Abstract

By combining theoretical, numerical, and experimental analyses, this paper examines the continuous draw process that underpins the fabrication of microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) with the aim of quantifying the impact of material properties and drawing conditions on the hole structure in the finished fiber. First, by treating the continuous draw process as a steady-state isothermal extensional flow of a Newtonian material, three-dimensional (3-D) modeling clearly demonstrates how a combination of force effects can lead to dramatic hole deformation in the neck-down region-i) surface tension contributing to hole size collapse (particularly if the fiber contains small holes and is drawn slowly over a long distance), while ii) viscous effects are the major contributor to hole shape changes (particularly in cases where different size holes are in close proximity within the overall structure). Then the central role of the neck-down region in hole deformation is examined via nonisothermal numerical analysis. Results indicate that the shape of the neck-down region is highly sensitive to the viscosity profile and thus to temperature gradients. Finally, it is shown that predicted hole deformations agree well with experimental measurements made in drawing polymethylmethacrylate MOFs.

© 2005 IEEE

MicroStructure Element Method (MSEM): viscous flow model for the virtual draw of microstructured optical fibers

G. T. Jasion, J. S. Shrimpton, Y. Chen, T. Bradley, D. J. Richardson, and F. Poletti
Opt. Express 23(1) 312-329 (2015)

Predicting the drawing conditions for Microstructured Optical Fiber fabrication

Roman Kostecki, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Stephen C. Warren-Smith, and Tanya M. Monro
Opt. Mater. Express 4(1) 29-40 (2014)

Drawing of the hollow all-polymer Bragg fibers

Elio Pone, Charles Dubois, Ning Guo, Yan Gao, Alexandre Dupuis, Francis Boismenu, Suzanne Lacroix, and Maksim Skorobogatiy
Opt. Express 14(13) 5838-5852 (2006)

Fabrication of tubular anti-resonant hollow core fibers: modelling, draw dynamics and process optimization

Gregory T. Jasion, John R. Hayes, Natalie V. Wheeler, Yong Chen, Thomas D. Bradley, David J. Richardson, and Francesco Poletti
Opt. Express 27(15) 20567-20582 (2019)

Virtual draw of microstructured optical fiber based on physics-informed neural networks

Jinmin Ding, Chenyang Hou, Yiming Zhao, Hongwei Liu, Zixia Hu, Fanchao Meng, and Sheng Liang
Opt. Express 32(6) 9316-9331 (2024)