Aiming beam side-coupler

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10603744-B2
Application number	US-201816213616-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2018
Priority date	Dec 18, 2017
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a side-coupling structure, associated with coupling an aiming beam from an aiming beam fiber into a laser beam fiber, may include removing a coating from a section of the laser beam fiber and removing a coating from a section of the aiming beam fiber. The method may further include bringing the section of the aiming beam fiber in physical contact with the section of the laser beam fiber in order to create the side-coupling structure. The method may further include recoating the section of the laser beam fiber and the section of the aiming beam fiber in order to coat the side-coupling structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of manufacture, comprising:
removing a coating from a section of a laser beam fiber;
removing a coating from a section of an aiming beam fiber;
bringing the section of the aiming beam fiber in physical contact with the section of the laser beam fiber in order to create a side-coupling structure associated with coupling an aiming beam from the aiming beam fiber into the laser beam fiber; and
recoating the section of the laser beam fiber and the section of the aiming beam fiber in order to coat the side-coupling structure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein bringing the section of the aiming beam fiber in physical contact with the section of the laser beam fiber comprises:
wrapping the section of the aiming beam fiber around the section of the laser beam fiber; and
applying tension to the aiming beam fiber during or after wrapping the section of the aiming beam fiber around the section of the laser beam fiber.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the section of the aiming beam fiber is wrapped around the section of the laser beam fiber such that the section of the aiming beam fiber completes ten or fewer revolutions around the section of the laser beam fiber.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aiming beam fiber is a first aiming beam fiber,
wherein the method further comprises:
removing a coating from a section of a second aiming beam fiber; and
bringing the section of the second aiming beam fiber in physical contact with the section of the laser beam fiber in order to at least one of:
increase coupled aiming beam power in the side-coupling structure,
permit back-reflection monitoring using the side-coupling structure, or
permit double-passing of the aiming beam through the side-coupling structure.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the section of the laser beam fiber has a length in a range from 20 millimeters (mm) to approximately 200 mm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein window stripping is used to remove the coating from the section of the laser beam fiber or to remove the coating from the section of the aiming beam fiber.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical contact between the section of the aiming beam fiber and the section of the laser beam fiber is physical contact between a cladding of the aiming beam fiber and a cladding of the laser beam fiber.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aiming beam fiber comprises a glass core and a low-index polymer coating.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the section of the laser beam fiber and the section of the aiming beam fiber are recoated with a low-index polymer coating.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the laser beam fiber is a double-clad fiber comprising a core to transmit laser light, a cladding, and the coating,
wherein the coating removed from the section of the laser beam fiber is a low-index polymer coating.

11. An optical coupler, comprising:
a primary fiber including a primary window stripped section;
a secondary fiber including a secondary window stripped section,
wherein the secondary window stripped section is in physical contact with the primary window stripped section in order to create a side-coupling structure for coupling a secondary beam, associated with the secondary fiber, to the primary fiber; and

a coating surrounding the primary window stripped section and the secondary window stripped section.

12. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein an input of the secondary fiber is coupled to a source that provides the secondary beam.

13. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein the optical coupler further comprises:
another secondary fiber including another secondary window stripped section,
wherein the other secondary window stripped section is in physical contact with the primary window stripped section in order to create the side-coupling structure.

14. The optical coupler of claim 13 , wherein an input of the other secondary fiber is coupled to a back reflection monitor associated with monitoring back reflection of a primary beam associated with the primary fiber.

15. The optical coupler of claim 13 , wherein an output of the secondary fiber is coupled to an input of the other secondary fiber in order to provide double-passing of the secondary beam through the optical coupler.

16. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein an output end of the primary fiber is coupled to a tertiary fiber,
wherein a characteristic of a core of the primary fiber differs from a characteristic of a core of the tertiary fiber in order to cause a portion of the secondary beam to be confined to the core of the tertiary fiber.

17. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein an output end of the primary fiber is coupled to a tertiary fiber,
wherein the tertiary fiber includes a cladding stripper to at least partially remove a portion of the secondary beam that is not confined to a core of the tertiary fiber.

18. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein an output end of the primary fiber is coupled to a tertiary fiber, and wherein at least one of:
a size of a core of the tertiary fiber is larger than a size of a core of the primary fiber; or
a numerical aperture (NA) of the tertiary fiber is larger than an NA of the primary fiber.

19. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein the secondary beam is in a visible spectrum.

20. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein the primary fiber is to receive a high-power beam associated with a material processing application.

21. The optical coupler of claim 11 , wherein the physical contact between the section of the secondary fiber and the section of the primary fiber is physical contact between a core of the secondary fiber and a cladding of the primary fiber.

22. An optical coupler, comprising:
a first fiber for a laser beam,
wherein the first fiber includes a first coating surrounding a first cladding surrounding a first core, and
wherein the first fiber includes a first section with the first coating removed;

a second fiber for an aiming beam,
wherein the second fiber includes a second coating surrounding a second core,
wherein the second fiber includes a second section with the second coating removed, and
wherein the second section is in physical contact with the first section for coupling the aiming beam from the second fiber into the first fiber; and

a third coating surrounding the first section and the second section,
wherein the third coating surrounds segments of the first coating adjacent to ends of the first section and segments of the second coating adjacent to ends of the second section.

Assignees

• Lumentum Operations Llc

Inventors

• Ye Changgeng
• Yu Hongbo
• Muendel Martin H

Classifications

• G02B6/24

  Coupling light guides · CPC title

• H01S3/06737

  Fibre having multiple non-coaxial cores, e.g. multiple active cores or separate cores for pump and gain · CPC title

• G02B6/2821

  using lateral coupling between contiguous fibres to split or combine optical signals · CPC title

• B23K26/035 Primary

  Aligning the laser beam (automatically B23K26/042) · CPC title

• C03C25/105 Primary

  Organic claddings · CPC title