GB2215481A - Optical fibres - Google Patents
Optical fibres Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- GB2215481A GB2215481A GB8805645A GB8805645A GB2215481A GB 2215481 A GB2215481 A GB 2215481A GB 8805645 A GB8805645 A GB 8805645A GB 8805645 A GB8805645 A GB 8805645A GB 2215481 A GB2215481 A GB 2215481A
- Authority
- GB
- United Kingdom
- Prior art keywords
- fibre
- polariser
- metal
- polarisers
- fibre optic
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Withdrawn
Links
- 230000003287 optical effect Effects 0.000 title description 2
- 239000000835 fiber Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 40
- 229910052751 metal Inorganic materials 0.000 claims abstract description 19
- 239000002184 metal Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 19
- 239000011521 glass Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 9
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 claims description 9
- 238000007526 fusion splicing Methods 0.000 claims description 4
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 claims description 3
- 239000013307 optical fiber Substances 0.000 abstract description 4
- VYPSYNLAJGMNEJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Silicium dioxide Chemical compound O=[Si]=O VYPSYNLAJGMNEJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 8
- 239000000377 silicon dioxide Substances 0.000 description 4
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 3
- 229910001338 liquidmetal Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 229910052709 silver Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 239000004332 silver Substances 0.000 description 2
- 239000007787 solid Substances 0.000 description 2
- GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N Gallium Chemical compound [Ga] GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 230000008033 biological extinction Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000005253 cladding Methods 0.000 description 1
- 239000011248 coating agent Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000000576 coating method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000001419 dependent effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000374 eutectic mixture Substances 0.000 description 1
- 230000004927 fusion Effects 0.000 description 1
- 229910052733 gallium Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 229910052738 indium Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- APFVFJFRJDLVQX-UHFFFAOYSA-N indium atom Chemical compound [In] APFVFJFRJDLVQX-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 1
- 235000012054 meals Nutrition 0.000 description 1
- QSHDDOUJBYECFT-UHFFFAOYSA-N mercury Chemical compound [Hg] QSHDDOUJBYECFT-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 229910052753 mercury Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 150000002739 metals Chemical class 0.000 description 1
- 238000000926 separation method Methods 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
- G02B6/26—Optical coupling means
- G02B6/27—Optical coupling means with polarisation selective and adjusting means
- G02B6/2726—Optical coupling means with polarisation selective and adjusting means in or on light guides, e.g. polarisation means assembled in a light guide
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/012—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01205—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01211—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments by inserting one or more rods or tubes into a tube
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/012—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01205—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments
- C03B37/01211—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments by inserting one or more rods or tubes into a tube
- C03B37/01217—Manufacture of preforms for drawing fibres or filaments starting from tubes, rods, fibres or filaments by inserting one or more rods or tubes into a tube for making preforms of polarisation-maintaining optical fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/02—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor
- C03B37/025—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor from reheated softened tubes, rods, fibres or filaments, e.g. drawing fibres from preforms
- C03B37/027—Fibres composed of different sorts of glass, e.g. glass optical fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B37/00—Manufacture or treatment of flakes, fibres, or filaments from softened glass, minerals, or slags
- C03B37/01—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments
- C03B37/02—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor
- C03B37/025—Manufacture of glass fibres or filaments by drawing or extruding, e.g. direct drawing of molten glass from nozzles; Cooling fins therefor from reheated softened tubes, rods, fibres or filaments, e.g. drawing fibres from preforms
- C03B37/027—Fibres composed of different sorts of glass, e.g. glass optical fibres
- C03B37/02709—Polarisation maintaining fibres, e.g. PM, PANDA, bi-refringent optical fibres
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/10—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type
- G02B6/105—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings of the optical waveguide type having optical polarisation effects
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2203/00—Fibre product details, e.g. structure, shape
- C03B2203/30—Polarisation maintaining [PM], i.e. birefringent products, e.g. with elliptical core, by use of stress rods, "PANDA" type fibres
-
- C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
- C03—GLASS; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL
- C03B—MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES
- C03B2203/00—Fibre product details, e.g. structure, shape
- C03B2203/32—Eccentric core or cladding
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
- General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
- Geochemistry & Mineralogy (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Materials Engineering (AREA)
- Organic Chemistry (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Optics & Photonics (AREA)
- Glass Compositions (AREA)
Abstract
A fibre optic polariser made by inserting into a tubular member, an optical fibre preform having a part-circular across-section and a stack of part-circular glass plates which are metal coated on one side, and then pulling the assembly at elevated temperature to form it into a long fibre and finally cutting the fibre into sections, each section forming a fibre optic polariser.
Description
PATENT APPLICATION FOR A FIBRE POLARISER 1. INTRODUCTION
There are many applications which require fibre optic polarisers. Conventionally these have been made either by utilising a differential polarising mechanism in highly birefringent fibres, or arranging for a metal surface to be placed near the core of an optical fibre, or by arranging for a dielectric followed by a metal surface to be placed near the surface of the core.
A More recent technique (ref 1) enabled fibre polarisers to be made by the following process: An optical fibre preform, Figure l(a), is machined suc that it forms a
D shape in cross-section as shown in Figure l(b). The D shaped preform is then placed into a glass capillary (for silica based fibres the capillary would be preferably made form silica), which now forms the fibre polariser preformfigure l(c). On drawing into a fibre using well known fibre manufacturing techniques, the resulting fibre has a D-shaped hole along its length as shown in Figure l(d). This hole can be filled, or partially filled, with a liquid metal such as mercury, or a eutectic mixture such as Indium
Gallium.By choosing the fibre dimensions and optical parameters such as core diameter, refractive index profiles and core to metal distance, a fibre polariser can be made optimised to work at a specified wavelength or range of wavelengths.
In a variant of the above scheme, a material such as silver is placed into the hole prior to fibre drawing, and the resulting fibre can be cut up into lengths each one of which is a fibre polariser.
The disadvantages of the above approach are that: i) The liquid metal polarisers are difficult to join, especially with fusion splicing techniques.
ii) The solid metal polarisers are difficult to cleave and also to join with fusion splicing techniques.
2. THE INVENTION
The purpose of this patent is to provide an improvement to the above technique whereby the drawn fibre could be cut up into lengths of fibre polarisers. The resulting fibre polarisers would be compatible with existing fusion splice technology The fabrication steps are as shown in Figure 2. An optical fibre preform is machined into a D-shaped fibre preform and inserted into a capillary - Figures 2(a)-(c). A sheet of glass is metal coated on one side, Figure 2(d), and cut up into "D-shaped" segments, Figure 2(e), which are inserted into the D-shaped hole as shown in Figure 2(f).
The resulting preform is then pulled into a fibre Figure 2(g), which can be cut up into fibre polarisers as shown in
Figure 2(h). These fibre polarisers have solid silica ends and a metal insert which provides the polarising action.
Suitable metals are those that are compatible with the fibre drawing process, for example silver. The thickness of the metal coating can be determined from the drawing ratio and the length of meal required in the final fibre. For example, if the drawing ratio is 104 and the length of metal in the resulting fibre is required to be 20mm, then the required thickness is 20xlO 4mm, or 2um. The thickness of each glass plate will practically be in the range 100 lOOOum.
The length of metal required in the fibre polariser would be dependent on the the type of metal, the required polarising extinction ratio, the numerical aperture of the core, and the thickness of the core to metal separation.
These parameters can be calculated or arrived at empirically be those skilled in the art.
The technique could also be used to make fibre polarisers that are polarisation maintaining. These could be made if there was a stress producing sector in the cladding opposite to the D-shaped metal inset.
Alternatively, if the glass which the metal is deposited onto has a higher expansion coeffiecient than the silica from which the original fibre preform is made from, then the resulting fibre will be polarisation maintaining. Care would have to be taken here to ensure that the fibre or preform did not shatter during or after manufacture from the stresses that would be set up during cooling.
REFERENCES 1) Li L., Wylangowski G., Payne D.N. and Birch RD.r "Broadband metal/glass single-mode fibre polarisers",
Electron. Lett. 1986, PP 1020-1022.
Claims (3)
1. A fibre polariser containing an enclosed metal insert with glass ends
that is compatible with fusion splicing technology.
2. A fibre polariser made using the process described above.
3. A fibre optic polariser substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
3. A fibre polariser which is also polarisation maintaining and made by the' steps - described above.
Amendments to the claims
have been filed as follows 1. A fibre polariser containing an enclosed metal insert with glass ends that is compatible with fusion splicing technology.
2. A fibre optic polariser which has been made by inserting a cored fibre optic of part-circular cross-section into a tubular member, along with a stack of metal-coated part-circular glass plates, and then pulling or drawing the assembly at elevated temperature to form it into an elongate fibre.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB8805645A GB2215481A (en) | 1988-03-09 | 1988-03-09 | Optical fibres |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB8805645A GB2215481A (en) | 1988-03-09 | 1988-03-09 | Optical fibres |
Publications (2)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| GB8805645D0 GB8805645D0 (en) | 1988-04-07 |
| GB2215481A true GB2215481A (en) | 1989-09-20 |
Family
ID=10633143
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB8805645A Withdrawn GB2215481A (en) | 1988-03-09 | 1988-03-09 | Optical fibres |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| GB (1) | GB2215481A (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5309540A (en) * | 1991-10-29 | 1994-05-03 | Thomson-Csf | Optical fiber sensor and a manufacturing process for making same |
Families Citing this family (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN113608299B (en) * | 2021-08-11 | 2024-06-07 | 中国工程物理研究院激光聚变研究中心 | All-fiber polarizer and preparation method thereof |
| CN114114546B (en) * | 2021-11-22 | 2023-12-19 | 曲阜师范大学 | All-fiber polarizer based on hybrid plasmon waveguide structure |
Citations (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB2111973A (en) * | 1981-12-22 | 1983-07-13 | Western Electric Co | Lithographic method of making optical fiber preforms or fibers |
-
1988
- 1988-03-09 GB GB8805645A patent/GB2215481A/en not_active Withdrawn
Patent Citations (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB2111973A (en) * | 1981-12-22 | 1983-07-13 | Western Electric Co | Lithographic method of making optical fiber preforms or fibers |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5309540A (en) * | 1991-10-29 | 1994-05-03 | Thomson-Csf | Optical fiber sensor and a manufacturing process for making same |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| GB8805645D0 (en) | 1988-04-07 |
Similar Documents
| Publication | Publication Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| CA1277124C (en) | Method of making low loss fiber optic coupler | |
| CA1267803A (en) | Fiber optic coupler and method | |
| US5295210A (en) | Optical waveguide fiber achromatic coupler | |
| Bréchet et al. | Singlemode propagation into depressed-core-index photonic-bandgap fibre designed for zero-dispersion propagation at short wavelengths | |
| US4083625A (en) | Optical fiber junction device | |
| US4490163A (en) | Method of manufacturing a fiber-optical coupling element | |
| US6363089B1 (en) | Compression-tuned Bragg grating and laser | |
| EP0357429B1 (en) | Polarization-Maintaining optical fiber for coupler fabrication | |
| KR100272325B1 (en) | Optical fiber amplifier and coupler | |
| US4728170A (en) | Single mode optical fibre attenuators | |
| EP0637762A4 (en) | Polarized wave holding optical fiber, production method therefor, connection method therefor, optical amplifier, laser oscillator and polarized wave holding optical fiber coupler. | |
| EP0431311A2 (en) | Achromatic fiber optic coupler and method of making it | |
| EP0469792A2 (en) | Optical communication system comprising a fiber amplifier | |
| US4767430A (en) | Optical fiber-device interconnection and method | |
| EP0607570A1 (en) | Fiber optic coupler and amplifier | |
| US5754720A (en) | Low loss fiber optic coupler and method | |
| EP1233290A2 (en) | Optical transmission line including a connected part of optical fibers and connecting method | |
| ES496375A0 (en) | AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF A FIBER OPTIC PREFORM | |
| GB2189900A (en) | Optical fibre devices | |
| GB2215481A (en) | Optical fibres | |
| US4444463A (en) | Glass fibers with transverse openings and methods of their production | |
| RU2155166C2 (en) | Method of manufacturing single-mode fiber-optic light guides retaining emission polarization | |
| EP1576400B1 (en) | Method for making an optical fibre having low splice loss | |
| EP0274855A1 (en) | Fibre optic components | |
| RU2062257C1 (en) | Workstock for single-mode fibre light guide with maintenance of radiation polarization |
Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAP | Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1) |