Heraeus Quarzglas GmbH & Co. KG

The invention relates to microstructured optical fibers that are drawn through hollow channels and have a core region, which extends along a fiber longitudinal axis, and a jacket region surrounding the core region. The aim of the invention is to reduce a damping increase due to corrosion and to reduce the emission of chlorine on the basis of the microstructured optical fibers. This is achieved in that at least some of the hollow channels are delimited by a wall material made of synthetic quartz glass which has a chlorine concentration of less than 300 wt. ppm and oxygen deficiency centers in a concentration of at least 2×1015 cm-3.

An anti-resonant hollow-core fiber includes a fiber cladding having an inner bore, a fiber longitudinal axis, and a fiber core radius R_Faser, and a number of anti-resonance units, each including an ARE element, an NE element, and a DNE element. The anti-resonance units are mutually spaced and are arranged so as to have no contact with one another at desired positions on an inner side of the inner bore. In the anti-resonance units, the ARE element has a circular cross section, the NE element is arranged in a first interior of the ARE element, and the DNE element is arranged at least partially into a second interior of the NE element.

Methods for producing a multicore fiber comprise a method step in which a component group is reshaped to form the multicore fiber or a pre-form for the multicore fiber, which comprises a hollow cylinder comprising a central bore and a hollow cylinder longitudinal axis, which hollow cylinder comprises a cladding glass region made of cladding glass and a plurality of core glass regions occupied by a core glass, wherein at least part of the central bore is occupied by a glass filling material. In order to provide a method for producing multicore fibers without central signal core, in which the risk of rejects during the completion of the hollow glass cladding cylinder is reduced, a marker element made of marker glass adjacent to the glass filling material is used, which extends along the longitudinal axis of the central bore.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and elongating the primary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that the step of providing and/or arranging the anti-resonant element preforms and/or the process of carrying out a hot-forming process includes a fixation measure and/or a sealing measure using an amorphous SiO 2 particle-containing sealing or joining compound.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and elongating the primary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that while carrying out a process according to step (c), components of the primary preform made of quartz glass and/or parts surrounding the primary preform made of quartz glass are heated and softened together, wherein the quartz glass of at least one of the preform components and/or the quartz glass of at least one of the parts surrounding the preform contains at least one dopant which decreases or increases the viscosity of quartz glass.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform, including a process of elongating the primary preform in order to directly form the hollow-core fiber or to form the secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that a primary preform with an outer diameter ranging from 20 to 70 mm is used for the elongation process.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; and elongating the primary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that while further processing the primary preform according to step (c), an external layer cylinder is used which has a radial viscosity profile such that the viscosity increases towards the interior of the external layer cylinder.

Optical components in the form of anti-resonant hollow-core fibres or preforms therefor contain a hollow core, a jacket with a circumferential inner side that faces the hollow core, and anti-resonant structural elements. In order to provide a method for producing an optical component with anti-resonant structural elements of a first type, which depart from the circular or oval shape and which are respectively of arcuate design in cross section as seen in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the component, with a left-hand arc end and with a right-hand arc end and with a bulge towards the hollow core, wherein the arc ends are connected to the inside of the jacket at contact points and, together with the inside of the jacket, span a curvature surface, the present document proposes a method.

Methods are known for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber which has a hollow core extending along a fiber longitudinal axis and an inner jacket region that surrounds the hollow core, said jacket region comprising multiple anti-resonant elements. The known methods have the steps of: providing a cladding tube that has a cladding tube inner bore and a cladding tube longitudinal axis along which a cladding tube wall extends that is delimited by an interior and an exterior; providing a number of tubular anti-resonant element preforms; arranging the anti-resonant element preforms at target positions of the interior of the cladding tube wall, thereby forming a primary preform which has a hollow core region and an inner jacket region; further processing the primary preform in order to form a secondary preform, including an elongation process; and drawing the secondary preform in order to form the hollow-core fiber. The aim of the invention is to achieve a high degree of precision and an exact positioning of the anti-resonant elements in a sufficiently stable and reproducible manner on the basis of the aforementioned methods. This is achieved in that after the primary preform is elongated, at least some of the formerly tubular anti-resonant element preforms of the primary preform have an oval outer cross-sectional shape with a longest cross-sectional axis A L and a shortest cross-sectional axis A K , wherein the ratio A L /A K of the length of the axes ranges from 1.01 to 1.27, and the shortest cross-sectional axis A K runs in a radial direction when viewed from the cladding tube longitudinal axis.

The invention relates to microstructured optical fibers that are drawn through hollow channels and have a core region, which extends along a fiber longitudinal axis, and a jacket region surrounding the core region. The aim of the invention is to reduce a damping increase due to corrosion and to reduce the emission of chlorine on the basis of the microstructured optical fibers. This is achieved in that at least some of the hollow channels are delimited by a wall material made of synthetic quartz glass which has a chlorine concentration of less than 300 wt. ppm and oxygen deficiency centers in a concentration of at least 2×1015 cm-3.