A fiber and a fiber manufacturing method are provided, in which an integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) slag constitute a component of raw materials of the fiber. The fiber can be fabricated stably from the melt of the raw materials by the method in which the raw materials are preheated up to 1300 C. or higher; the raw materials are maintained at the same temperature for certain period of time; subsequently, the temperature of the raw materials are raised further to cause the melted materials are spun into fiber.

A method and apparatus for applying a mid-IR graded microstructure to the end of a chalcogenide glass optical fiber are presented herein. The method and apparatus transfer a microstructure from a negative imprint on a nickel shim to a chalcogenide glass fiber tip with minimal shape distortion and minimal damage-threshold impact resulting in large gains in anti-reflective properties.

A cleaving assembly and a method for cleaving a glass body having a face at a desired angle greater than 0 degrees are disclosed. The assembly comprises a laser device for emitting a laser beam, a rotating device, and a positioning fixture. The rotating device has a head that rotates about a central axis that is orthogonal to the laser beam. The positioning fixture is operatively mounted to the head and centered axially along the central axis and is also rotatably driven by the rotating device. The positioning fixture has a tapered surface that is transverse to the central axis and that supports the glass body at a predetermined angle relative to the central axis. Rotation of the positioning fixture about the central axis when the glass body is exposed to the laser beam, cleaves the face of the glass body at the desired angle due to the glass body being supported transverse to the central axis.

A preform for multicore optical fiber is described. The preform includes an assembly of core canes arranged in a desired configuration. The core canes are placed in mutual contact with each other to define a series of contact zones between contacting pairs of core canes. The core canes are fused at selected locations within the contact zones to secure the core canes to form a preform from which a multicore optical fiber can be formed. The preform maintains good alignment of core canes and minimizes deformation of core canes during the fiber draw process. Multicore fibers having excellent uniformity in core diameter are produced from the preforms in conventional fiber draw processes.

Angularly homogenizing gradient index optical fiber having a refractive index profile that is non-quadratic to a degree sufficient to enhance precession of light as it is propagated through the fiber. Deviation from the quadratic may be limited to avoid profoundly changing the radial boundary within the fiber. Beam asymmetry, for example, associated with small aperture sources launched into a fiber off axis, may be made more symmetric as the beam is propagated through the homogenizing gradient index optical fiber. A refractive index profile may be manufactured to avoid a pure quadratic profile, or a fiber having a refractive index profile that is quadratic in only some orientations about the fiber axis may be twisted during draw to induce a refractive index profile path that enhances propagation precession.

A method for manufacturing an optical fiber includes: melting an optical fiber preform and drawing a glass fiber; applying a resin composition to an outer periphery of the glass fiber; and curing the resin composition applied, wherein an amount of eccentricity of a central axis of the glass fiber, in a cross section perpendicular to the central axis of the glass fiber, from a central axis relative to an outer periphery of the resin composition or an outer periphery of a coating resin layer formed by curing the resin composition is measured at 50 points or more over a length range of 50 m or more of the glass fiber, and wherein the resin composition is applied such that a mean value a and a standard deviation of the amount of eccentricity satisfy a+310 m.