The increasing fields of applications for modern optical fibers present great challenges to the material properties and the processing technology of fiber optics. This paper gives an overview of the capabilities and limitations of established vapor deposition fiber preform technologies, and discusses new techniques for improved and extended doping properties in fiber preparation. In addition, alternative fabrication technologies are discussed, such as a powder-based process (REPUSIL) and an optimized glass melting method to overcome the limits of conventional vapor deposition methods concerning the volume fabrication of rare earth (RE)-doped quartz and high silica glasses. The new preform technologies are complementary with respect to enhanced RE solubility, the adjustment of nonlinear fiber properties, and the possibility of hybrid fiber fabrication. The drawing technology is described based on the requirements of specialty fibers such as adjusted preform and fiber diameters, varying coating properties, and the microstructuring of fiber configurations as low as in the nanometer range.

In this study, a multimodal interferometer based on a suspended core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for simultaneous strain and temperature measurements is proposed. The structure is also employed for angle measurements. The sensor comprises a 3-mm-suspended core PCF between SMFs and is based on the combination of two multimodal interferences with different frequency fringe patterns. The interferometric patterns show different sensitivity responses to strain and temperature. Through a low-pass frequency filtering of the detected spectrum, the wavelength shift of the two patterns can be measured allowing the discrimination of strain and temperature effects with resolutions of 0.45 °C and 4.02 με, respectively. The sensor is also characterized for angle measurements showing a maximum sensitivity of 9.17 pm/° in the range from 0° to 90°. It is demonstrated that with this sensing structure is possible to obtain simultaneous measurement of bend angle and temperature with resolutions of 1.69 ° and 0.92 °C, respectively.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the interest of a consolidation process associated with the powder-in-tube technique in order to fabricate a long length of specialty optical fibers. This so-called Modified Powder-in-Tube (MPIT) process is very flexible and paves the way to multimaterial optical fiber fabrications with different core and cladding glassy materials. Another feature of this technique lies in the sintering of the preform under reducing or oxidizing atmosphere. The fabrication of such optical fibers implies different constraints that we have to deal with, namely chemical species diffusion or mechanical stress due to the mismatches between thermal expansion coefficients and working temperatures of the fiber materials. This paper focuses on preliminary results obtained with a lanthano-aluminosilicate glass used as the core material for the fabrication of all-glass fibers or specialty Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs). To complete the panel of original microstructures now available by the MPIT technique, we also present several optical fibers in which metallic particles or microwires are included into a silica-based matrix.

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An ultra-high sensitive strain sensor is proposed. The sensing head, based on the post-processing of a fiber Bragg grating, is used to perform passive and active strain measurements. Both wavelength and full width half maximum dependences with the applied strain are studied for the passive sensor, where maximum sensitivities of 104.1 pm/µε and 61.6 pm/µε are respectively obtained. When combining the high performance of this sensor with a ring laser cavity configuration, the Bragg grating will act as a filter and high resolution measurements can be performed. With the proposed sensor, a resolution of 700 nε is achieved.