[WC2] Optical Fibers and Cables for Long-Haul Transmission

[WC2-1] Design and Manufacturing of Ultra-Low Loss Optical Fibers

Tutorial

〇Yoshinori Yamamoto (Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Japan)

Since Dr. Kao predicted in 1966 that silica glass fiber could achieve the transmission loss of below 20 dB/km for optical communication use, remarkable progress has been made for realizing optical fibers with lower losses. Today, record-low loss of 0.14 dB/km has been realized by using matured pure silica core fiber (PSCF) technologies to reduce the Rayleigh scattering in silica glass. The latest PSCFs also have low nonlinearities with the enlarged effective area of up to 150 µm2, which is enabled by appropriately designed refractive index profiles and advanced polymer coatings. PSCFs with ultra-low loss and low nonlinearity can contribute to high optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) performances in long haul digital coherent transmission systems such as transoceanic submarine systems and/or terrestrial backbone links.
This tutorial will review the history of development of low loss optical fibers, and show the recent fabrication results of ultra-low loss, low nonlinearity PSCFs. Impact of fiber loss and nonlinearity on the OSNR performances in long haul digital coherent transmission systems will also be discussed.

Bio:Yoshinori Yamamoto received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electronics, information, and energy engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 2000 and 2002, respectively. In 2002, he joined Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Yokohama, Japan. Since then, he has been engaged in research and development of optical fibers, including low loss pure-silica core fibers and highly nonlinear fibers. He has served as an OFC Program Committee member in 2012-2014, and an expert in IEC SC86C in 2015-2018. Mr. Yamamoto is a Member of the Institute of Electronics, Information, and Communication Engineers of Japan. He received the 31st Kenjiro Sakurai Memorial Prize (2016) from the Optoelectronics Industry and Technology Development Association of Japan.