Method of fabricating a polarization retaining single-mode optical waveguide

摘要

A method of making a glass optical fiber having a core surrounded by cladding containing diametrically opposed regions of different TCE than the cladding. Three manufacturing techniques are disclosed. (1) A first glass rod having core and cladding glass is placed centrally in a glass tube. Rods of glass having a TCE different from that of the cladding glass are put on opposite sides of the first rod. Rods of cladding glass are placed in the interstices. (2) A soot preform is deposited on a rotating mandrel. In one embodiment, mandrel rotation is halted to deposit one longitudinally extending region and then rotated 180 DEG to deposit the other such region. In a modified embodiment the mandrel continuously rotates and the deposition burner is continuously supplied with reactant gas for forming a base glass and is also provided with pulses of a reactant gas for modifying the base glass to form the diametrically opposed regions. (3) A CVD process is modified by inserting a pair of tubes into the substrate tube when the longitudinally extending regions are to be deposited. There is passed between the first tube and the pair of tubes a gas which reacts to form particles of a base glass and there is passed through the pair of tubes another gas which reacts to form dopant glass particles which combine with base glass particles to form longitudinal strips of doped base glass within the tube.