A fiber optic coupling device comprises an elastomeric body. The elastomeric body includes first and second sides with a deformable alignment passage extending there between. The deformable alignment passage is configured to elastically center opposing first and second optical fibers. The deformable alignment passage includes a first portion that is configured to receive the first optical fiber having a first core. The deformable alignment passage also includes an opposing second portion that is configured to receive the second optical fiber having a second core. The first portion and the opposing second portion of the alignment passage are defined by a common encompassing periphery, and meet at a common location within the alignment passage to present the core of the received first optical fiber in coaxial alignment with the core of the received second optical fiber.

A multicore optical fiber includes an inner glass region having a plurality of core regions surrounded by a common outer cladding, the inner glass region further having at least one marker and an outer diameter in the range of 120 microns and 130 microns, wherein each core region is comprised of a germania-doped silica core and a fluorine-doped silica trench, wherein the trench volume of the fluorine-doped silica trench is greater than 50% Δ microns.sup.2. The fiber has an outer coating layer surrounding the inner glass region, the outer coating layer having a primary coating layer and a secondary coating layer with a diameter of the secondary coating layer equal to or less than 200 microns, wherein each core region has a mode field diameter greater than 8.2 microns at 1310 nm, a cable cutoff wavelength of less than 1260 nm, and zero dispersion wavelength of less than 1335 nm.

An optical fiber system exploits a principle of topological confinement for guided higher-order modes, in contrast to more conventional total-internal-reflection (TIR) confinement. The optical fiber has a geometry and index profile defining a cutoff wavelength for a predetermined L-mode of optical signal propagation in the optical fiber, where L is azimuthal mode index. An optical source subsystem is coupled to the optical fiber to establish an optical signal propagating in the optical fiber, wherein the optical signal has the predetermined L-mode and a wavelength being either (1) at least 15% above the cutoff wavelength such that the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode, or (2) sufficiently above the cutoff wavelength that, based on the L-mode of the optical beam, the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode having propagation loss less than 3 dB/meter.

A composite all optical-fibre based tapered photonic waveguide (110) including a single or multiple secondary waveguides (120) within or around a primary waveguide (118) is described. The composite optical fibre may also be termed a beam tailoring optical fibre (BT Fibre) (110). In use, at thelarger secondary end (114) both the primary waveguide (118) and the secondary waveguide/s (120) may guide modes at a particular wavelength. However, at the same wavelength, adiabatically tapering down the waveguides (118, 120) reduces the dimensions of the secondary waveguide/s (120) such that all the secondary waveguide/s (120) become effectively non-guiding at the smaller primary end (112), whilst the primary waveguide (118) still guides. In other words, the composite optical fibre is a spatially modulating optical fibre (110).

A low-crosstalk large-capacity few-mode optical fiber includes an optical fiber cladding. Few-mode units are arranged in the optical fiber cladding, each few-mode unit sequentially includes a few-mode fiber core, an inner cladding and a trench from inside to outside, and a high-refractive-index ring is arranged in the few-mode fiber core. The few-mode units include first few-mode subunits, second few-mode subunits and third few-mode subunits, where the first few-mode subunits, the second few-mode subunits and the third few-mode subunits are arranged at intervals. The first few-mode subunit includes a first few-mode fiber core, the second few-mode subunit includes a second few-mode fiber core, and the third few-mode subunit includes a third few-mode fiber core, the radii and refractive indexes of the first few-mode fiber cores, the second few-mode fiber cores and the third few-mode fiber cores being different, respectively.

A low-dispersion single-mode optical fiber includes a core and a cladding covering the core. The core has a relative refractive index difference of 0.30-0.65% and a radius of 2.5-4.5 μm. The cladding layer including first, second, third cladding layers and an outer cladding arranged sequentially from inside to outside. The first cladding layer covers the core, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.70% to −0.30% and a radius of 4.5-7.5 μm. The second cladding layer covers the first cladding layer, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.20% to 0.25% and a radius of 7.0-12.0 μm. The third cladding layer covers the second cladding layer, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.60% to 0.00% and a radius of 10.0-20.0 μm. The outer cladding covers the third cladding layer, and is a layer made of pure silicon dioxide glass.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-core optical fiber that can prevent an increase in bending loss even when a distance between a peripheral core and a cladding boundary is decreased, and can improve a bending loss characteristic in a state where an influence on a cutoff wavelength and a mode field diameter is small, and a design method thereof.

The multi-core optical fiber according to the present invention is an optical fiber in which two or more core regions are arranged in a cladding region having a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the core at a minimum core interval, a ring-shaped low refractive index region surrounding the core and having a refractive index lower than the refractive index of the cladding region is provided, a bending loss after the provision of the ring-shaped low refractive index region is reduced as compared with a characteristic in a case where the ring-shaped low refractive index region is not provided, and at the same time, a change in mode field diameter after the provision of the ring-shaped low refractive index region is not changed as compared with a characteristic in a case where the ring-shaped low refractive index region is not provided.

An image fiber includes: a plurality of cores; a cladding that integrally encloses the plurality of cores; a light guide fiber that propagates illumination light; and a light guide layer that covers an entire periphery of an external peripheral surface of the cladding and that is in contact with an external peripheral surface of the light guide fiber. The light guide layer is capable of propagating the illumination light.

A multicore optical fiber includes an inner glass region having a plurality of core regions surrounded by a common outer cladding, the inner glass region further having at least one marker and an outer diameter in the range of 120 microns and 130 microns, wherein each core region is comprised of a germania-doped silica core and a fluorine-doped silica trench, wherein the trench volume of the fluorine-doped silica trench is greater than 50% Δ microns.sup.2. The fiber has an outer coating layer surrounding the inner glass region, the outer coating layer having a primary coating layer and a secondary coating layer with a diameter of the secondary coating layer equal to or less than 200 microns, wherein each core region has a mode field diameter greater than 8.2 microns at 1310 nm, a cable cutoff wavelength of less than 1260 nm, and zero dispersion wavelength of less than 1335 nm.

A low-dispersion single-mode optical fiber includes a core and claddings covering the core. The core has a relative refractive index difference of 0.30-0.65% and a radius of 2.5-4.5 μm. The claddings include first, second, third cladding layers and an outer cladding arranged sequentially from inside to outside. The first cladding layer covers the core, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.70% to −0.30% and a radius of 4.5-7.5 μm. The second cladding layer covers the first cladding layer, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.20% to −0.25% and a radius of 7.0-12.0 μm. The third cladding layer covers the second cladding layer, and has a relative refractive index difference of −0.60% to 0.00% and a radius of 10.0-20.0 μm. The outer cladding covers the third cladding layer, and is a layer made of pure silicon dioxide glass.