Where to buy 50um OD fiber?

[Junktronix]

I'm looking for some 50um fiber. Not 50um core / 125um clad, just 50um outside diameter solid glass fiber. All google searches turn up nothing but 50/125 fiber. Anyone know of a vendor for oddball fiber like this?

[VDX]

... somewhere in my rummage I should have a bundle of 30µ fibers (maybe 300mm length), what's used for light feeding in endoscopy -- got it from the company Schölly in Germany, but don't know, where to by it ...

Viktor

[mixedgas]

Nufern? Fifteen chars

[planters]

Do you need this fiber to be clad? If only the ends need this small diameter (combining or launching), then could you remove a segment of the cladding as if you were preparing to splice then do whatever you need to do?

[Junktronix]

Ideally, I'd like 50um solid silica or quartz fiber (no core/cladding). GRIN fiber with any size core would also work (Doric has this, but it's super expensive). Nufern has small OD fibers, but they are PM core and so presumably also fairly expensive. I'll get as quote to find out for sure.

I know the buffer can be removed and I do wan bare glass. I'm unaware of any way to remove the cladding from the core. Can that actually be done?

[VDX]

[QUOTE=J...
I know the buffer can be removed and I do wan bare glass. I'm unaware of any way to remove the cladding from the core. Can that actually be done?[/QUOTE]

... this can be done with fire - the glass core withstands high temperatures, the cladding not ;-)

Viktor

[krazer]

You are thinking of the buffer, the core of a normal telecom-style fiber is also glass. When you are preparing for splicing you remove the ~900um buffer (plastic) leaving the 9um core and 125um cladding (both glass).

I wonder if it is possible to buy optical grade glass fiber for like composites applications? Normal fiberglass filament is smaller (IIRC ~10um) but it might be possible to order larger diameter.

[Junktronix]

I have finally found a supply of 50um diameter glass fiber. No core, no cladding, no buffer, just very tiny glass fiber like I was looking for. This is the stuff they use to make Machida gratings. All I need to do now is get a few hundred of them lined up side by side with perfectly even spacing and no overlap. Which turns out to be way easier said than done. The fibers are smaller than a human hair and I'm having a hard time getting 2 of them next to each other, let alone 1-200 (for 5-10mm wide element). I'm getting an feeling why the real deal is so expensive. A micro-machined v-groove array might allow me to get a bunch of fibers lined up nicely, but then the fibers need to be attached to something. Maybe I can lay the fiber array on a microscope slide and use UV curing adhesive to hold the fibers in place. Any thoughts on how to accomplish this? Anyone want an envelope full of tiny fibers to try and make their own Machida grating (with the agreement that you'll share your method if successful)?

[Photonbeam]

I tried to make my own Machida gratings like this many years ago. Hope you have better luck than I did! I still have two original Machidas. Are they no longer available?

[planters]

I think you may be on to something with the slide and the adhesive, but I'm thinking you might also try using surface tension to help. If you pick a liquid that could evaporate once done you could avoid any electrostatic problems while lining up the fibers. Or, if you used the UV curing adhesive technique and laid down a single layer of parallel fibers and then cured the surrounding adhesive you could then lay on another layer in resin, cure that one and so on.