A system for receiving optical fiber in microgravity including a spool portion to hold optical fiber created in microgravity, a catching mechanism to secure the fiber end to the spool and a capturing device that is extendable from near and retractable to near the spool portion to pull the optical fiber to the spool portion.

A system for precoating a preform for drawing optical fiber including a diameter sensor to determine a diameter of pulled optical fiber, a cooling system to cool the optical fiber once it is pulled from a furnace, a coating system to apply a coating to the optical fiber once it has cooled and an ultra-violet lamp to cure the coating.

Aspects of the embodiments are directed to systems and methods for forming an optical fiber in a low gravity environment, and an optical fiber formed in a low gravity environment. The system can include a preform holder configured to secure a preform; a heating element secured to a heating element stage and residing adjacent the preform holder; a heating element stage motor configured to move the heating element stage; a tension sensor; a spool; a spool tension motor coupled to the spool and configured to rotate the spool; and a control system communicably coupled to the heating element stage motor and the spool tension motor and configured to control the movement of the heating element stage based on a rotational speed of the spool. The optical fiber can include a fluoride composition, such ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN), and can be characterized by an insertion loss in a range from 13 dB/1000 km to 120 dB/1000 km.

Methods for modifying multi-mode optical fiber manufacturing processes are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for modifying a process for manufacturing multi-mode optical fiber includes measuring at least one characteristic of a multi-mode optical fiber. The at least one characteristic is a modal bandwidth or a differential mode delay at one or more wavelengths. The method further includes determining a measured peak wavelength of the multi-mode optical fiber based on the measured characteristic, determining a difference between the target peak wavelength and the measured peak wavelength, and modifying the process for manufacturing multi-mode optical fiber based on the difference between the target peak wavelength and the measured peak wavelength.

Provided is an optical fiber containing an alkali metal element or the like having a smaller diffusion coefficient than K and having a low Rayleigh scattering loss. An optical fiber is composed of silica glass and includes a core and a cladding arranged to surround the core which has a lower refractive index than the core. The core includes a first core including a central axis and a second core arranged to surround the first core. The average concentration of an alkali metal element or alkaline-earth metal element in the first core is 10 mol ppm or less. The average concentration of chlorine in the first core is 2000 mol ppm or more. The average concentration of an alkali metal element or alkaline-earth metal element in the second core is 10 mol ppm or more. The average concentration of chlorine in the second core is 10 to 600 mol ppm.

The present invention relates to a method (200, 400, 500, 600) for drawing a bare optical fiber (118) from a cylindrical glass preform (102) in a furnace chamber (104) by hanging the cylindrical glass preform (102) near a first end (104a) of the furnace chamber (104), injecting first and second inert gasses inside the furnace chamber (104) in a predefined ratio of 0.3 to 5, and melting the cylindrical glass preform (102) while maintaining a positive pressure in the furnace chamber (104) to form the bare optical fiber (118) such that a Bare Fiber Diameter (BFD) variation of the bare optical fiber (118) is less than 0.1 micrometers (?m) from a mean diameter of the bare optical fiber (118).

Preform for an optical waveguide containing a core with a non-circular geometry and at least one cladding layer, in which the dopand concentration of the cladding layer is increased compared to the dopand concentration of a preform with circular core geometry and identical NA. A method for the production of a preform for an optical fiber is provided. An optical waveguide with a nominal dopand concentration of c(eff)Fc(nom) in at least one cladding layer is also provided.

Prior to fabrication of an optical fiber with desired optical properties, a preform geometry is determined dependent upon a fiber geometry that possesses the desired optical properties. The desired geometry may contain a large number of channels. The processor determines the preform geometry by tracking backwards in time the parameters of a set of conformal mappings that describe the cross section of the fiber. Some of the drawing process parameters may be specified, while other parameters may be determined along with the preform geometry. The determined preform geometry may be used to fabricate the required preform. Using this preform, the determined drawing process parameters may be used to draw the desired fiber.

Aspects of the embodiments are directed to systems and methods for forming an optical fiber in a low gravity environment, and an optical fiber formed in a low gravity environment. The system can include a preform holder configured to secure a preform; a heating element secured to a heating element stage and residing adjacent the preform holder; a heating element stage motor configured to move the heating element stage; a tension sensor; a spool; a spool tension motor coupled to the spool and configured to rotate the spool; and a control system communicably coupled to the heating element stage motor and the spool tension motor and configured to control the movement of the heating element stage based on a rotational speed of the spool. The optical fiber can include a fluoride composition, such ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN), and can be characterized by an insertion loss in a range from 13 dB/1000 km to 120 dB/1000 km.

Provided is a system for and a method of processing an optical fiber, such as tapering an optical fiber. The method includes receiving fiber parameters defining characteristics of an optical fiber, modeling an idealized fiber based on the fiber parameters to establish modeled data, and establishing processing parameters. A processing operation is performed on the optical fiber according to the processing parameters to produce a resultant fiber. Aspects of the resultant fiber are measured to establish measured data. The measured data and the modeled data are normalized to a common axis and a difference between the two is determined. The processing parameters are adjusted based on the differences.