The object of examination were oxygen-free glasses in the system Sb₂Se₃-KCl-NaF and Sb₂Se₃-BaCl₂- PbCl₂. On account of great difficulties connected with passing into the glassy state a special method of synthesizing these glasses has been developed. The glass area in the halide-chalcogenide systems was determined. The characteristic temperatures of glasses and their thermal stability were also determined. Certain properties of the glasses were investigated giving special consideration to producing stable glasses, a few millimeters thick, by using a special method of synthesis. The transmission range of the obtained glasses falls within the limit 0.65 up to 50 micrometers , at the level of 38 to 60%, and the refractive index is: n > 2.5. Material of such properties offers the possibility to obtain optical fibers of very high numerical aperture as well as special application on account of a wide transmission range.

In the face of actual advantage of demand over the supply of telecommunication optical fibers especially single mode ones a great significance has, so far unsolved, problem of increasing of production efficiency of these fibers. The method of glass production from gas phase permits to synthesize very high purity glass, but unfortunately is less efficient. High efficiency of production of large products from ultrapure SiO₂ may be obtained owing to colloidal sol-gel method. For this method as starting material colloidal silica of optical fiber purity and of optimal particle size 500 - 1000 nm should be used. Among the possibilities of production of such silica there is one, consisting in synthesis of monodispersive silica spheres by hydrolitycal polycondensation of tetraetoxysilane in basic media. It was proposed by Stober and modified later by Bogush. This paper describes further modification of the mentioned method of synthesis in liquid phase, permitting to increase the efficiency of production of high quality colloidal silica.

The process of synthesis of SiO₂ particles is relatively well recognized theoretically, but not experimentally. In this work we describe the results of experimental examination of an influence of concentration of silicon tetrachloride, temperature of reaction and time of the stay of reagents in the reaction zone on diameters of formed SiO₂ particles. The results are presented in the formalism used for characterization of ceramic raw materials.

The work presents the results of research work on some types of glass in view of their application as material for the production of waveguide structures using the technique of ion exchange Na⁺--Ag⁺ and Na⁺-- K⁺. In the testing, maximum changes of the refractive index of the glass (Delta) n, caused by the introduction of admixtures in the diffusion and electrodiffusion processes, were determined, as well as diffusion constants and mobility ratios of the exchanged ions.

Results of research on lightguides and imageguides made of fiber optic integrated structure have been presented. Integrated bundles are being used in many biomedical and technical applications. Practical suitability of these structures is determined by a few parameters: transmission, cross-section structure, resolution, contrast. To meet all these requirements it is necessary to solve many technological problems.

The effect of optical fiber polymer coatings on the mechanical properties of a fiber was studied. Their adhesion to the optical fiber surface is of special interest. It is also shown how the analysis of electron donor and electron acceptor properties of the surfaces being in contact can predict the adhesion energy. An optical fiber model taking into consideration the pressure exerted on it by the protective coating is also described.

Many properties of optical fibers, particularly their mechanical strength and resistance to water corrosion depend on the adhesion of their protective coatings to the glass part of the fiber. Therefore, the protective coatings materials providing high adhesion should be applied for optical fiber construction. It is possible to predict the value of the adhesion energy from the properties of the surfaces being in contact. The paper presents the application of inverse gas chromatography to determine these properties.

Side-hole optical fibers are directed towards construction of pressure sensors owing to their extremely high sensitivity to the pressure. However, the fact of negative effect of polymer protective coatings on deformation of optical fiber characteristic has been discovered. In this work the efforts were made to eliminate this undesirable phenomenon by use of standard protective coatings used for production of telecommunication optical fibers. The results of these investigations have appeared negative.

Crack-growth analysis of fiber-optic cables proves occurrence of stress-corrosion. The effect of external environment on stress-corrosion rate is showed clearly in the Charles and Charles and Hillig theory. Their models were assumed to be essential for investigations described in the following paper. From the dynamic fatigue measurements, dependence of static time-to-failure on failure probability was determined. Results were compared with direct static fatigue measurements. Satisfactory conformity was obtained in mentioned comparison.

The optical fiber cable, during its installation and operation is subjected to strong tensile forces. Cables are tested by measuring its optical fiber elongation caused by tensile forces. However, elongation measurement by optical methods is burden with a systematic error caused by the photo-elastic effect. In other words as `optical' elongation is different than mechanical one. The effect can be compensated if the correction factor K is known. In the paper the results of optical and mechanical measurements of different single-mode fibers are presented as well as determined correction factor values. Also references to other publications were made.

The described system was designed for automatic measurement of spectral response characteristics of the radiation sources as well as of the optical fibers. It is based on `GM110 Digitrom' monochromator and equipped with a very sensitive radiation detector, low-noise amplifiers, assembly of light sources for modulation of power being applied into the optical fiber and microprocessor based controller of radiation detector. The design includes also the software for control both the monochromator and the radiation power measuring unit.

The work presents the attenuation measurements of planar waveguides produced in the processes of ion exchange Ag⁺--Na⁺ and K⁺--Na⁺ in the selected types of glass. Also, the influence of waveguide heating on the extent of attenuation has been presented.

The work presents the structure of a computer-controlled set-up for the measurement of refractive index distribution using the measurement of synchronous angles and the IWKB method. Also, the measurement method of planar waveguide attenuation has been presented. In this method, light decoupling from the waveguide is carried out by means of immersion liquid. It ensures stability of coupling with the waveguide being measured, and furthermore, it enables full automation of the measurement process, as well as its application in the elaboration of measurement results.

In this paper we discuss several particular topologies of the fiber-optic absolute pressure transducers developed recently at the Laboratory of Optoelectronics at UQAH with a view to satisfying the requirements for use in general purpose pressure measurements, and for load distribution measurements in large engineering structures. The sensing effect is based on induced birefringence modulation occurring in highly birefringent optical fibers under the influence of hydrostatic compensating optical configurations, neither of which required any additional electronic network compensation against the temperature artifact.

In this paper we have presented a short characteristics of the combustion process, the influence of the air coefficient on it, combustion aerodynamics as well as the role of monitoring of such a process. The idea of a fiber optic combustion monitoring system for an industrial coal-dust burner has also been developed. We have demonstrated some measurements' results, in the form of a time series as well as a 3D series, of flicker spectra in selected zones of the coal-dust flame of an industrial wall burner boiler of the 200 MW energetic block.

Polarimetric fiber optic sensors belong to phase sensors, in which phase shift between two electric field components of beam passing through a high birefringent optical fibers responsible for a change in polarization state of the light. The paper presents polarimetric fiber sensor for dynamic strain measurements. In order to measure the strain in several points of the rail a relatively long, of length of few meters, measuring fiber was used. It causes problems with coherence of light passing through the fiber and hence the compensation of the birefringence was introduced.

An original idea of hydrostatic pressure monitoring based on a new kind of anisotropic fibers with a liquid crystalline core is presented. The liquid crystalline-core optical fiber giving a possibility of birefringence control unite the unique advantages of liquid crystals and quality of fiber technology what can be used for continuous pressure monitoring. Preliminary results of experimental studies of light propagation by optical fibers with liquid crystalline cores under hydrostatic pressure conditions are reported.

The paper presents test stand designed for research of automotive combustion engines with gasoline injection systems. Authors used fiber-optic combustion sensor mounted in a spark plug and fiber-optic transmission. The sensor detects intensity signal which can be used as a feedback data by engine control system. Basic elements of the instrumentation and data processing software were presented as well as general ideas of the experiment. Data analysis was based on the comparison of the optical intensity signal with indicated pressure signal and other, well known engine parameters characterizing engine operation. Some results of the analysis are presented in the end part of the paper.

In this article we discuss the properties of autoregression (AR) and moving average (MA) processes, as well as non- parametrical and parametrical identification of their models describing real time-series. We have shown the principles of calculating one-step forecasts with the smallest average square error for real time series, which describe flame blinking in a coal burner working in a boiler of the 200 MW energetic block. We have calculated ARMA (p,q) and ARIMA (p,d,q) mixed models, which, in turn, helped us to calculate one-step forecasts. The results, in the form of a measured time series, with marked one-step forecasts, are shown in enclosed figures.

In this paper we describe an electrooptical sensor employing the Pockels effect. We also provide its analysis in order to determine its optical transmission as a function of the voltage applied and the influence of different temperatures on its parameters. Simulation results and the error analysis from the operation of a sensor made of a BSO (Bi₁₂SiO₂₀) crystal have also been demonstrated.

The paper presents fiber optic pH sensor which is controlled by a LabWindows application. In more details the work presents practical realization of a measuring system consisting of the following components: pH-sensitive chemooptical interface, fiber optic probe, optoelectronic interface and graphic user interface. The sensor was designed to measure pH in the range 4 - 8 in laboratory as well as environmental conditions. Some general problems which appear in every sensor design are discussed.

The tapered biconical directional couplers are typically narrowband devices. The oscillations of the output signals is the reason of this feature. Two fibers with different core diameters can be used for wideband flat spectral response of a 2 X 2 coupler. We propose the technique of the local decreasing of a fiber outer diameter by chemical polishing. The singlemode wideband 3 dB couplers were produced with the split ratio tolerances of 5% for the whole region between 2nd and 3rd telecommunication windows.

In presented work, analysis, classification, and selected methods of solving problems connected with coupling optical fibers to integrated optic structures has been shown. The construction and technology of PIN and MSM type detectors and Mach-Zehnder modulator has been described. Several variants of package constructions have been proposed for optical fibers to optoelectronic devices coupling.

The paper presents research work and technological trials aiming at conception and manufacturing of the light guide rods (applicators) for the photon coagulators applied for therapeutical treatment and surgery. Such rods, due to their light guiding structure, enable effective guidance of the NIR radiation of a high energy directly to the treatment area. A method was worked out to convert specially matched glasses into the integrated light transmitting structures. The effect of a type and quality of the glass, light guides structure and their aperture onto the effectiveness of radiation power transmission was investigated. The first trials were carried out to apply new types of rods for laparoscope and gynecological treatments.

The paper presents constructions and operation of the PCS type fibers, ended with the quartz balls, used for medical applications. The preliminary results of clinical investigations are discussed.

The paper presents new, disposable quartz shields fixed on the ends of fibers applied in medical lasers. The results of preliminary clinical examinations are discussed.

Students education on optical fibers in Poland was first time a main topic of session during the national conference on applications of optical fibers. Almost all universities dealing with optical fibers presented papers about system of teaching, experimental training and problems connected with these subjects. In the paper system of students education on optical fibers in Institute of Physics at Warsaw University of Technology is presented in details. Some problems regarding teaching of students, system of recruitment and perspectives of employment for graduate students are discussed based on opinions of the author and other lecturers taking part in panel discussion on the end of the session. As a conclusion some remarks leading to improvement of quality of candidates for study on optical fibers are done.

A course entitled `Optoelectronics' is offered for regular and extramural students of Electronics and Telecommunication at the Technical University of Szczecin. In a frame of this course a student laboratory with experiments involving optical fiber techniques is provided. The experiments involves the optical fiber sensors, optocommunication elements and testing of optical fibers. In this paper a laboratory set-up for measuring the geometrical properties of an optical fiber and the refraction index profile of a fiber core is described.