The performance of depressed-cladding single-mode fibers with different b/a ratios

Depressed-cladding single-mode fibers with a first cladding-to-core ratio (b/a) ranging from seven to one and relative refractive-index differences of the core from 0.25 to 0.35% and of the cladding from 0 to -0.2% are investigated experimentally with respect to the LP/sub 11/ mode cutoff properties, the mode-field diameter, the dispersion, and the bending attenuation. Numerical calculations based on actual profile parameters of the bend loss and the mode-field diameter agree well with experiment. It is demonstrated that low attenuation and bend losses independent of b/a can be obtained if the cutoff wavelength is kept constant by adjusting the core radius, the core index or the index of the first cladding.<
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