Rayleigh scattering reduction method for silica-based optical fiber

Author

Tsujikawa, Kyozo ; Tajima, Katsusuke ; Ohashi, Masaharu

Author_Institution

NTT Access Network Service Syst. Lab., Ibaraki, Japan

Volume

18

Issue

11

fYear

2000

Firstpage

1528

Lastpage

1532

Abstract

The effect of the thermal treatment of silica-based glasses and glass fibers on their Rayleigh scattering is investigated experimentally. The Rayleigh scattering coefficients of bulk glasses are found to be increased 5-10% by heating them to 1800 /spl deg/C because the density fluctuation is in proportion to their fictive temperature. Based on these results, we propose a method for reducing the Rayleigh scattering losses of silica-based optical fibers by drawing them slowly at low temperatures. We used this method to obtain a GeO/sub 2/ doped silica core single-mode fiber with a minimum loss of 0.16 dB/km at 1.55 /spl mu/m. As a result, we confirmed that the reduction in the fictive temperature of silica-based glasses and glass fibers reduces their Rayleigh scattering.

Keywords

Rayleigh scattering; germanate glasses; optical fibre communication; optical fibre fabrication; optical fibre losses; 1.55 mum; 1800 C; GeO/sub 2/ doped silica core single-mode fiber; GeO/sub 2/-SiO/sub 2/; Rayleigh scattering coefficients; Rayleigh scattering losses; Rayleigh scattering reduction method; density fluctuation; drawing; fictive temperature; glass fibers; minimum loss; silica-based glasses; silica-based optical fiber; Glass; Optical device fabrication; Optical fiber losses; Optical fibers; Optical losses; Optical scattering; Preforms; Rayleigh scattering; Silicon compounds; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.896213

Filename

896213