Adiabatic fused tapered couplers

Pre-fattening of one fibre is shown to be a vehicle for achieving wavelength independent adiabatic fused tapered couplers. Compared with the conventional pre-tapered fused tapered coupler, this adiabatic coupler has a significant improvement in its ease of manufacture     

Variational analysis of fused tapered couplers

A variational technique is used to evaluate the coupling ratio of a fused coupler. The technique can be used for both strongly and lightly fused couplers. Simple formulas are presented for use in regions of high V-value and are shown to be in agreement with the more lengthy beam propagation calculations. The importance of the fibre core in determining the field shape is highlighted. A realistic coupler model containing a gradual taper is presented and the strong wavelength response of the coupling ratio is confirmed by numerical means.     

Polarisation analysis of strongly fused and weakly fused tapered couplers

The polarisation properties of both strongly fused and weakly fused single-mode tapered fibre couplers have been analysed. A comparison with experimental results shows excellent agreement with our analysis.     

Perturbation analysis of fused tapered single-mode fibre couplers

By treating a fused tapered single-mode fibre coupler as a perturbation of the same coupler with the fibre cores ignored, simple analytical expressions are derived for the coupling coefficients of the coupler. These new expressions highlight the effects of the fibre cores on the characteristics of the coupler.     

Fabrication of low-loss 3 dB couplers with multimode optical fibres

A 3 dB coupler was fabricated using two partially polished fibres which were in contact with each polished portion. The excess insertion loss and the directivity of this coupler are measured to be 0.36 dB and 47.0 dB, respectively.     

Variable-ratio, polarisation-insensitive, 3*3 fused biconical tapered couplers

The authors present a polarisation-insensitive, 3*3 fused biconical tapered coupler with a variable screw gauge that can change the coupling ratios from a splitting percentage of 11%-44%-45% to a uniformity of 33%-33%-34%, with excess loss maintained below 1.1 dB. The fabrication and packaging methods are described and wavelength tunability of the coupler is demonstrated.<>     

Completely fused tapered couplers: comparison of theoretical and experimental results

Completely fused single-mode fibre couplers, characterised by an almost circular cross-section at the waist, have been fabricated. An analytic model which takes into consideration the taper and variable aspect ratio of the coupler has been developed. Good agreement is obtained between the theoretical and experimental values.     

Bending effects in biconically tapered single-mode fibers

Biconically tapered single-mode fibers were fabricated, and their characteristics were studied experimentally. The optical throughput was measured as the fiber was being pulled to produce the required radial profile. The tapered single-mode fiber was bent in a simple fixture, and the optical throughput was measured as a function of the bending angle. It is seen that the bending resulted in very strong oscillations of the optical power as the bend angle was varied. At the point when the light in the core was minimal, the cladding region was bright, indicating that the light has moved to the cladding. The propagation characteristics of the tapered single-mode fiber subjected to bending are analyzed using a stepwise approximation. A simple sensor based on this principle is discussed     

Wavelength-flattened fibre couplers produced by UV-trimming of fused hybrid fibres

A novel method is described for fabricating wavelength-flattened fibre couplers with the combination of one intrinsically photosensitive fibre and one standard singlemode fibre. The spectrum monitored in real time can be shifted and flattened to the desired wavelength band by exposing the entire coupler to intense ultraviolet light.     

Asymmetric multimode couplers

An asymmetric multimode coupler consists of two dissimilar multimode fibers. A simple theoretical analysis of asymmetric multimode couplers that will enable couplers to be designed with specific performance parameters is presented. The theoretical predictions are compared with the measured behavior of specially fabricated couplers. A novel technique to determine the performance of a linear bus of identical asymmetric couplers from measurements on a single coupler is introduced     

Star couplers with gain using fiber amplifiers

The authors propose a novel technique for constructing large passive star couplers with gain using high-power erbium-doped fiber (EDF) amplifiers. In contrast to other proposed techniques where each output port of the coupler requires its own EDF amplifier, the proposed alternative requires few EDF amplifiers with sufficient output saturation power levels. When used in an FDM/WDM star network, the size of the coupler can be increased by a factor of m using m narrowband EDF amplifiers. Moreover, this alternative avoids coupling the pump-laser light through the star coupler itself, alleviating the requirement on designing large bandwidth couplers to accommodate the signal and the pump wavelengths     

硅基槽波导级联多模干涉耦合器型偏振分束器

提出了一种基于硅基槽波导的级联多模干涉(MMI)耦合器型偏振分束器,由锥形及矩形结构MMI耦合器构成.级联结构使器件长度无需为两偏振模自镜像长度的公倍数,不仅能有效减小器件尺寸,而且提高设计灵活性.同时,利用槽波导的高双折射特性及MMI耦合器的锥形结构,可进一步缩短器件尺寸.分析结果表明,所提器件能够有效实现偏振束分离,两级MMI工作区总长度仅为42μm,准TE与准TM模的偏振消光比分别为29.8和31.4d B,1.55μm波长下的插入损耗分别为0.395和0.699 d B,偏振消光比大于20 d B时光带宽为43 nm,覆盖整个C波段.最后,详细分析了器件关键参数的制造误差对器件性能的影响.     

Wavelength-flattened fused couplers

A technique is reported for the fabrication of fused couplers, which yields devices having splitting ratios substantially independent of wavelength. A low-loss, stable, single-mode 2×2 port coupler has been fabricated using this technique. The coupler has 50/50% coupling at both 1.3 and 1.52 ?m and 50% ± 9% coupling over the wavelength range 1.23 to 1.57 ?m.     

Coupling of modes in bent biconically tapered single-mode fibers

Biconically tapered single-mode fibers are fabricated by heating a single-mode fiber while applying tension. As a result of this tapering, cladding modes are excited in the tapered region of the fiber where the V parameter of the fiber goes down below 1.0. These cladding modes couple to one another, leading to fluctuations of the optical throughput. Since the index difference between the cladding and the external medium is rather high (~0.5), the cladding modes will be of the exact type, namely, TE, TM, HE, and EH modes. The coupling of these modes in the tapered region is analyzed using the exact mode formalism when the tapered region is bent. The theoretical results agree very well with experimental results obtained on bent tapers which show strong fluctuations of the optical power as a function of the bending angle     

Periodic structures on biconically tapered optical fibers using ion beam milling and boron implantation

In this paper, the authors introduce local periodic perturbations of the cladding refractive index in the reduced diameter (waist) region of biconically tapered single-mode optical fibers by two methods. The first was focused ion beam milling to give short grooves perpendicular to the fiber axis, and the second was boron implantation, giving a phase grating in the cladding. Both structures exhibit a wavelength-dependent throughput and are highly sensitive to the environment in the waist region, which makes them potentially applicable in optical communication networks as well as in sensors. A simple corrugated slab-waveguide model is able to account for the measured spectral transmission of these structures.     

Wavelength-insensitive fused polished couplers

Wavelength-insensitive fused polished couplers are fabricated from different fibres and from identical fibres where in the latter case one of the fibres is polished to such an extent that a small portion of its core is removed.<>     

Modelling fused single-mode-fibre couplers

The fused single-mode tapered coupler is successfully modelled by assuming that the neck section of the coupler can be represented by a rectangular dielectric waveguide. Guidance is provided at the glass-to-air (or external medium) boundary and the cores are neglected. The mechanism of field detachment from the cores is outlined and the coupler characteristics are derived from the interference between the two lowest-order modes of the large waveguide.     

All-silica package for tapered couplers

The primary packaging of singlemode tapered couplers, by fusing the fibre leads with a negligible loss to a silica substrate, is reported. This procedure eliminates adhesive, and ensures matched coefficients of thermal expansion throughout.<>     

Reduced reflections from multimode interference couplers

A 3 dB multimode interference (MMI) coupler optimised for low reflections is presented. The MMI was designed, fabricated and characterised. For comparison, MMIs with non-optimised layout have been included on the same sample. The measurement results show a reduction in reflectivities of more than 10 dB.     

Efficient power coupling using taper-ended multimode optical fibres

Highly efficient power coupling of up to 97% between a d.h. laser and a multimode step-index fibre is demonstrated by employing a tapered fibre launcher. Also, it is shown theoretically that a tapered end increases the effective numerical aperture of a fibre. For a Lambertian emitter, the use of a taper launcher permits the maximum coupling efficiency allowed by the Liouville theorem.