A control device which is used in a manufacturing apparatus of an optical fiber, the manufacturing apparatus including a drawing unit and a coating unit. The control device includes: one or a plurality of non-contact holding portions which hold the bare optical fiber at any position between the drawing unit and the coating unit; a position detection unit; and a control unit which controls a flow rate of a fluid introduced into the non-contact holding portion on the basis of the floating position detected by the position detection unit. The non-contact holding portion comprises a guide groove. The control unit detects the floating position of the bare optical fiber at at least one of the non-contact holding portions, compares the detected floating position with a predetermined reference floating position, and controls a flow rate of the fluid introduced into the non-contact holding portions.

A method of controlling the temperature of an optical fiber is provided that includes the steps of: providing an energy transfer member configured to accept or provide thermal energy, the energy transfer member defines an energy transfer surface; passing an optical fiber proximate the energy transfer member such that a gap is defined between the optical fiber and the energy transfer surface; and transferring thermal energy between the optical fiber and the energy transfer member via conduction across the gap.

Provided is a system for and a method of processing an optical fiber, such as tapering an optical fiber. The method includes receiving fiber parameters defining characteristics of an optical fiber, modeling an idealized fiber based on the fiber parameters to establish modeled data, and establishing processing parameters. A processing operation is performed on the optical fiber according to the processing parameters to produce a resultant fiber. Aspects of the resultant fiber are measured to establish measured data. The measured data and the modeled data are normalized to a common axis and a difference between the two is determined. The processing parameters are adjusted based on the differences.

A method for a defined deposition of a glass layer on an inner wall of a preform for an optical fiber and/or for setting a refractive index profile of the preform for a multi-mode fiber. The method includes providing the preform having a cavity and an inner wall which defines an inner diameter of the preform, and spreading a deposition gas at a flow speed (v) in the cavity of the preform so as to provide the defined deposition of the glass layer. The defined deposition is performed at a reduced change in the flow speed a*v, where a<1. Based on the defined deposition, a change in the flow speed (v): $v=\frac{4Q}{}.Math.\left(\frac{1}{d_i^2}-\frac{1}{d_{i+1}^2}\right)$
forms at a volume flow (Q), a first diameter (d.sub.i), and a second diameter (d.sub.i+1).

A system for drawing optical fiber in microgravity including a sealed housing to prevent infiltration of at least humidity and filled with a dry environment, a preform holder located within the sealed housing to hold preform material, a furnace located within the sealed housing to receive the preform material from the preform holder and to heat the preform material from which the optical fiber is pulled, a feed system to move the preform material from the preform holder to the furnace, a drawing mechanism located within the sealed housing to pull the optical fiber from the preform material within the furnace, a diameter monitor located within the sealed housing to measure a diameter of the optical fiber and a fiber collection mechanism located. within the sealed housing to gather and store the optical fiber.

An optical fiber production method includes: drawing an optical fiber preform in a drawing furnace; and cooling the optical fiber. The optical fiber is passed through a plurality of annealing furnaces while the optical fiber is cooled. While the optical fiber is cooled, temperatures of the annealing furnaces are set such that the temperature difference is within a range between and including an upper limit and a lower limit of a temperature difference between a temperature of the optical fiber and a fictive temperature of glass constituting a core of the optical fiber at which an increase of a transmission loss of the optical fiber when the fictive temperature of the glass is decreased is less than 0.001 dB/km.

A system for producing an optical fiber with inscribed grating array is described. The system comprises a fiber drawing apparatus for drawing an optical fiber, a writing system for inscribing a grating in the optical fiber during the drawing process of the optical fiber and a controller for controlling the driving of the writing system. According to the present invention the fiber drawing apparatus also comprises a fiber length and/or drawing detecting means for determining the fiber length and/or fiber drawing speed and/or a fiber drawing parameter during the drawing process. The controller thereby is configured for capturing information from the fiber length and/or drawing detecting means and for controlling the writing system based on the captured information captured from the fiber length and/or drawing detecting means.

A control device which is used in a manufacturing apparatus of an optical fiber, the manufacturing apparatus including: a drawing unit; a coating unit; and a curing unit which cures the coating layer. The control device includes: one or a plurality of direction changing devices which change a direction of the bare optical fiber at any position between the drawing unit and the coating unit; a position detection unit which detects a position of the bare optical fiber in the direction changing device; an outer diameter measurement unit which measures an outer diameter of the bare optical fiber; and a control unit which controls a flow rate of a fluid introduced into the direction changing device on the basis of the position of the bare optical fiber measured by the position detection unit and the outer diameter of the bare optical fiber measured by the outer diameter measurement unit.

An optical fiber manufacturing method includes: drawing an optical fiber preform to form a bare optical fiber; cooling the bare optical fiber by a non-contact direction changer; adjusting a temperature of the bare optical fiber in a temperature adjusting unit disposed downstream of the non-contact direction changer and upstream of a coating unit; disposing, in the coating unit, an uncured coating layer that comprises a resin precursor on an outer periphery of the bare optical fiber; and curing the uncured coating layer in a curing unit.

Aspects of the embodiments include an optical fiber formed in a low gravity environment. The optical fiber can be used in airframe applications for missile defense, oil-field applications for down-well laser applications, optical communications, and other applications. The optical fiber can include a fluoride composition, such ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN), and can be characterized by an insertion loss in a range from 13 dB/1000 km to 120 dB/1000 km. The optical fiber can deliver optical energy with low insertion loss at the desired power and wavelength for the various applications.