Stress in optical waveguides 3: Stress induced index change

The influence of drawing induced stress on the light-guiding properties of dispersion-flattened single-mode (DFSM) fibers has been investigated. The measured differences of the refractive index profiles of fibers drawn with different drawing forces can be explained by the stress induced index change of the elastooptical effect. For DFSM fibers the influence of the drawing force on the light-guiding properties such as spot size and cutoff wavelength was found to be negligible. In contrast, calculations performed for pure silica core fibers predict a strong dependence of the optical properties on the drawing force.