Abstract: Abstract The article contains sections titled: 1. Introduction 2. Structure of Optical Fibers 2.1 Basic Structure 2.2 Multimode Fibers 2.3 Single‐mode Fibers 2.4 Dispersion‐modified Fibers 2.4.1 Dispersion‐shifted Fibers 2.4.2 Nonzero Dispersion‐shifted Fiber 2.4.3 Dispersion‐flattened Fibers 2.5 Functional Fibers 2.5.1 Dispersion‐compensating Fibers 2.5.2 Rare‐earth‐doped Fibers 2.5.3 Polarization‐maintaining Fibers 3. Raw Materials and Production 3.1 Silica Fibers 3.1.1 Preform Production 3.1.1.1 Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) Method 3.1.1.2 Outside Vapor Deposition (OVD) Method 3.1.1.3 Vapor‐Phase Axial Deposition (VAD) Method 3.1.1.4 Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition (PCVD) Method 3.1.2 Fiber Drawing 3.2. Non‐silica Fibers 3.2.1 Multicomponent Glass Fibers 3.2.2 Plastic Cladding Fibers 3.2.3 All‐plastic Fibers 3.2.4 Infrared Fibers 4. Characterisitics of Optical Fibers 4.1 Transmission Loss 4.2 Dispersion 4.3 Multimode Dispersion 4.3.1 Chromatic Dispersion 4.3.2 Polarization Mode Dispersion 4.4 Nonlinearity 5. Reliability of Optical Fibers 5.1 Mechanical Strength 5.2 Hydrogen‐induced Loss Increase 5.3 Radiation‐induced Loss Increase 6. Applications of Optical Fibers 6.1 Optical Fiber Cables 6.2 Fiber Connection Technologies 6.3 Optical Fiber Sensors 7. Future Prospects 7.1 New Fibers 7.1.1 Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) 7.1.2 Holey Fiber (HF) 7.1.3 Photonic Band‐gap Fiber (PBGF) 7.2 New Systems 7.2.1 Soliton System 7.2.2 Code Division Multiplex (CDM) The optical fiber is one of the most important key technologies that support the current information technology (IT) era. Optical fibers are now widely used not only as an excellent transmission medium for optical communication but also as optical functional devices, such as optical amplifiers. Both optical fibers and their manufacturing technologies have evolved dramatically toward higher performance and improved productivity. Their applications have also been expanded from optical communication to a variety of fields, such as optical sensors. This article reviews various aspects of optical fibers: structures & materials, fabrication techniques, optical characteristics & reliability, and applications.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-12-15
Language: en
Type: other
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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