Optical-fiber packaging and its influence on fiber straightness and loss

Glass fibers are in general not thick enough to withstand external forces on their own without suffering axial distortion, mode coupling, and loss. Thus, plastic jackets must be carefully designed to provide effective protection. We evaluate jacket designs ranging from the mere use of soft materials to the application of multiple plastic coatings and graphite reinforcement. We compute the distortion loss as a function of dimensional variations and of lateral forces considered typical for cable packaging. The protective quality of a jacket is found to depend on a combination of stiffness and compressibility and on the fiber characteristics.