OPTICAL TRANSMISSION LINE AND ITS METHOD OF MANUFACTURE

Abstract: A preform (25) for an optical fiber is produced with a graded index core, the core forming material being formed, or deposited, at high rates with a small number of layers, relative to conventional methods. The preform (25) is drawn to form a fiber, and the profile of the refractive index of the fiber has a very "coarse" or stepped form. While the modal dispersion can be larger than a conventional fiber, the overall modal dispersion of a transmission line composed of a plurality of lengths joined together does not increase at such a rate as with a conventional fiber. Also the fiber can be less sensitive to wavelength. As a result fiber, preforms, and transmission lines and cables, can be produced cheaper and yet still meet specification standards.

Description: This invention relates to optical fibers, and to preforms for the manufacture of optical fibers, and is particularly concerned with multimode fibers designed for telecommunication applications. The invention also relates to optical transmission lines and cables embodying a multiplicity of fibers in accordance with the invention Optical fibers, for example as used in telecommunications, suffer from various effects which detrimentally affect the signal, or signals, being transmitted. Amongst many detrimental effects, multimode fibers suffer from modal distortion, sometimes referred to as modal dispersion, in which the transmitted signal is distorted as a result of the differential travelling speed of the signal carried through many modes. The consequence of this effect is deterioration of bandwidth or information carrying capacity of the transmission system. Attempts have been made to reduce modal distortion and one particular form of fiber, (referred to as a "graded index" fiber), has a light transmitting core in which the refractive index (RI) varies across the diameter of the core, being highest at the center and lowest at the outer periphery. The curve of profile of RI plotted against the radius is of approximately parabolic form. A preform for an optical fiber is generally made by deposition of a silica glass on the inner wall of a glass tube, the deposition being made in a number of layers. A dopant is added to the deposited glass to vary the RI, and the amount of dopant is increased.at a predetermined rate during the deposition process. There is produced a composite layer formed of a number of individual layers each of a different - higher - RI than the previous one. In order to approximate as closely as possible to the optimum RI profile, a large number of individual layers, for example forty or more, are deposited. It will be appreciated that as the composite layer is formed of a plurality of individual layers, the actual RI profile is stepped. By depositing a large number of thin layers, the steps are made small and the actual RI profile becomes closer to the optimum profile. The present invention resides in making a preform, and forming a fiber from such a preform, in which, although the profile of RI of the light transmitting core is approximately of parabolic form, the number of individual layers deposited is reduced, and the thickness of each layer increased, relative to the conventional values. The profile is thus a rather coarse or crude approximation to the optimum profile. The Fodal distortion of such a fiber can be larger than that of a conventional fiber and would therefore appear to be of lower quality. However, when a plurlaity of such fibers are joined end-to-end, to form a transmission line, the modal distortion value, whilst still cumulative, does not rise at quite such a rate as in a conventional fiber. Further, a fiber in accordance with the present invention has modal distortion characteristics which are less sensitive to wavelength compared to a conventional fiber having a RI profile rore nearly approaching optimum. The invention will be understood by the following description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic transverse cross-section through a preform for an optical fiber; Figure 2 is a diagrammatic transverse cross-section through an optical fiber, to a larger scale than Figure 1; Figure 3 illustrates the RI profile for a graded index fiber for one form of fiber; Figure 4 illustrates the RI profile for another form of graded index fiber; Figure 5 illustrates diagra::matically in n"re detail the actual RI profile, similar to that of Figure 3, of a conventional fiber; Figure 6 illustrates diagrammatically in detail the actual RI profile of a fiber produced in accordance with -the present invention; Figure 7 illustrates diagrarr'.-.: :atically one form of apparatus for the manufacture of a preform; Figure 8 is a curve showing the deposition temperature profile. Illustrated in Figure 1, in transverse cross-section is a preform 10, of a normal conventional form, for the production of an optical fiber. Basically the preform comprises an outer tube 11, of fused silica, and an inner layer 12, of silica. The layer 12 is deposited on the inner wall of the tube 11, as is described later, the silica being doped, for example with germanium, to increase the RI. The concentration of the dopant is steadily increased during formation of the layer 12, in accordance with a predetermined, programme, to give radially varying RI, the highest RI being at the inner surface of the layer 12. The preform is then pulled into a fiber, either by first collapsing to a solid preform and then drawing, or by collapsing and drawing at the same time. After pulling into a fiber, the fiber is coated with a plastic material for protection and ease of handling. This is seen in Figure 2, which is a transverse cross-section of a fiber, with the light, or signal transmitting core at 15 and the cladding layer at 16. The plastic coating is at 17. The core 15 is formed from the layer 12 of the preform and the cladding 16 is formed from the tube 11. Figure 3 illustrates one-RI profile for fiber as in Figure 1. The core has a RI which is highest at the center and lowest at its outer surface, rcepresented by the curve 18, the RI of the cladding indicated at 19. Figure 4 illustrates the RI profile for a fiber of a slightly different form of fiber. A fiber having the RI profile of Figure 4 is formed from a preform which, for example, starts with a tube of predetermined RI and then a composite layer is deposited or formed by successive individual layers, as in Figure 1, but in this particular form, the deposited r,aterial first has a lower RI than that of the tube. Then the RI is increased by controlling the dopants i.e. two dopants, one of which decreases the RI of silica (e.g. boron) and the other which increases the Ri (e.g. germanium). For the same maximum RI, a larger RI difference or higher numerical aperture is obtained. The preform of Figure 1, and fiber of Figure 2, while exemplary of prior conventional preforms and fibers, are also exemplary of preforms and fibers in accordance with the present invention. Similarly, Figures 3 and 4 are exemplary of conventional fibers but are also exemplary of fibers in accordance with the present invention. The difference between the preforms, and fibers, of previous conventional manufacture and preforms and fibers in accordance with the present inventipn, is in the form of the deposited, or formed core material, corresponding to layer 12 of Figure 1 and the core 15 of Figure 2. The difference is in what can be termed the coarseness of the RI profile. Thus, as an example, in order to approximate as closely as possible to the optimum profile, conventionally a relatively high number of individual layers are deposited, or formed, forexample forty or nurse. Figure 5 illustrates very diagrammatically, the profile of RI, formed by approximately forty layers, giving the same number of steps. The RI does 0 not in fact vary in a smooth curve but in a series of steps corresponding to the number of individual layers. Figure 6 illustrates, again very diagrammatically, the RI profile as produced by the present invention. In the example shown, only fifteen individual layers have been formed, or deposited. Thus the actual profile is very "stepped", or coarse. A fiber core with a coarse, stepped, RI gradient is not as efficient with respect to modal distortion, as a fiber with a finer RI gradient, as in Figure 5. However, when lengths of fiber having the apparently less efficient core are joined together, to form a transmission line, the overall modal distortion is acceptable over the wavelengths between 700 and 1600 nm. Thus the invention is providing a preform which is easier and cheaper to make, and yet provides a transmission line having acceptable modal distortion characteristics over the operational wavelength range, contrary to expectations. It should be noted that the optimum index profile depends upon dopants and also the wavelength of the light sources. It has been well known that germanium, which is one of the? most commonly used dopants, gives a profile which is more sensitive to wavelength compared to the profile resulting from other dopants, such as phosphorus. Another significant feature of the modal distortion is that the pulse broadening due to the modal distortion is not linearly proportional to the link length when many fibers are spliced to form a concatenated link with, typically, a 10 km length. The deviation of the pulse broadening from a linear relationship to the link length is caused by the following two factors: (1) lode mixing (transition of modes caused by perturbations of the fiber such as splice, bending, imperfection O of the profile etc.) (2) Random deviation of the RI profile from the optimum profile, along the link length. One of the empirical formula used to designate the length dependent pulse broadening is: = = T1LPw or more conveniently, log (AT) = T1 + P.iog LI----------(2) where, T is the pulse broadening (ns) of the link with the length of L (Km), T1 is determined experimentally as the intersection of the least square fitted line at L = 1 Km using the formula (2), P is the parameter designating the length dependence. Numerous measurements have been made and fitted to the formula (2) giving T1 and P values. It was found the T1 was approximately equal to the averaged pulse broadening (ns/Km) of individual fibers if all the fibers had the same length of nearly 1 Km and also that the typical P values were between 0.6 and 0.8. For systems requirements, which are given as the pulse broadening for the repeater spacing, which may vary between 8 and 20 Km, appropriate fiber quality (pulse broadening) has to be determined taking into account the P value. - It will be clear that low quality fibers (large T1 or large averaged pulse broadening) with a low p value are equivalent to high quality fibers (small T1 or small averaged pulse broadening) with a high p value. Furthermore, as the system may be operated at various wavelengths, then the system requirement at each wavelength has to be met taking into account the T1 and p values at each wavelength. Furthermore, as stated above, the fiber with the *crude" index profile has modal distortion characteristics which are less sensitive to the wavelength compared to the conventional fiber. It should be noted that germanium has been considered as the dopant to control the RI for conventional fibers and for the present invention. As pointed out previously, the modal distortion is a sensitive function of the index profile if the RI is controlled by using germanium. This property of fibers made by using the current inversion has advantages over the conventional fibers when the installed cables are intended to be used at different wavelengths in the future. Figure 7 illustrates diagrammatically a form of apparatus for producing preforms. The apparatus of Figure 7 produces preforms by the so-called modified chemical vapour deposition method (McvD), as described in United States patent no. 4,217,027. A tube of fused silica 25 is mounted for rotation about a vertical, or horizontal, axis. Raw materials in liquid form are stored in reservoirs, for example SiCi4 in reservoir 26 and, GeC14 in reservoir 27 and, if desired, other additives or dopants in reservoirs 28. Any additive or dopant necessarily in gaseous form can be supplied from a cylinder 29. Oxygen is fed through pipes 30, controlled by valves 31 and passing through flowmeters 32, to bubble through the reservoirs, as desired. From'the reservoirs the oxygen and vapours pass via pipes 33 to a mixing chamber 34. A direct flow of oxygen also flows to the mixing chamber 34 via a pipe 35, control valve 36 and flow meter 37. From the mixing chamber 34, the mixed gases and vapours pass, via pipe 38, to one end of the tube 25. The tube is rotated about its longitudinal axis and the mixed gases and vapours flow through the tube. A burner 40 is transvered along the tube 25, the burner fed hydrogen and oxygen via pipes 41 and 42. At the heated position in the tube, indicated at 43, the gases and vapours dissociate and oxidation of the silicon occurs. The majority of the reaction takes place away from the inner wall of the tube, the products of the oxidation, particulate in form, being deposited on the inner wall of the tube. The deposit is then fused to form a glassy layer. Residual gases and vapours pass out of the other end of the tube 25. In a particular example, a fused silica tube 25 is used. This becomes what is referred to as the cladding layer, 16 in Figure 2. The core is formed of silica progressively doped with germanium the phosphorus level being constant. The germanium increases the RI of the core material and the phosphorus lowers the fusion temperature of the deposited reaction products. To obtain phosphorus, phosphorus oxychloride is provided in reservoir 28. As the burner traverses the tube, the flow of germanium containing vapour to the mixing chamber 34 is slowly increased, in accordance with a desired programme to give a RI profile which approximates to the optimum. However, instead of restricting deposition rates to give a predetermined thickness to each layer, with a 'large number of layers, to produce small steps in RI increase, the deposition rate is allowed to approach, or be at, the maximum, producing thicker layers. The number of layers, that is the number of passes of the burner, is smaller. By having a high rate of deposition and fewer layers, or passes, a preform can be produced quicker and cheaper. After the desired number of layers have been formed, for example fifteen, the flow of oxygen can be shut off and the burner shut off and the preform removed, later being put in a machine for collapsing and drawing to a fiber. Alternatively, the flow of vapours can be shut off by shutting off oxygen flow to reservoirs 26, 27 and 28, but the oxygen flow itself maintained. The temperature of the burner is increased and the burner tr'aversed slowly along the tube to collapse it to a solid preform. The solid preform can then be put in a fiber drawing apparatus for drawing to a fiber, or first positioned in a further fused silica tube which fits closely on the solid preform, the whole then drawn to a fiber. A typical example of the parameters for the process for a graded index fiber, is as follows. The reservoirs 26, 27 and 28 are positioned in a water bath within a cabinet or enclosure to provide a predetermined controllable temperature of the liquids in the reservoirs. In the example, the water bath temperature is approximately 27 C, with the temperature within the cabinet approximately 29"C. The oxygen flow rates througW the reservoirs is approximately 360cc/min through reservoir 26, SiC14, and varying from about 26cc/min to about 456cc/min through reservoir 27, GeC14, the lowest value at the start of the process and the highest value at the end. POC13 is stored in reservoir 28 and the oxygen now rate through reservoir 28 is about 51cc/min. The additional flow of oxygen, via pipe 35 in Figure 7, is about 160cc/min. The water bath temperature and oxygen flow rates are such as to give the desired amounts of the various materials in the: mixing chamber 34 and thus into the tube 25. With the above values, the burner 40 is traversed twenty times. With a tube 25 of 16mm internal diameter and 18 mm external diameter, and with a temperature at the hot zone inside the tube as in Figure 8, a fused thickness of about .53mum is obtained on the inner wall of the tube. The tube and deposit is collapsed by two passes of the burner, at a temperature of about 2000 C, to give a rod of about lOmm outside diameter. The flow of oxygen only is maintained during collapse. The rod is then inserted into a pure fused silica tube 16mm outside diameter and 12mum inside diameter and the whole assembly drawn to a fiber. A cleaning pass may be made at the beginning of the deposit process. The temperature of the water bath and oxygen fow rates can be varied to vary deposition.rate. Substantially the same thickness of deposit has been obtained with fifteen passes of the burner, with increased oxygen flows and slight increase in water bath temperature. The water bath temperature and oxygen flows can be varied independently. As seen in Figure 8, the temperature within the tube 25, at the hot zone, is increased during deposition. Again, Figure 8 is a typical example, and the actual temperature at the hot zone need not follow the curve of Figure 8. There may be slight variations in the temperature and the variation can be different. The actual number of passes of the burner, that is the number of layers deposited, can vary. In conventional processes forty or more. layers are formed, or deposited. With the present invention, twenty layers has been found to give a good optimum in rate of deposition and acceptable characteristics. Fifteen layers hias been found to be acceptable, and twenty five and thirty layers also. However at thirty layers, and above, the advantage of high deposition rate is decreasing rapidly and the lower deposition rates of conventional processes are approached without the particular advantages which can be obtained with a large' number of thin layers. Therefore the present invention is concerned with conventional total deposition thickness with less than about thirty layers. To form an individual cable length a plurality of fibers are assembled together. In one example, the fibers are positioned in circumferentially spaced grooves in a flexible, usually plastic, cylindrical support manner. Another form of cable length has the fibers positioned side-by-side, in a spaced apart relationship, to form a ribbon. Cable lengths are then joined together, by fusion splicing of the fibers for example, to form a transmission line or link. Various other forms of cable exist.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An optical fiber having a graded index core composed of a plurality of individual layers of silica glass, the refractive index of the layers increasing from the outer layer to the center of the core, characterized by the radial profile (18) of the refractive index of the core (15) being of stepped form departing significantly from a smooth profile of optimum, approximately parabolic, form, the mean refractive index profile of the layers closely following the smooth profile. 2. An optical fiber as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the plurality of layers being a maximum of about thirty. 3. An optical fiber as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the plurality of layers being a maximum of about twenty-five. 4. An optical fiber as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the plurality of layers being a maximum of about twenty. 5. An optical fiber as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the plurality of layers being about fifteen. 6, An optical fiber as claimed in claim 1, characterized by a cladding layer (16) of fused silica. 7. A preform for use in forming an optical fiber having a graded index core, comprising: a tube of fused silica and a plurality of layers of silica glass on an inside wall of the tube, the refractive index of the layers increasing from the outer layer to the inner layer, characterized by the radial profile (18) of the refractive index of the core (15) being of stepped form departing significantly from a smooth profile of optimum, approximately parabolic, form, the mean refractive indexwof the layers closely following said smooth profile. 8. A preform as claimed in claim 7, characterized by the plurality of layers being from about fifteen to about thirty. 9. A method of making a preform for the manufacture of an optical fiber, comprising: forming a plurality of layers of glass on an inside wall of a fused silica tube, the refractive index of the layers increasing from the outer layer to the inner layer, characterized by the radial profile (18) of the refractive index of the plurality of layers being of stepped form departing significantly from a smooth profile of optimum, approximately parabolic, form, the mean refractive index of the layers closely following said smooth profile. 10. A method as claimed in claim 9, characterized by mounting a tube (11, 25) of fused silica for rotation about a longitudinal axis; rotating the tube (11, 25), feeding a mixture of vapour and gases through the tube (25) the mixture being of oxygen, and a vapour containing a dopant, traversing a heating zone (40) relative to the tube (25) to react the mixture and form a fused layer (12) on the inner wall of the tube (11, 25), varying the amount of dopant supplied to the mixture to provide the increase in refractive index, repeating the traverse of the heating zone (40) a predetermined number of times less than about thirty. 11. A method as claimed in claim 10, characterized by the mixture reacting to form a particulate deposit on the inner wall downstream of the heating zone, the heating zone (40) fusing the deposit to form a layer. 12. A method as claimed in claim 11, characterized by the vapour containing silica being formed by bubbling oxygen through SiC14. 13. A method as claimed in claim 12, characterized by the vapour containing a dopant being formed by bubbling oxygen through Gel4. 14. A method as claimed in claim 13, characterized by the mixture including a further vapour formed by bubbling oxygen through phosphorus oxychloride. 75, A method as claimed in claim 13, characterized by increasing the flow of germanium containing vapour in accordance with a predetermined programme. 16. A method as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 15 characterized by increasing the temperature of the heating zone (40) to collapse the tube (11, 25) and formed layers (12) to a solid rod. 17. A method as claimed in claim 14, characterized by the flow of vapour containing phosphorus maintained constant. I 18. A method as claimed in claim 16, characterized by the tube (11, 25) and layers (12) being collapsed by traversing the heat zone (40) twice. 19. A method as claimed in claim 16, characterized by maintaining a flow of oxygen through the tube (11, 25) until it is collapsed. 20. A method as claimed in claim 10, characterized by the heating zone being formed by a burner (40) including feeding hydrogen and oxygen to the burner (40) at predetermined rates. 21. A method of forming an optical fiber characterized by the steps of forming a preform as claimed in claim 16, inserting the rod into a furnace and drawing the preform into a fiber. 22, A method of forming an optical fiber characterized by the steps of forming a preform as claimed in claim 16, inserting the rod into a tube of fused silica which is a close fit on the rod, inserting the rod and tube into a furnace and drawing the rod and tube to collapse the tube on to the rod and produce a fiber. 23. An optical fiber characterized by the method as claimed in claim 21 or claim 22. 24. A transmission line characterized by a plurality of lengths of optical fiber as claimed in claim 1. 25. A cable for optical transmission of signals comprisinq a plurality of transmission lines, each transmission line characterized by a plurality of lengths of optical fiber as claimed in claim 1. 26. An optical transmission line characterized by a plurality of optical fibers as claimed in claim 23. 27. A method of making a preform for an optical fiber, the preform having a composite layer of doped silica glass on an inside wal of a fused silica tube, characterized by forming between about fifteen and about thirty separate layers of doped silica glass to a total thickness of about .55mm, the doping of the layers being varied to give a stepped refractive index which increases radially inward, the mean refractive index profile of the layers closely following a smooth profile of optimum, approximately parabolic, form. 28. A method as claimed in claim 27, characterized by collapsing to a solid rod. 29. A method of making an optical fiber characterized by the steps of making a preform as claimed in claim 28 and drawing into a fiber. 30. A method of making an optical fiber characterized by the steps of making a preform as claimed in claim 28, inserting the rod into a tube of fused silica which is a close fit on the rod, and drawing the tube and rod into a fiber.

Inventors: ABE, KOICHI
Applicants: NORTHERN TELECOM LIMITED
Application year: 1981
Main classification: C03B37
IPC codes: C03B37, G02B6