An object is to obtain an optical fiber having a small diameter and suppressing the increase of a microbending loss of the optical fiber. The optical fiber includes: a core portion made of silica glass; a cladding portion made of silica glass, the cladding portion covering the outer periphery of the core portion and having a refractive index smaller than a maximum refractive index of the core portion; and a coating portion covering the outer periphery of the cladding portion. The outer diameter of the cladding portion is 100 μm or smaller, the relative refractive-index difference Δ1 of the core portion is 0.5% or smaller, and the thickness of the coating portion is 10 μm or larger.

An optical fiber is provided that includes a core region and a cladding region. The core region is formed of silica glass doped with chlorine and/or an alkali metal. The cladding region surrounds the core region and includes an inner cladding directly adjacent to the core region, an outer cladding surrounding the inner cladding, and a trench region disposed between the inner cladding and the outer cladding in a radial direction. The trench region has a volume of about 30% Δ-micron.sup.2 or greater. Additionally, the optical fiber has an effective area at 1550 nm of about 100 micron.sup.2 or less.

The present disclosure provides optical fibers with an impact-resistant coating system. The fibers feature low attenuation. The coating system includes a primary coating and a secondary coating. The primary coating and secondary coating have reduced thickness to provide low-diameter fibers without sacrificing protection. The primary coating has high tear strength and is resistant to damage caused by mechanical force. The secondary coating has high puncture resistance. The outer diameter of the optical fiber is less than or equal to 190 μm.

The optical fiber offered is capable of not only restraining the attenuation due to glass defects, but also reducing the increase of manufacturing cost. The optical fiber is made of silica glass and includes a core and a cladding. The cladding encloses the core and has a refractive index smaller than that of the core. When the core is divided into inner core and outer core at half of the radius of the core, the average chlorine concentration of the inner core is larger than that of the outer core. The core includes any of the alkali metal group.

The present invention therefore provides a method of splicing optical fibers. First, a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber are provided, wherein a core diameter of the first optical fiber is smaller than a core diameter of the second optical fiber. After performing a hydrogen loading treatment for the first optical fiber; a thermal expansion core (TEC) treatment is performed for the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber to match the mode-field (MF) of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber at the fused section between the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber. The present invention further provides a spliced optical fiber, including a first optical fiber part, a second optical fiber part, and a fused section.

The present disclosure provides optical fibers with an impact-resistant coating system. The fibers feature low attenuation. The coating system includes a primary coating and a secondary coating. The primary coating and secondary coating have reduced thickness to provide low-diameter fibers without sacrificing protection. The primary coating has high tear strength and is resistant to damage caused by mechanical force. The secondary coating has high puncture resistance. The outer diameter of the optical fiber is less than or equal to 190 μm.

Small-radius coated optical fibers having large mode field diameter and low bending losses. The coated fiber may have an outer radius of 110 μm or less, while providing a mode field diameter of 9.0 μm or greater and a bending loss when wrapped about a 15 mm mandrel of 0.5 dB/km or less at wavelength of 1550 nm. The coated fiber may have a mode field diameter of 9.2 μm or greater and may have a bending loss at 1550 nm of 0.25 dB/km or less when wrapped about a 20 mm mandrel or a bending loss at 1550 nm of 0.02 dB/km or less when wrapped about a 30 mm mandrel.

Small-radius coated optical fibers having large mode field diameter and low bending losses. The coated fiber may have an outer radius of 110 μm or less, while providing a mode field diameter of 9.0 μm or greater and a bending loss when wrapped about a 15 mm mandrel of 0.5 dB/km or less at wavelength of 1550 nm. The coated fiber may have a mode field diameter of 9.2 μm or greater and may have a bending loss at 1550 nm of 0.25 dB/km or less when wrapped about a 20 mm mandrel or a bending loss at 1550 nm of 0.02 dB/km or less when wrapped about a 30 mm mandrel.

The present disclosure provides optical fibers that exhibit low macrobend loss at 1550 nm at bend diameters greater than 40 mm. The relative refractive index profile of the fibers includes a trench cladding region having a trench volume configured to minimize macrobend loss at large bend diameters. The thickness and/or depth of the trench cladding region are controlled to reduce trench volume to a degree consistent with reducing macrobend loss at bend diameters greater than 40 mm. The optical fiber includes an outer cladding region that surrounds and is directly adjacent to the trench cladding region and an optional offset cladding region between the trench cladding region and the core region. In some embodiments, the core region is a segmented core region that includes inner and outer core regions. The low macrobend loss available from the optical fibers makes them particularly suitable for applications in submarine telecommunications systems.

A laser system based on nonlinear pulse compression and a LMA optical fiber therefor are provided. The LMA optical fiber is configured to amplify seed light pulses and promote the onset of nonlinear spectral broadening. The LMA optical fiber includes a first section having constant core and cladding diameters and receiving and supporting propagation of the light pulses in multiple transversal modes. The first section is configured to suppress high order modes propagating therealong. The LMA optical fiber further includes a tapered second section receiving the fundamental mode from the first section, the core and cladding diameters increasing gradually along said second section so as to provide an adiabatic transition of the fundamental mode. The LMA optical fiber further includes an optional third section having constant core and cladding diameters. Dispersive compression of the light pulses outputted by the LMA optical fiber provides excellent beam quality and high peak powers.