APPLICABILITY OF SOL-GEL PROCESSING IN PRODUCTION OF SILICA-BASED OPTICAL FIBERS

The production of silica based optical fibres is a mature technology a nd the chemical vapour deposition techniques used to obtain high quali ty glass are now well established. Sol-gel technology is associated wi th glassmaking at relatively low temperatures and since the early 1980 s has been actively studied in many leading laboratories all over the world; over the past decade the number of scientific publications in t he field has dramatically increased. At present there are still only a few industrial applications using sol-gel processing, but the potenti al is growing for high technology applications including optical mater ials. One problem is that production of sol-gel materials is not strai ghtforward and there are many experimental variables which require str ict specification. Here, the potential for applying sol-gel processing during the production of silica based optical fibres is addressed.