A method of forming an imaging fibre apparatus comprises arranging rods to form a plurality of stacks each comprising a respective plurality of rods, wherein: for each stack, the respective plurality of rods comprises rods having different core sizes, the rods of different core sizes being arranged in a selected arrangement, and the rods of different core sizes being arranged such that each stack has a respective selected shape; wherein the selected shape or shapes are such that the stacks stack together in a desired arrangement; the method further comprising: drawing each of the plurality of stacks; stacking together the plurality of drawn stacks together in the desired arrangement to form a further stack; drawing the further stack; and using the drawn further stack to form an imaging fibre apparatus, wherein the selected arrangement of the rods in each stack and the selected shape or shapes of the stacks are such that the further stack comprises a repeating pattern of rods of different core sizes.

A disclosed multimode optical fiber comprises a core and a cladding surrounding the core. The core has an outer radius r.sub.1 in between 20 μm and 30 μm. The cladding includes a first outer cladding region having an outer radius r.sub.4a and a second outer cladding region having an outer radius r.sub.4b less than or equal to 45 μm. The second outer cladding region comprises silica-based glass doped with titania. The optical fiber further includes a primary coating with an outer radius r.sub.5 less than or equal to 80 μm, and a thickness (r.sub.5−r.sub.4) less than or equal to 30 μm. The optical fiber further includes a secondary coating with an outer radius r.sub.6 less than or equal to 100 μm. The secondary coating has a thickness (r.sub.6−r.sub.5) less than or equal to 30 μm, and a normalized puncture load greater than 3.6×10.sup.−3 g/micron.sup.2.

A method of manufacturing a multicore fiber includes: an initial-preform forming process of forming an initial preform by arranging in an array a plurality of core rods each including a core portion and a cladding portion formed around outer periphery of the core portion; and an optical fiber manufacturing process of manufacturing an optical fiber from the initial preform. Further, the core rods include a plurality of holes, and the core rods are arranged in a manner that one hole is arranged between two core portion adjacent to each other in the initial-preform forming process.

A fiber optic imaging element includes medium-expansion and a fabrication method including: (1) matching a core glass rod with a cladding glass tube to perform mono fiber drawing; (2) arranging the mono fibers into a mono fiber bundle rod, and then drawing the mono fiber bundle rod into a multi fiber; (3) arranging the multi fiber into a multi fiber bundle rod, and then drawing the multi fiber bundle rod into a multi-multi fiber; (4) cutting the multi-multi fiber, and then arranging the multi-multi fiber into a fiber assembly buddle, then putting the fiber assembly buddle into a mold of heat press fusion process, and performing the heat press fusion process to prepare a block of the fiber optic imaging element with medium-expansion; and (5) edged rounding, cutting and slicing,

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.

A multi-core fiber includes: a plurality of cores; and a cladding portion formed around outer peripheries of the cores. Further, the cores each have a propagation characteristic conforming to any one of a plurality of standards for optical propagation characteristics, and of the cores, cores that are closest to each other conform to standards different from each other.

A multi-fiber light guide includes: light guiding fibers, each fiber including an elongated glass core; a glass cladding, the cores being surrounded by the cladding to form a rigid and continuous glass element, the cores having a higher refractive index than the cladding such that light can be guided by a total reflection along the cores, which end in two abutting faces of the glass element such that light can be guided along the cores from one abutting face to the other abutting face; and an ion exchange layer at each of the abutting faces, the glass of the cores and the glass of the cladding including alkali ions, which are at least partly exchanged by alkali ions of a higher atomic number within the ion exchange layer at the abutting faces, the exchanged alkali ions within the ion exchange layer imparting a compressive stress at the abutting faces.

A method and apparatus to manufacture a coherent bundle of scintillating fibers is disclosed. A method includes providing a collimated bundle having a glass preform with capillaries therethrough known in the industry as a glass capillary array, and infusing the glass capillary array with a scintillating polymer or a polymer matrix containing scintillating nanoparticles.

A drawn glass element for producing glass optical waveguides is provided. The element has two first length portions with a first cross-sectional area and which define the two ends of the glass element; a second, intermediate length portion between the two first length portions, which has a second cross-sectional area smaller than the first cross-sectional area; a first transition portion between the intermediate length portion and one of the first length portions; and a second transition portion between the intermediate length portion and another of the first length portions. The first and second transition portions have a cross-sectional area that steadily changes and merges from the first cross-sectional area into the second cross-sectional area.

A disclosed multimode optical fiber comprises a core and a cladding surrounding the core. The core has an outer radius r.sub.1 in between 20 μm and 30 μm. The cladding includes a first outer cladding region having an outer radius r.sub.4a and a second outer cladding region having an outer radius r.sub.4b less than or equal to 45 μm. The second outer cladding region comprises silica-based glass doped with titania. The optical fiber further includes a primary coating with an outer radius r.sub.5 less than or equal to 80 μm, and a thickness (r.sub.5−r.sub.4) less than or equal to 30 μm. The optical fiber further includes a secondary coating with an outer radius r.sub.6 less than or equal to 100 μm. The secondary coating has a thickness (r.sub.6−r.sub.5) less than or equal to 30 μm, and a normalized puncture load greater than 3.6×10.sup.−3 g/micron.sup.2.