Fabrication of dispersion-free VAD single-mode fibers in the 1.5-µm wavelength region

Low-loss and low-dispersion single-mode fibers in the 1.5- μm wavelength region were fabricated by the VAD method. Causes for loss increase in these fibers were investigated. By improving uniformities in the refractive index, both in core section and along the core axis, minimum loss of 0.35 dB/km at 1.55 μm was obtained. Bending loss of the 1.5-μm optimized single-mode fiber was also discussed.