Optical fiber with reducing hydrogen sensitivity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9878943-B2
Application number	US-201715471344-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2017
Priority date	Jul 9, 2014
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a method of making an optical fiber with improved bend performance, the optical fiber having a core and at least one cladding layer, and a chlorine content in the in the last layer of the at least one cladding layer that is greater than 500 ppm by weight. The fiber is prepared using a mixture of a carrier gas, a gaseous chlorine source material and a gaseous reducing agent during the sintering of the last or outermost layer of the at least one cladding layer. The inclusion of the reducing gas into a mixture of the carrier gas and gaseous chlorine material reduces oxygen-rich defects that results in at least a 20% reduction in TTP during hydrogen aging testing.

First claim

We claim:

1. An optical fiber comprising a core and at least one cladding layer, the at least one cladding layer including a chlorine dopant concentration of at least 500 ppm by weight, the optical fiber containing less than 1 ppb by weight of OD groups and having a time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value at 23 ° C. of less than 100 hours upon exposure to a gas atmosphere having a total pressure of 1 atm and containing a partial pressure of 0.01 atm H 2 and a partial pressure of 0.99 atm N 2 .

2. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value is less than 80 hours.

3. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value is less than 60 hours.

4. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value is less than 40 hours.

5. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value is less than 30 hours.

6. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes a chlorine dopant concentration of at least 6000 ppm by weight.

7. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes a chlorine dopant concentration of at least 1000 ppm by weight.

8. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes a chlorine dopant concentration of at least 2000 ppm by weight.

9. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes a chlorine dopant concentration of at least 4000 ppm by weight.

10. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the at least one cladding layer is an overclad.

11. The optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the chlorine dopant concentration of the overclad is at least 1000 ppm by weight.

12. The optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the chlorine dopant concentration of the overclad is at least 2000 ppm by weight.

13. The optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the chlorine dopant concentration of the overclad is at least 4000 ppm by weight.

14. The optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes two or more cladding layers that differ in refractive index.

15. The optical fiber of claim 14 , wherein the two or more cladding layers include an inner cladding layer and the overclad, the inner cladding layer having a lower refractive index than the overclad.

16. The optical fiber of claim 10 , wherein the at least one cladding layer includes three or more cladding layers that differ in refractive index.

17. The optical fiber of claim 16 , wherein the three or more cladding layers includes a trench region between an inner cladding layer and the overclad, the trench region having a lower refractive index than the inner cladding layer and the overclad.

18. The optical fiber of claim 1 , wherein the time-to-peak (TTP) hydrogen aging value is less than 20 hours.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Bookbinder Dana Craig
• Desorcie Robert Brett
• Matthews Iii Hazel Benton
• Tandon Pushkar

Classifications

• C03B2201/12

  doped with fluorine (C03B2201/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C03B2201/34

  doped with rare earth metals, i.e. with Sc, Y or lanthanides, e.g. for laser-amplifiers · CPC title

• C03C25/1061

  Inorganic coatings · CPC title

• C03B2201/32

  doped with aluminium (C03B2201/36 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C03C25/66 Primary

  Chemical treatment, e.g. leaching, acid or alkali treatment (dehydroxylation C03C25/64) · CPC title