Corrosion-resistant optical fibers and waveguides

US5904983A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. · US

Inventors

• Maureen Gillen Chan · New Providence, US
• Daryl Inniss · Princeton, US
• Howard Edan Katz · Owings Mills, US
• Valerie Jeanne Kuck · Upper Montclair, US
• Marcia Lea Schilling · Berkeley Heights, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 23, 1997
• Grant date: May 18, 1999
• Expiry date: May 23, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T428/2964
• WIPO field: Materials, metallurgy
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

An optical fiber protected from degradation caused by corrosion from environmental fluids. The optical fiber includes a core-cladding assembly surrounded with a thin quasi metal oxide film (preferably .about.10 nm in depth). Over time, particularly under the influence of the elevated temperatures, the initially deposited reagents of the thin film oxidize or hydrolyze, removing the organic components, and bonding a quasi metal oxide film on the surface of the cladding. The resulting film significantly retards corrosion by blocking the environmental fluids from reacting with flaws in the cladding surface of the fiber, thus improving the mechanical performance and reliability of the optical fiber. In addition, the thin film protects the fiber against incidental abrasions. Alternatively, the quasi metal oxide reagents are deposited into a protective polymer layer of the fiber or a filling compound of a fiber cable, rather than directly onto the cladding surface, whereby the same protective effect is achieved when the reagents diffuse through the polymer layer or filling compound to the core-cladding surface.