating having a crystal size less than 5 microns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.