The optical fibers disclosed have single mode and few mode optical transmission for VCSEL-based optical fiber transmission systems. The optical fibers have a cable cutoff wavelength λ.sub.C of equal to or below 1260 nm thereby defining single mode operation at wavelengths greater than 1260 nm and few-mode operation at wavelengths in a wavelength range from 800 nm and 1100 nm. The mode-field diameter is in the range from 8.0 microns to 10.1 microns at 1310 nm. The optical fibers have an overfilled bandwidth OFL BW of at least 1 GHz.Math.km at at least one wavelength in the wavelength range. The optical fibers have a single-step or two-step core and can have a trench refractive index profile. VCSEL based optical transmission systems and methods are disclosed that utilize both single core and multicore versions of the optical fiber.

A dual-core optical fiber include a first waveguide comprising a first core longitudinal centreline and a second waveguide comprising a second core longitudinal centreline. The first and second waveguides extend through a common cladding through comprising a longitudinal centerline and an outer radius R.sub.4 that is less than or equal to 45 μm. The first core longitudinal centerline and the second core longitudinal centerline are separated from one another by a waveguide-to-waveguide separation distance that is greater than or equal to 30 μm. A cross-talk between the first and second waveguides is less than or equal to −40 dB at 1310 nm, as measured over a length of 100 km of the dual-core optical fiber.

According to embodiments, a method of making a microstructured glass article includes bundling M bare optical fibers in a fiber bundle, wherein M is an integer greater than 100. Thereafter, the fiber bundle may be inserted in a cavity of a soot preform. The soot preform may have a density of less than or equal to 1.5 g/cm.sup.3 and comprise silica-based glass soot. The soot preform and inserted fiber bundle may then be consolidated to form a microstructured glass article preform. The microstructured glass article preform may then be drawn into the microstructured glass article comprising M core elements embedded in a cladding matrix.

An optical device may include a fiber to provide a beam. The optical device may include a graded-index element to expand or magnify the beam. An input facet of the graded-index element may be adhered to an output facet of the fiber. The optical device may include an optical transformation element to transform the beam after the beam is expanded or magnified by the graded-index element. An input facet of the optical transformation element may be adhered to an output facet of the graded-index element.

An optical combiner includes: first optical input portions each including a first optical input waveguide; and an optical output portion to which the first optical input portions are connected and that includes a first core that allows light to propagate therethrough, and a cladding layer disposed outside of the first core and that has a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the first core. The first optical input portions are connected to a connection end face of the optical output portion such that the first optical input waveguide of at least one of the first optical input portions is optically coupled to the first core of the optical output portion.

An optical fiber containing alkali metal elements or the like in which Rayleigh scattering loss can be reduced is provided. An optical fiber includes a core composed of silica glass and a cladding which surrounds the core, has a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the core, and is composed of silica glass containing fluorine. The core contains a first group of dopants and a second group of dopants having a diffusion coefficient lower than a diffusion coefficient of the first group of dopants. The difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of residual stress in the optical fiber is 150 MPa or less.

A quasi-single-mode optical fiber with a large effective area is disclosed. The quasi-single-mode fiber has a core with a radius greater than 5 μm, and a cladding section configured to support a fundamental mode and a higher-order mode. The fundamental mode has an effective area greater than 170 μm.sup.2 and an attenuation of no greater than 0.17 dB/km at a wavelength of 1530 nm. The higher-order mode has an attenuation of at least 1.0 dB/km at the wavelength of 1530 nm. The quasi-single-mode optical fiber has a bending loss of less than 0.02 dB/turn for a bend diameter of 60 mm for a wavelength of 1625 nm.

In one embodiment, an optical fiber includes an inner core having a core refractive index delta and profile shape parameter α in the range of 1.8 to 2.6, including endpoints, and a cladding layer surrounding the inner core. The cladding layer includes an inner cladding segment having an inner refractive index delta, a trench segment having a trench refractive index delta, and an outer cladding segment having an outer refractive index delta. The optical fiber further includes a coating layer surrounding the cladding layer and having a thickness of less than 30 .Math.m and a modulus greater than or equal to 0.5 GPa.

Optical transmission systems and methods are disclosed that utilize a QSM optical fiber with a large effective area and that supports only two modes, namely the fundamental mode and one higher-order mode. The optical transmission system includes a transmitter and a receiver optically coupled by an optical fiber link that includes at least one section of the QSM optical fiber. Transmission over optical fiber link gives rise to MPI, which is mitigated using a digital signal processor. The QSM optical fiber is designed to have an amount of DMA that allows for the digital signal processor to have reduced complexity as reflected by a reduced number of filter taps as compared to if the DMA were zero.

Embodiments of the current disclosure include low moat volume single mode ultra-low loss optical fibers. In some embodiments, a single mode optical fiber includes a first core region; a second core region surrounding and directly adjacent to the first core region, wherein a volume V of the second core region is less than or equal to 14% Δμm.sup.2; a cladding region surrounding the core region; and wherein the optical fiber has a cable cutoff of less than 1260 nm, a mode field diameter at 1310 nm of 8.6 microns to 9.7 microns, a mode field diameter at 1550 nm of 9.9 microns to 11 microns, and an attenuation at 1550 nm of less than or equal to 0.17 dB/km.