Patent ID: 6983096

Claim:
An apparatus for attenuating cladding modes in an optical fiber comprising: a first support comprising a plurality of parallel, spaced-apart corrugations; a second support comprising a plurality of parallel, spaced-apart corrugations, the second support facing the first support; the corrugations of the first and second supports having round cross sections with diameters ranging from about 0.5 mm to about 2 mm and the corrugations of the first and second supports are spaced apart by a distance ranging from about 0.75 mm to about 2.5 mm; the corrugations of the second support being parallel with the corrugations of the first support but offset from the corrugations of the first support so that central axes of the corrugations of the second support are disposed laterally between central axes of the corrugations of the first support; and a clamping mechanism for moving at least one of the first or second supports toward the other with a fiber lying transversely across the corrugations of the first and second supports to enable the corrugations of the first and second supports to impart a plurality of micro-bends into the optical fiber.