Dispersion compensating fiber with reduced splice loss and methods for making same

A method for fabricating dispersion compensating fiber, comprising:

• (a) depositing a layer of intermediate cladding material doped with germanium and fluorine onto an inner surface of a tube fabricated from an outer cladding material;
• (b) depositing a layer of inner cladding material doped with fluorine onto the layer of intermediate cladding material;
• (c) depositing a layer of core material doped with germanium onto the layer of inner cladding material,
• the core and cladding materials being doped to create a refraction index profile characteristic of dispersion compensating fiber, a portion of the cladding being doped with phosphorus, thereby resulting in a reduction of splice loss, and being doped with a second dopant to compensate for an increase in refractive index induced by the phosphorus;
• and
• (d) drawing the core and cladding materials into optical fiber.