A method of processing glass filament comprises: providing a length of glass filament from which a portion is to be separated from the remainder of the filament; directing energy onto the filament in order to cause a decrease in a width of the filament at a desired location for separation of the portion; and causing relative longitudinal movement between the portion and the remainder of the filament to separate the portion from the remainder of the filament at the desired location.

Apparatus and method for producing elongated glass components with low bow. The apparatus may include a heating element to heat a bulk glass component where a strand may be drawn from the bulk glass component in a downward direction and a gripper device including a clamping element to support the strand while pulling or drawing it from the bulk glass component in a linear motion, and a low-friction mounting element attached to the clamping element which allows translational movement of the clamping element in an x-y plane. The gripper device may further be used to reduce bow in the strand while it is being drawn by moving the clamping element on the mounting element in a direction opposite the direction of any measured transverse acceleration.

A method for manufacturing a fan-in-fan-out device which does not require processing of a small-diameter hole and improves work efficiency of installation of an optical fiber, includes: arranging a first holding member in a hole of a second holding member, the hole being larger than an outer diameter of the first holding member, and holding a plurality of optical fibers between the first holding member and the second holding member respectively along a plurality of grooves formed on an outer periphery of the first holding member or an inner periphery of the hole of the second holding member; heating and integrally melting the arranged first holding member, the plurality of held optical fibers, and the second holding member in a portion including an axial end portion of the second holding member; and drawing the melted portion.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and elongating the primary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that a secondary preform is formed which has an outer diameter ranging from 30 to 90 mm, and at least one of the end faces of the anti-resonant element preforms is closed prior to drawing the fiber.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform, including a process of elongating the primary preform in order to directly form the hollow-core fiber or to form the secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that a primary preform with an outer diameter ranging from 20 to 70 mm is used for the elongation process.

A method of fabricating an optical fiber, the method including providing a core portion including a doped portion having greater than or equal to 1.6 wt. % of a halide dopant and eliminating seed precursor sites at an exterior surface of the core portion, the seed precursor sites forming seeds in the optical fiber, wherein the eliminating the seed precursor sites includes one or more of: (i) fabricating the core portion by densifying an exterior portion of a silica soot body prior to exposing the silica soot body to the halide dopant, and (ii) exposing the exterior surface of the core portion to a reactive etchant. The method further including forming an optical fiber preform by applying cladding material to the exterior surface of the core portion and drawing the fiber preform into the optical fiber.

A multicore fiber is provided that includes a plurality of elliptical cores spaced apart from one another. Each of the plurality of elliptical cores has an elliptical shape. The multicore fiber also includes a cladding surrounding the plurality of elliptical cores.

A method of producing a quartz glass optical component is provided. The method includes providing a cylindrical quartz glass body made of core rod glass and cladding glass. The quartz glass body has a square cut first end having a first outer diameter. The method further includes providing a glass handle having a first end and an opposing square cut second end having a second outer diameter which is between 50% and 110% of the first outer diameter; attaching the square cut end of the glass handle to that of the quartz glass body; and using the glass handle to guide the quartz glass body through a draw furnace. A distortion in a clad-to-core ratio proximate the interface of the cylindrical quartz glass body and the glass handle is less than 5%.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and elongating the primary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that a cladding tube is provided with an outer diameter ranging from 90 to 250 mm and a length of at least 1 m; tubular structural elements are provided, at least some of which have a wall thickness ranging from 0.2 to 2 mm and a length of at least 1 m; and the structural elements are arranged in the cladding tube inner bore while the cladding tube longitudinal axis is vertically oriented, the upper end face of each structural element being positioned at the target position.

Methods for preform and tube draw based on controlling forming zone viscosity determined by calculating a holding force exerted by the glass component in the forming zone on the strand being drawn below. The holding force may be calculated by determining a gravitational force applied to the strand and a pulling force applied to the strand by a pulling device, where the holding force is equal to the opposite of the algebraic sum of the gravitational and pulling forces. The holding force may also be calculated by measuring a stress-induced birefringence in the strand at a point between the forming zone and the pulling device, determining an amount of force applied to the strand at the point corresponding to the birefringence, and calculating the holding force by correcting the amount of force for a gravitational effect of the weight of the strand between the forming zone and the point.