摘要 |
An optical fiber having optical characteristics that vary along its length is made by assembling a plurality of cylindrical glass or soot tablets into or along a glass tablet alignment device, then fused into monolithic assembly. If desired, additional glass may be applied to the assembly before or after the fusing step. A vacuum is preferably applied during the fusing step. Each tablet preferably contains a core region, and it optionally contains a layer of cladding glass. Adjacent tablets are capable of forming optical fiber sections having different optical properties. Prior to consolidating the glass particles, chlorine preferably flows through or around the tablets and alignment device. The resultant draw blank can be drawn into a low loss optical fiber having short transition regions between adjacent areas of fiber. This method is particularly useful for making dispersion managed single-mode optical fibers.
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