Attenuation of multimode glass optical waveguides

Abstract

Glass optical waveguides show great promise of being the transmission medium for optical communication links. Single-mode waveguides have already been reported having a total attenuation of less than 20 dB/km. In this work we report measurements on the first low-loss multimode glass waveguide. These measurements include both total attenuation as a function of wavelength and total radiation attenuation at 632.8 nm. Total attenuation as low as 7 dB/km was observed near 1060 nm. This is due in part to fabrication techniques which diminished the OH concentration in the glass. A total radiation loss of 12.3 dB/km was measured that is higher than that predicted solely by Rayleigh scattering.