A mounted hollow-core fiber arrangement includes a hollow-core fiber having a microstructure, and a mount arrangement including a plurality of mounting contacts configured to apply a force to an outer layer of the hollow-core fiber. A portion of the hollow-core fiber is located in a receiving region of the mount arrangement. The plurality of mounting contacts are positioned around the receiving region. The mounting contacts are distributed around the receiving region, the distribution of the mounting contacts corresponding to a distribution of features of the microstructure of the hollow-core fiber. The mounted hollow core fiber can be used in a radiation source apparatus for providing broadband radiation.

A solution is provided comprising boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) in a liquid solvent. An optical waveguide, such as an optical fiber, is contacted with the solution so as to form a layer of the solution supported on at least a portion of the optical waveguide. The liquid solvent is then removed from the layer of the solution supported on the optical waveguide in order to form a coating of the BNNTs on the optical waveguide. Further provided is a BNNT coated optical waveguide for use as a sensor.

The present disclosure relates to an optical fiber having a structure that has a low transmission loss and can be produced with high productivity. An optical fiber according to an embodiment includes a core and a cladding. The core is comprised of silica glass to which bromine is added, and the cladding has a refractive index lower than a maximum refractive index of the core. The core has compressive stress.

Described herein are systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for reducing coupling loss between optical fibers, more particularly, to reducing coupling loss between a hollow-core optical fiber (HCF) and another fiber, such as solid core fibers (SCF), through the use of mismatched mode field diameter (MFD) and optical connector assemblies for low latency patchcords. According to one embodiment, an article is configured to reduce a coupling loss between multiple optical fibers, wherein the article includes an HCF supporting the propagation of a first mode and an SCF coupled to the HCF. According to a further embodiment, a method is described for reducing the coupling loss or splicing loss between optical fibers, such as an exemplary HCF and a solid core SMF. These exemplary articles and methods may include coupling/splicing an exemplary HCF to an exemplary SMF with significantly smaller MFD as well as a splice-on-connector (SOC) assembly including a bridge fiber spliced between the HCF and the SCF, wherein the bridge fiber has a third MFD that is greater than the second MFD and smaller than the first MFD. Additional embodiments may feature a SCF having a second MFD at the proximal end and a third MFD at the distal end, wherein the second MFD is greater than the third MFD, and the third MFD is no greater than 90% of the first MFD of the HCF.

A multicore fiber includes: a cladding; and three or more and five or less cores disposed at rotationally asymmetric positions on a circumference centered at a center of the cladding. No core is disposed at the center of the cladding. Angles formed by adjacent ones of lines connecting the center of the cladding and respective ones of the cores are all larger than 60°.

An optical fiber includes: a central core portion; an intermediate layer configured to surround an outer periphery of the central core portion; a trench layer configured to surround an outer periphery of the intermediate layer; and a cladding portion configured to surround an outer periphery of the trench layer. The central core portion is made of silica based glass that does not contain germanium (Ge). Δ1>Δ2>Δ3 and ΔClad>Δ3, where Δ1 represents an average maximum relative refractive-index difference of the central core portion relative to pure quartz glass, Δ2 represents an average relative refractive-index difference of the intermediate layer relative to the pure quartz glass, Δ3 represents an average relative refractive-index difference of the trench layer relative to the pure quartz glass, and ΔClad represents an average relative refractive-index difference of the cladding portion relative to the pure quartz glass. Δ1 is equal to or larger than 0.05%.

A laser delivery device may include a connector portion at a proximal end of the laser delivery device and an optical fiber connecting the connector portion to a distal end of the laser delivery device. The connector portion may include a capillary at least partially surrounding a proximal portion of the optical fiber, and the capillary may include dimples on at least a portion of a circumferential surface thereof.

A laser delivery device may include a connector portion at a proximal end of the laser delivery device and an optical fiber connecting the connector portion to a distal end of the laser delivery device. The connector portion may include a capillary at least partially surrounding a proximal portion of the optical fiber, and the capillary may include dimples on at least a portion of a circumferential surface thereof.

An OCT imaging system may include an OCT light source operable to emit an OCT light beam, and a beam splitter operable to split the OCT light beam into a sample beam, transferred to a sample arm waveguide, and a reference beam, transferred to a reference arm waveguide. The sample arm waveguide and the reference arm waveguide may be coupled together within a cladding, wherein the cladding improves a calibration of a generated OCT image by fixing axial movement of the sample arm and reference arm waveguides relative to one another. By routing long reference and sample arm waveguide fibers together in the OCT system using a sheath/cladding, OCT image offset due to asymmetrical fiber stretching can be minimized or eliminated.

A high backscattering optical fiber comprising a perturbed segment in which the perturbed segment reflects a relative power such that the optical fiber has an effective index of n.sub.eff, a numerical aperture of NA, a scatter of R.sub.p.fwdarw.r.sup.(fiber) that varies axially along the optical fiber, a total transmission loss of α.sub.fiber, an in-band range greater than one nanometer (1 nm), and a figure of merit (FOM) in the in-band range. The FOM being defined as: $\mathrm{FOM}=\frac{R_{p.fwdarw.r}^{\left(\mathrm{fiber}\right)}}{{{\alpha }_{\mathrm{fiber}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{NA}}{2n_{\mathrm{eff}}}\right)}^2}.$