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Origin of 'Fiber Fuse' Is Revealed

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Breck Hitz

In the argot of fiber optics engineers, a "fiber fuse" occurs when a fiber, overloaded with optical power, fails catastrophically. Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain the phenomenon, but now a team from OFS Research Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., has shown that fiber fuse is caused by a classic Rayleigh instability resulting from capillary effects in the molten silica that surrounds the vaporized fiber core. In a fiber fuse, a brilliant, highly visible intrafiber burn propagates backward from the original damage site toward the optical source at speeds that can reach...Read full article

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    Published: August 2003
    Glossary
    fiber fuse
    A phenomenon in which high optical power, encountering an imperfection in an optical fiber, destroys the fiber's core and causes damage to back-propagate down the fiber. It is caused by classic Rayleigh instability resulting from capillary effects in the molten silica that surrounds the vaporized fiber core.
    capillary effectsfails catastrophically RayleighFiber fusefiber opticsinstabilitymolten silicaoptical poweroverloadedResearch & TechnologyTech Pulse

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