Abstract

Magnesium as a dopant for silica-based optical fibers has the potential advantages over germanium in the areas of profile stability and refractive power. Also, it can act as a modifier for aluminosilicate glass which can decrease the tendency toward crystallization. Using a variation of the outside deposition process, a method has been developed for fabricating optical fibers doped with magnesium. Single-mode fibers in the MgO-SiO₂ and MgO-AI₂O₃-SiO₂ system have been prepared by this method with minimum losses of 5 and 3 dB/km at 1.3 and 1.55 μm, respectively.

© 1988 Optical Society of America