Atlanta Fiber System Experiment: Reproducibility of Optical Fibers Prepared by a Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition Process

A variety of multimode, low-loss glass fibers consisting of a core of germania borosilicate glasses and a cladding of fused quartz have been prepared over the past several years using the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process. The primary purpose has been to provide experimental glass fibers in response to in-house requests. Most of the early fibers used for prototype fiber optic cable studies leading to the Atlanta Fiber System Experiment 1 were prepared in this laboratory. The requests for fibers were seldom alike in terms of core/cladding dimensions, index profiles, index differences, and other properties. Although the conditions of preparation and properties of these fibers were monitored, it became desirable to establish the reproducibility of the process. Equally important, this would enable us to determine where and possibly how we should make improvements if needed. * Part of this work was presented as a paper at the First European Conference on Optical Fiber Communication at London, The Institute of Electrical Engineers, September 16-18, 1975. 1723