ml by addition of deionized water all of the d glucose was allowed to dissolve before the solution was used tin sensitized fiber tips remained in the silvering solution for a period of two minutes to produce a layer of silver of 0 4 0 6 micron thick around the bare optical fiber without metal deposit on any masked section of fiber the silvered fibers were removed from silvering solution and rinsed in deionized water for 60 seconds before electroplating as described above using a plating fixture according to the present invention the electrolytic plating cell operated at a current density of about 110 ma cm 2 100 a ft 2 to produce a nickel layer about 2 micron thick over the layer of electroless silver immersion gold was deposited to 0 3 micron over the nickel electroplated layer to protect it from oxidation after rinsing the gold coated fibers in deionized water any polymer mask may be removed by soaking treated fibers for a short time in a suitable solvent three types of metallized optical fibers were prepared by varying the metal composite structures as follows with reference to examples 1 3 the resulting metallized fibers were evaluated using the solder reflow.