The fabrication of micro-structure fiber with the improved stacking-capillary method

The Stacking-capillary Method is widely used in the fabrication of the Micro-structure Fiber (MSF). We describe an improved stacking-capillary method, which can fabricate the MSF without interstitial holes. The method includes several steps. Firstly, the MSF preform is made by the stacking-capillary method; secondly, the MSF preform is put into the high temperature furnace to heat at 1600°, then the positive pressure is produced into the capillaries by adding air, every three adjacent capillary holes are expanded in the preform, and the interstitial holes are eliminated, all the capillaries are fused together, although the round capillary have changed to hexagon, the size of the prefrom does not change, and still keeps very good structure. The step of eliminating the interstitial hole can help to keep the MSF structure during drawing fiber. We get well results by the Improved Stacking-capillary Method.