Fiber Materials

Freeda Yesudas

Requirements.
It must be possible to make long, thin and flexible fibers
from materials.
Material must be transparent at a particular optical
wavelength.
Physically compatible materials that have slightly different
r.i for the core and cladding must be available

Materials
Glasses
a. Silica or silicate
i. High loss glass fibers
with large core used for
short transmission
distance
ii. Low loss fibers employed
in long haul applications.

i.

Plastics ( less widely used high attenuation than glass fibers).

Short distance applications and in abusive environment (100s
of meters).

Glass fibers
Made by fusing selenide, sulfides, or oxides- randomly
connected molecules
Glass do no have a well defined melting point.
When glass is heated up from room temp-it remains solidseveral 100s of degree centigrade.
Melting temperature- extended temperature range in
which the glass become fluid

Glass fibers
The large category of optical transparent glass from
which optical fiber are made consist of oxide glassessilica (1.458 at 850nm)
Adding fluorine or various oxides-,
- the r.i increases, fluorine and r.i decreases.
Glass composed of pure silica- silica glass, fused silica,
vitreous silica.

Properties
Resistance to deformation at temp as high as 1000
degree C,
High resistance to breakage from thermal shock because
of its low thermal expansion,
good chemical durability and
high transparency in both ir and visible region.

Halide glass fiber

Low transmission loss at mid infrared region (0.20.8microm)
Anions are from group VII of the periodic table-fluorine,
chlorine, bromine and iodine.
ZBLAN fluoride glass(Zr, Ba, La Al, Na)- core
lower refractive
ZHBLAN- partially replaces Zr by
Ha
index glass
Although it gives min loss-(0.01-0.001dB/km) fabricating
long length is difficult.

Cont.
Ultrapure materials must be used to reach this low loss
level.
Fluoride glass is prone to devitrification

Active glass fiber

Incorporating rare earth elements (atomic numbers 57 71) converts normal passive glass fiber into new materials
with new optical and magnetic properties.
The new materials perform amplification, attenuation and
phase retardation on the passing light
Doping can be carried out for silica, tellurite and halide
glasses
Commonly used materials are Erbium and Neodymium

Plastic material
Plastic fiber has poor optical qualities as compared to glass.
Plastic fibers are more economical over short distances for
slower speeds
Plastic-Clad Silica Fiber.
The above fiber uses a high quality glass core, clad with a low cost
plastic sheathing.
The cost and performance of plastic-clad Silica fiber is a compromise
between the all-glass and all plastic fibers.

Plastic optical fiber

High demand for delivering high speed services to the work station require high

bandwidth graded index polymer (plastic) optical fibers (POF).

POFs are used within the premises of user.
Fiber with core of polymethylmethacrylate referred as (PMMA POF)
Fiber with core of perfluorinated polymer is referred as PF POF
POFs have greater attenuation as compared to glass fibers.
POFs are tough and durable as compared to glass fibers
Modulus is two order of magnitude smaller than the glass fiber so flexible to install.
Compared with glass fiber the core diameter is 10 20 times larger
Inexpensive plastic injection moulding technologies can be used to fabricate
connectors, splices and transceivers

References
Gerd keiser third edition- Optical Fiber Communications.

Thank you