Dispersion managed optical waveguide

Abstract

A single-mode optical waveguide fiber designed to limit power penalty due to four wave mixing and a method of making the waveguide is disclosed. Variations in properties, e.g., radius or refractive index, of the waveguide fiber core provide a total dispersion which varies along the length of the waveguide. The algebraic sum of products of length times total dispersion is controlled to a pre-selected value for each waveguide fiber which makes up a system link Proper choice of total dispersion variation magnitude and sub-length results in a system link wherein a signal travels only short distances in waveguide portions having total dispersion near zero. However, the variation of the total dispersion provides a system link which has a pre-selected dispersive effect on the signal over a selected wavelength range. The dispersive effect on the signal can be chosen to be essentially zero. A number of techniques for fabricating DM fiber are also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.