The “Halo Effect”
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Performance Under Tight Bends
It’s not unusual these days for optical fiber to be installed under bends as low as 15 mm in diameter. But even under these demanding conditions, signal quality cannot be sacrificed. Therefore, manufacturers are continuously innovating new methods to improve fiber bend performance. Read More…
High Power Under Tight Bends
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Laser-induced Damage to Large Core
Optical Fiber by High Peak Laser Power
Adapted from manuscript by Dr. Xiaoguang Sun and Dr. Jie Li | rewrite by Anthea Croghan
As medical applications are demanding optical fibers to transmit with increasingly higher peak powers and smaller bend diameters, it has become necessary to test and develop fibers that can perform under these strenuous conditions. A study recently completed by Dr. Xiaoguang Sun and Dr. Jie Li of OFS examined laser damage to large core multimode glass optical fibers from high peak laser power, providing important insight into the damage mechanism for a particular failure mode. A two-point bend tester was used on fiber samples prepared with polymer coatings, having different refractive indices. It was found that peak power was one of the main determining factors in performance among the samples. Polymer coatings with lower refractive indices were found to significantly improve fiber resistance to bending while transmitting. Read More…