A coupled-core multicore optical fiber has a plurality of cores that are doped with alkali metals or chlorine to achieve low attenuation and a large effective area. The cores may be embedded in a common cladding region that may be fluorine doped. The cores may also be doped with chlorine, either with the alkali metals described above or without the alkali metals.

A multicore fiber for communication 10 which allows propagation of an optical signal includes: a clad 12;a core 11a which is arranged in a center of the clad 12; and seven to ten cores 11b which are arranged at equal intervals surrounding the core 11a, and the cladding diameter is 230 m, distances between centers of the mutually neighboring cores 11a and 11b are 30 m or more, distances between the centers of the cores 11b and an outer peripheral surface of the clad 12 are 35 m or more and a mode field diameter of light propagating in the cores 11a and 11b is 9 m to 13 m.

The disclosed subject matter relates to a polarization-maintaining very large mode area (PM VLMA) Erbium-doped fiber and a polarization maintaining, Er-doped VLMA amplifier.

An optical fiber with ultra-low attenuation and large effective-area includes a core layer and cladding layers. The cladding layers have an inner cladding layer surrounding the core layer, a trench cladding layer surrounding the inner cladding layer, an auxiliary outer cladding layer surrounding the trench cladding layer, and an outer cladding layer surrounding the auxiliary outer cladding layer. The core layer has a radius of 4.8-6.5 m, and a relative refractive index difference of 0.06% to 0.10%. The inner cladding layer has a radius of 9-15 m, and a relative refractive index difference of about 0.40% to 0.15%. The trench cladding layer has a radius of about 12-17 m, and a relative refractive index difference of about 0.8% to 0.3%. The auxiliary outer cladding layer has a radius of about 37-50 m, and a relative refractive index difference of about 0.6% to 0.25%. The outer cladding layer is a pure silicon-dioxide glass layer.

The core region of an optical fiber is doped with chlorine in a concentration that allows for the viscosity of the core region to be lowered, approaching the viscosity of the surrounding cladding. An annular interface region is disposed between the core and cladding and contains a concentration of fluorine dopant sufficient to match the viscosity of the core. By including this annular stress accommodation region, the cladding layer can be formed to include the relatively high concentration of fluorine required to provide the desired degree of optical signal confinement (i.e., forming a low loss optical fiber). The inclusion of the annular stress accommodation region allows for the formation of a large effective area optical fiber that exhibits low loss (i.e., <0.19 dB/km) in both the C-band and L-band transmission ranges.

The present invention relates to an optical fiber (200) having a core (202) extending along a central axis (206) and a cladding (204) concentrically surrounding the core (202). The core (202) has at least 83-mole percent (mol %) of Silicon dioxide (SiO2) and at most 17-mole percent (mol %) of an up-dopant and, the cladding (204) has at least 99-mole percent (mol %) of Silicon dioxide (SiO2). Further, the optical fiber (200) has (i) an effective area of greater than or equal to 100 ?m.sup.2, (ii) a mode field diameter (MFD) in a range of 11 ?m to 15 ?m, and (iii) a chromatic dispersion of less than or equal to 23.5 picoseconds (ps/(Km.Math.nm) at a wavelength of 1550 nm.

A multicore fiber for communication 10 which allows propagation of an optical signal includes: a clad 12; a core 11a which is arranged in a center of the clad 12; and seven to ten cores 11b which are arranged at equal intervals surrounding the core 11a, and the cladding diameter is 230 m, distances between centers of the mutually neighboring cores 11a and 11b are 30 m or more, distances between the centers of the cores 11b and an outer peripheral surface of the clad 12 are 35 m or more and a mode field diameter of light propagating in the cores 11a and 11b is 9 m to 13 m.

A co-doped optical fiber is provided having an attenuation of less than about 0.17 dB/km at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The fiber includes a core region in the fiber having a graded refractive index profile with an alpha of greater than 5. The fiber also includes a first cladding region in the fiber that surrounds the core region. Further, the core region has a relative refractive index of about 0.10% to about +0.05% compared to pure silica. In addition, the core region includes silica that is co-doped with chlorine at about 1.2% or greater by weight and fluorine between about 0.1% and about 1% by weight.

Provided is an optical fiber having W-shaped refractive-index distribution and in which a micro-bend loss in an actual usage waveband is reduced. The optical fiber includes a core, inner cladding that surrounds the core and has a refractive index smaller than a refractive index of the core, and outer cladding that surrounds the inner cladding and has a refractive index smaller than the refractive index of the core and larger than the refractive index of the inner cladding. When a coupling coefficient between a fundamental mode and a cladding mode is denoted by C.sub.01-CL, a coupling coefficient between the fundamental mode and a higher-order mode is denoted by C.sub.01-11, and a coupling coefficient between the higher-order mode and the cladding mode is denoted by C.sub.11-CL, C.sub.total defined as C.sub.total=C.sub.01-CL+C.sub.01-11C.sub.11-CL has a minimum value at a wavelength ranging between 1520 nm and 1630 nm.

A core portion of each of optical fibers of an optical fiber cable is made of pure silica glass, an effective cross-sectional area of the core portion at a wavelength of 1550 nm is 110 ?m.sup.2 or more and 150 ?m.sup.2 or less. The optical fibers include an intermittent connection portion in which a connection portion to which an adhesive resin is applied and a non-connection portion to which the adhesive resin is not applied are alternately provided between adjacent optical fibers. The optical fiber ribbon has a ratio of a total adhesion length to which the adhesive resin is applied to a total length between all the optical fibers of 40% or more per a unit length of the optical fiber ribbon, and an occupancy ratio of the optical fiber ribbon to a cross-sectional area of the internal space is 30% or more and 40% or less.