Product Portfolio
Our large portfolio of optical fibers – including specialty fibers – spans from just a few meters of highly engineered fiber to several kilometers of SMF-28 compatible material. For a wide wavelength range we offer single mode (SM) fibers, multi mode (MM) fibers and polarization maintaining (PM) fibers as well as doped fibers or plastic optical fibers (POF).
Cover your specific requirements with features like extended temperature range, high core index of refraction, different numerical aperture, bend insensitivity, variations of cladding diameters or different coating options ranging from acrylate to aluminium or gold for very high temperatures . And if you can’t find the particular fiber in our catalog that meets your requirements, please contact the AMS Technologies optical fiber experts to discuss your customized optical fiber solution. Our suppliers have all the capabilities to design and fabricate a broad variety of optical fibers according to customer orders.
Related Products
Complementing our optical fiber offerings, AMS Technologies carries a large portfolio of fiber connectors, accompanied by a range of corresponding female mating sleeves and adapters. AMS Technologies can also offer an end-to-end solution for the assembly and test of fiber connectors that is exactly tailored to your requirements. In our broad portfolio you can find tools for stripping and cleaving your fibers, gluing and curing the fiber into the fiber connector using optical adhesives, polishing and cleaning of fiber optic end faces (especially important if the fiber is used with higher optical power), and finally testing your fiber connector with microscopes, interferometers as well as handheld and automated test equipment measuring return loss.
If you prefer pre-manufactured, ready to use fibers with the connectors already assembled to them, take a look at our range of SM, MM or PM patch cables. Shaped fiber tips or endcaps are further available options, improving the performance of the fiber-to-air interface, especially for high optical powers.
You need multiple fibers with or without connectors, manufactured, bundled and tested to your specifications? AMS Technologies has a proven track record of working with our OEM customers to design and build the most different configurations of bundled assemblies for a wide variety of photonics systems. Get in touch with the AMS Technologies optical fiber experts to discuss your customized fiber assembly or bundle that is tailored to meet your project’s specific requirements.
Definition
Optical or glass fibers can be used for many different applications, with the main purpose to transport light over a certain distance. Optical fibers consist mainly of a core with a certain diameter, a cladding and a coating. In standard optical fibers, the difference in refractive index between the solid cladding and the solid core with a certain diameter is used to guide light through the fiber.
Single mode (SM) optical fibers feature a small diameter of the fiber core (in the range of 2.5 µm to 10 µm), supporting mode field diameters from 2 µm (320 nm) up to 9 µm (1550 nm) and allowing propagation of light in just one (transversal or fundamental) optical mode which will not undergo dispersion effects causing signal distortion over long distances.
Multi mode (MM) optical fibers are used for applications where it is important to transmit as much light as possible, mostly for illumination purposes. They feature relatively large core diameters, usually in the range of 50 µm up to 1000 µm. Depending on the wavelength of the light, these diameters allow multiple modes of light to propagate through the fiber. Due to interference effects, light pulses get distorted when travelling through a MM fiber over longer distances.
For some applications where maintaining the light’s polarization is key, a polarization maintaining (PM) fiber is used. In most versions of this single-mode specialty fiber, tension rods are integrated into the fiber’s cladding on opposite sides of the core, inducing a strong but tightly controlled birefringence. If linearly polarized light is properly launched into a PM fiber it maintains its linear polarization during propagation.
Doped fibers are often called active fibers. Their cores are doped with laser-active ions, mostly of rare-earth materials like Erbium (Er), Ytterbium (Yb), Neodymium (Nd) or Thulium (Tm). Pumped with suitable pump sources like flash lamps, LEDs or diode lasers by a typically shorter wavelength, these ions absorb the pump light and get excited into some metastable energy levels.
Compared to optical fibers with cores made of silica or composite glass, plastic optical fibers (POF) are entirely made of polymer materials. Not only coatings and jackets, but also fiber core and cladding consist of polymers. While showing higher attenuation and lower transmission capacity, plastic optical fibers are less brittle, more flexible, easier to handle and very cost-effective. Typical areas of use are short-range data communications, illumination and industrial applications.
Special micro-structured optical fibers guide light using structural modifications – in most cases holes or inclusions of a material with different refractive index in the core and/or in the cladding, periodically and evenly distributed over a large part of the cross-sectional area of the fiber. Typical representatives of micro-structured optical fibers are photonic crystal fibers (PCF) or photonic bandgap fibers.
To protect optical fibers against higher temperatures, they can be coated with different materials like acrylate (for medium temperature levels), aluminium or gold, making the fibers usable in harsh environments. If further protection is needed, an additional flexible metal tube will make them even more durable, especially for industrial applications.
The performance of an optical fiber can be enhanced by antireflecting coatings at the fiber’s end face. A special plasma-based nano-structuring technology can raise the damage threshold of the fiber for selected fibers. Shaped fiber tips or endcaps are further options to improve the performance of the fiber-to-air interface.
Alternative Terms: Optical Fibre; Fiber Optic Cable; Glass Fiber; Multi Mode MM Fiber; Single Mode SM Fiber, Polarization Maintaining PM Fiber; Special Fiber