CN-115279709-B - Method for manufacturing optical fiber preform

Abstract

A method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform is disclosed, the method comprising using a subtractive process on an optical monolith to define at least a transverse section of the optical fiber preform in the optical monolith, wherein the transverse section comprises at least two regions having different refractive indices. Also disclosed is an optical fiber preform manufactured according to the method and a method of assembling an optical component that uses a subtractive process to define a first interconnect feature in a first optical component or to define a first interconnect feature for use with the first optical component, uses a subtractive process to define a second interconnect feature in a second optical component or to define a second interconnect feature for use with the second optical component, and uses the first interconnect feature and the second interconnect feature to couple the first component and the second component together such that the coupling determines passive alignment of the first component and the second component.

Inventors

• ROBERT R. THOMSON
• C. ROSS

Assignees

• 赫瑞-瓦特大学

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20210310

Priority Date

20200310

Claims (14)

1. 1. A method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform, the method comprising: Using a subtractive process on an optical monolith to define at least two lateral slices of the optical fiber preform in the optical monolith, and Stacking and coupling the at least two transverse slices end-to-end to form a stacked optical fiber preform, Wherein each of the at least two lateral slices comprises at least two regions having different refractive indices.
2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subtractive process comprises laser-assisted etching.
3. 3. The method of claim 2, comprising laser writing a structure in the optical monolith and chemically etching the structure to obtain the lateral slices.
4. 4. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the subtractive process comprises removing arbitrarily shaped apertures and regions from each transverse slice such that the transverse slices comprise structured and/or hollow cores.
5. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling determines a passive alignment of the at least two lateral slices.
6. 6. The method of claim 1 or 5, wherein the coupling is achieved using at least one interconnection feature defined in at least one of the at least two lateral slices.
7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one interconnect feature in the at least one lateral slice is configured for direct or indirect coupling to another lateral slice.
8. 8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein the at least one interconnection feature is configured for coupling using one or more of a pin, dowel, ball, dovetail joint, threaded portion, ring, plug socket arrangement, self-centering detent.
9. 9. The method of any of claims 1-8, further comprising bonding the at least two lateral slices in the stacked optical fiber preform.
10. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the bonding comprises one or more of catalytic bonding, ultrafast laser bonding, optical contact bonding, or laser welding.
11. 11. A method according to any preceding claim, wherein the optical fibre preform is manufactured with a longitudinally varying core structure.
12. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the optical fiber preform is formed from two or more transverse slices having different core structures.
13. 13. A transverse slice of an optical fiber preform manufactured according to the method of any one of claims 1-12.
14. 14. An optical fiber preform manufactured according to the method of any one of claims 1-12.

Description

Method for manufacturing optical fiber preform Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform and a method of assembling an optical component such as an optical fiber preform. Background Conventional optical fibers are fabricated from solid glass preforms whose doped and undoped regions form the core and cladding regions in the optical fiber. Microstructured Optical Fibers (MOFs) are typically manufactured from a preform made from a bundle of rods and capillaries of one or more materials, but the physical arrangement of these microstructured optical fibers is such that the final fiber comprises a large air region. One example of such a fiber is a hollow core optical fiber, in which light is directed in the glass-free region of the fiber. MOFs include photonic crystal fibers, hollow core fibers, negative curvature, and antiresonant fibers, some of which are often used interchangeably. Such fibers are attracting great attention for various applications including fiber lasers and high power laser delivery for telecommunications, advanced manufacturing, high power transmission, nonlinear photonics, spectroscopy, and the like. In some cases, MOFs can exhibit a number of advantages over conventional optical fibers, including lower propagation loss, higher damage threshold, and wider spectral bandwidth. Currently, MOFs are manufactured using labor-intensive "stack draw" techniques in which glass capillaries or rods are precisely stacked side-by-side to form a preform, which is then heated and drawn to form a fiber. An example of a stacked MOF preform 100 is shown in FIG. 1, which includes a hexagonal array of closely but unevenly packed glass rods 102. In practice, the preform is any preform ranging from about 10cm long by 10mm wide to as many meters long by several tens of centimeters wide (e.g., about 50cm long by about 10mm wide). Fig. 2 shows an apparatus 200 for drawing such a preform 100 from a relatively short and wide structure into longer and thinner fibers 202. The preform 100 is held at the top end by a collet 204, the lower end of which is positioned within a heating chamber or furnace 206. As the lower end of the preform 100 melts, the fine fiber 202 is drawn down and wound onto a spool 208. The "stack draw" technique is very time consuming, labor intensive, and requires highly skilled personnel, making the manufacture of such MOFs expensive, wherein high reproducibility is challenging. In addition, fibers can only be produced in a limited number of preform patterns, and thus many MOF core designs desired by applications and industries cannot be manufactured. However, there is great interest in developing hollow core pure fused silica fibers and power delivery fibers for high peak power laser delivery for applications including low delay fiber links for data centers. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce costs so that MOFs can be more easily developed and utilized. Some work has been done using 3D printing techniques to make glass preforms for optical fiber manufacture, such as those described in "Silica optical fibre drawn from 3D printed preforms [ quartz fiber drawn from a 3D printed preform ]" opt. This manufacturing process is based on Ultraviolet (UV) curing of quartz nanoparticles suspended in a resin. However, the material finish is often poor, and thus the core characteristics are not yet well defined. Therefore, the quality of the obtained glass is low due to the presence of defects and impurities. It is therefore an object of the present disclosure to provide a method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform that solves one or more of the above problems or at least provides a useful alternative. Disclosure of Invention In general, the present disclosure proposes to overcome the above-mentioned problems by fabricating an optical fiber preform using subtractive techniques (e.g., laser-assisted etching) to directly define the core structure in a high-purity fused quartz substrate. Thus, a highly automated process is achieved, thereby facilitating complete control of the core structure. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform, the method comprising: Using a subtractive process on an optical monolith to define at least a transverse section of the optical fiber preform in the optical monolith, and Wherein the transverse section comprises at least two regions having different refractive indices. Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of manufacturing an optical fiber preform that uses a subtractive process to define at least a transverse section of the optical fiber preform from an optical monolith. Thus, a potentially faster, more accurate and repeatable process for manufacturing an optical fiber preform is achieved, which can then be drawn using conventional techniques to achieve a low cost (possibly hollow core) optical fiber. Advantag