Optical wave guides
AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company
InventorsBenjamin Ainslie, Susan Craig, Steven T. Davey
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Abstract
Glass fibre suitable for use as the core in fibre lasers and/or amplifiers has a core which consists of a continuous glass phase and a dispersed phase of crystallites. The preferred crystallites are the oxides and phosphates of rare earth metals, e.g. Nd.sub.2 O.sub.3 and NdP.sub.5 O.sub.14. The small size concentration and distribution of the crystallites keeps the attenuation down to acceptable levels.
Claims18
An optical wave guide with fluorescing or lasing properties which has a path region formed of a glass composition wherein said glass composition comprises a continuous glass phase having dispersed therein crystallites with fluorescing or lasing properties, wherein the crystallites comprise oxides and phosphates of rare earth metals.
An optical amplifier which comprises a laser device according to claim 3, means for providing an input optical signal into its path region and means for extracting amplified signals from its path region.
An optical fibre with fluorescing or lasing properties which fibre has a core formed of a first glass composition and a cladding surrounding said core, said cladding being formed of a second glass composition which has a lower refractive index than said first glass composition wherein said first glass composition comprises a continuous glass phase having dispersed therein crystallites with fluorescing or lasing properties.
An optical waveguide suitable for use as an optical laser or amplifier, said waveguide comprising:
- a core having a continuous glass composition first phase made from a mixture of at least two different glass forming materials to provide said continuous glass composition phase having a first refractive index;
- said core also having crystallites of rare earth metal oxides or phosphates with fluorescing properties in a second crystalline phase dispersed within said first phase;
- and
- a cladding layer of glass composition disposed about said core and having a second refractive index lower than said first refractive index.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.