ZERO DISPERSION WAVELENGTH

1. In a single-mode optical fiber , the wavelength or wavelengths at which material dispersion and waveguide dispersion cancel one another. Note: In all silica -based optical fibers, minimum material dispersion occurs naturally at a wavelength of approximately 1.3 m. Single-mode fibers may be made of silica-based glasses containing dopants that shift the material-dispersion wavelength, and thus, the zero-dispersion wavelength, toward the minimum-loss window at approximately 1.55 m. The engineering tradeoff is a slight increase in the minimum attenuation coefficient . 2. Loosely, in a multimode optical fiber , the wavelength at which material dispersion is minimum, i.e. , essentially zero. Synonym minimum-dispersion wavelength .