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A series of six experiments drawing tubular fibres are compared to some recent mathematical modelling of this fabrication process. The importance of fibre tension in determining the internal geometry of the fibre is demonstrated, confirming a key prediction of the models. There is evidence of self-pressurisation of the internal channel, where an additional pressure is induced in the internal channel as the fibre is drawn, and the dependence of the magnitude of this pressure on fibre tension is discussed. Additionally, there is evidence that the difference between the glass and furnace temperatures is proportional to the furnace temperature and dependent on the preform geometry.

Fiber optics based on soft glasses have shown their great advantages over silica and silicate-based glasses for generation and transmission of mid-infrared (mid-IR) light, especially in the spectral range of 2.5-5.0 µm, 1 enabling their applications ranging from materials processing, laser medical surgery 2-4 and biomedical diagnostics, 5 to defense, for example, for directional infrared countermeasures, light detection, and ranging (LIDAR) for atmospheric and chemical sensing and monitoring. 6 The rapid progress in emerging novel mid-IR fiber lasers and mid-IR supercontinuum (SC) light sources, eg, the room

We demonstrate the fabrication of multi-core (imaging) microstructured optical fiber via soft-glass preform extrusion through a 3D printed titanium die. The combination of extrusion through 3D printed dies and structured element (capillary) stacking allows for unprecedented control of the optical fiber geometry. We have exploited this to demonstrate a 100 pixel rectangular array imaging microstructured fiber. Due to the high refractive index of the glass used (n = 1.62), such a fiber can theoretically have a pixel pitch as small as 1.8 µm. This opens opportunities for ultra-small, high-resolution imaging fibers fabricated from diverse glass types.