V. A. Bhagavatula

High-power performance of single-mode fiber-optic connectors

We measured the continuous wave (CW) laser-induced damage threshold of single-mode fiber-optic connectors at 1550 nm. Clean standard physical contact and angled physical contact connectors did not show any evidence of damage for 10 min exposures of 1 W or 3 W. Defective connectors with scratched or undercut endfaces showed identical high-power tolerance as clean connectors without defects. Samples contaminated with carbon black-doped acrylate showed drastic optical failure signatures at approximately 50 mW. Contaminated connectors with expanded mode field diameters ranging from 20 to 62 /spl mu/m showed higher failure thresholds than standard connectors with 10-/spl mu/m spot sizes. We observed that the optical failure threshold power level (P/sub failure/) increased linearly with spot size for the highly contaminated connectors used in this study.

Bend-optimized dispersion-shifted single-mode designs

A bend-optimized design for a dispersion-shifted single-mode fiber with segmented-core profile is described. With this design, dispersion-shifted fibers having the highest cutoff wavelengths reported to date have been achieved. Results on dispersion, attenuation, mode radius, bending, and microbending loss for such fibers are presented and compared to alternate designs.

Segmented-core single-mode fiber optimized for bending performance

The performance of a matched-clad single-mode fiber design presently under development is described. Fibers of this design, which is based on the segmented-core approach, have been fabricated with a higher delta than simple matched-clad step-index single-mode fibers without a sacrificial increase in either the fiber cutoff or zero dispersion wavelengths. The resulting improvements in both macrobending and microbending performance is detailed. >

Single-mode fiber design

With the increasing importance of monomode fibers, considerable thought has been devoted to design optimization. For telecommunications the technical goal of this work has been the simultaneous minimization of all forms of loss and dispersion over the widest possible wavelength region and with the broadest tolerance on key fiber parameters.