摘要 |
The inert or oxidizing auxiliary gases used in the manufacture of optical waveguides often contain traces of water which can be the cause of disruptive OH groups in the glass fiber. According to the invention, this disruption is overcome by reducing the hydroxyl content of optical waveguides by treating the auxiliary gases with heavy water (D2O), so as to replace the hydrogen atom in the OH groups with deuterium, and then subjecting the gases to a drying step. Preferably, the auxiliary gases are subjected to a preliminary drying prior to treatment with D2O. |