Optical fiber structure and a method of producing thereof
AssigneenLIGHT, Inc.
InventorsMarkku Rajala, Mircea Hotoleanu, Per Stenius, Harri Valkonen, Simo Tammela, Pauli Kiiveri
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Abstract
An optical waveguide including a core, a buffer surrounding the core, and a cladding surrounding the buffer. The core, the buffer and the cladding include silica glass. A refractive index of the buffer is substantially equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass. The buffer may reduce bubble formation during manufacturing and may facilitate splicing of the waveguide. A numerical aperture of the waveguide may be fine-tuned by adjusting a radial dimension of the buffer in order to compensate variations in the refractive index of the core.
Claims24
An optical waveguide, comprising:
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant;
- a buffer surrounding said core;
- and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said buffer is substantially equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, wherein a ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in a range of 0.05 to 0.4, and wherein an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2.
A method for producing an optical waveguide, said optical waveguide comprising:
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant,
- a buffer surrounding said core, and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said buffer is substantially equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, wherein a ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in a range of 0.05 to 0.4, and wherein an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2,
- said method comprising:
- adjusting the radial dimension of said buffer so as to tune a cut-off wavelength of single mode operation of said optical waveguide to a predetermined value.
A method for producing an optical waveguide, said optical waveguide comprising
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant,
- a buffer surrounding said core, and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, and a refractive index of said buffer is smaller than or equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, a ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in a range of 0.05 to 0.4, and an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2,
- said method comprising:
- adjusting the radial dimension of said buffer so as to tune a cut-off wavelength of single mode operation of said optical waveguide to a predetermined value.
A light-amplifying optical waveguide, comprising:
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant;
- a buffer surrounding said core;
- and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said buffer is substantially equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, wherein a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, wherein a ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in a range of 0.05 to 0.4, and wherein an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2.
A method for producing an optical waveguide, said optical waveguide comprising
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant,
- buffer surrounding said core, and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, and a refractive index of said buffer is substantially equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, a ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in the range of 0.05 to 0.4, and an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2,
- said method comprising:
- adjusting the radial dimension of said buffer so as to attain a predetermined numerical aperture of said optical waveguide.
A method for producing an optical waveguide, said optical waveguide comprising
- a core doped with at least one light-amplifying dopant,
- a buffer surrounding said core, and
- a cladding surrounding said buffer,
- wherein said core, said buffer, and said cladding comprise silica glass, and a refractive index of said buffer is smaller than or equal to a refractive index of pure amorphous silica glass, a refractive index of said cladding is greater than the refractive index of said buffer, the ratio of a radial dimension of said buffer to a radius of said core is in a range of 0.05 to 0.4, and an effective mode area of said waveguide is greater than or equal to 200 μm2,
- said method comprising:
- adjusting the radial dimension of said buffer so as to attain a predetermined numerical aperture of said optical waveguide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.