Andrew Corporation

John D Meyer

Richard B Dyott

Reinhard Ulrich

Frank R Willis

An optical fiber cable unit in which an elongated optical fiber is telescoped into an outer jacket such that an annular space is defined between the fiber and the jacket. The space is filled with a polyorganosiloxane 'grease' having extremely good thixotropic properties which cause the material to establish a gas-tight seal between the fiber and the jacket while allowing the fiber to float freely within the jacket to avoid elongation of the fiber when tension is applied to the cable.

Gas-blocked optical fiber cable unit

A fiber-optic polarizer comprising the combination of an optical fiber having a core and cladding with different refractive indices and forming a single-mode guiding region, the core having a non-circular cross-section defining two transverse orthogonal axes which, in combination with the different refractive indices, permit the de-coupling of waves polarized along the axes, the guiding region being located sufficiently close to the surface of the fiber, along a selected length of the fiber, to allow coupling to a contiguous medium, and the outer surface of the fiber having a non-circular cross-section with a predetermined geometric relationship to the guiding region and the orthogonal transverse axes so that the location of the guiding region and the orientation of the axes can be ascertained from the geometry of the outer surface. A polymeric film extends longitudinally along a selected length of the fiber and is coupled to the fiber surface that is closest to the core, the film having different indices of refraction along axes aligned with the transverse orthogonal axes of the core, one of the indices of refraction of the film being less than the effective index of refraction of a desired wave in the guiding region of the fiber, and the other index of refraction of the film being greater than the effective index of refraction of an unwanted wave in the guiding region of the fiber.

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Western Springs, IL, United States of America

John D Meyer