Optical fiber microwire devices and manufacture method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9529149-B2
Application number	US-201414419115-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2014
Priority date	Dec 18, 2013
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

Herein presents an optical fiber microwire device, wherein the device comprising a silica tube, an optical fiber ( 2 ) inserted into the silica tube ( 1 ) and pigtailed at two sides, wherein the two ends of the silica tube ( 1 ) are fused with the optical fiber ( 2 ) to form a solid structure, or the two ends of the silica tube ( 2 ) are filled with silica rods ( 3 ), silica capillaries ( 4 ) or segments of optical fibers and fused to form a solid structure. The silica tube ( 1 ) together with the optical fiber ( 2 ) inside is then tapered to form a micro structure region. Therefore, the micro structure region is consisted of the tapered optical fiber as the microstructure core, tapered silica tube, and the air in between. This invention combine the manufacture of optical fiber microwire and the sealing process, avoiding the disadvantages of the conventional tapered optical fiber microwire, such as fragile mechanical structure, and sensitive to the outer environment variations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making an optical fiber microwire device, comprising:
1) removing a coating of a center segment of an optical fiber to obtain a bare segment of the optical fiber, cleaning a surface of the bare segment of the optical fiber using a degreasing cotton dipped with alcohol; optionally pretapering the bare segment of the optical fiber to a smaller diameter;
2) fusing two ends of a silica tube, wherein an inner diameter of the two ends is 0.02 to 0.2 mm larger than the diameter of the segment of bare optical fiber, and a center of each of the two ends of the silica tube coincides with an axis of the silica tube, wherein a length of the bare segment of optical fiber is 10 to 100 mm longer than a length of the silica tube;
3) inserting the optical fiber obtained from step (1) into the silica tube obtained from step (2) so that two sections of the optical fiber outside of the silica tube are of a similar length, wherein when the optical fiber has been pretapered, the pretapered section is placed within an equal distance from the two ends of the silica tube; fusing the two ends of the silica tube together with the optical fiber to form a sealed configuration having the optical fiber inside the silica tube, wherein during the fusing process, the silica tube and the optical fiber are rotated to ensure the optical fiber stay in the center axis of the silica tube, wherein the heating device for fusing is a CO2 laser, wherein the optical fiber inside the silica tube is kept straight during the whole heating process; and
4) affixing the silica tube to a motor-controlled stage; fusing and tapering the silica tube so that it has a waist of ⅓ to 1/50 of original outer diameter of the silica tube, wherein the optical fiber in the silica tube is tapered to ⅓ to 1/50 of an original diameter of the bare optical fiber, wherein during the tapering process, one end of the optical fiber receives a laser beam and another end splices with power meter or spectrometer in order to detect transmission characteristics.

2. A method of making an optical fiber microwire device, comprising:
1) removing a coating of a center segment of an optical fiber to obtain a bare segment of the optical fiber, cleaning a surface of the bare segment of the optical fiber using a degreasing cotton dipped with alcohol; optionally pretapering the bare segment of the optical fiber to a smaller diameter;
2) inserting the optical fiber obtained from step (1) into a fusing-processed silica tube so that two sections of the bare optical fiber outside the silica tube are of a similar length, wherein when the optical fiber has been pretapered, the pretapered section is placed within an equal distance from the two ends of the silica tube; filling both ends of the silica tube with silica capillaries or/and silica rods having a length of 5 to 30 mm; fusing the silica tube having silica capillaries or/and silica rods and the optical fiber inserted therein to form a fixed structure, wherein during the filling process, the optical fiber is kept in the center axis of the silica tube, and the silica tube and the optical fiber are rotated to keep the optical fiber stay in the center axis of the silica tube, wherein a heating device for fusing is a CO2 laser wherein the optical fiber inside the silica tube is kept straight during the whole heating process; and
3) affixing the silica tube to a motor-controlled stage; fusing and tapering the silica tube so that it has a waist of ⅓ to 1/50 of original outer diameter of the silica tube, wherein the optical fiber in the silica tube is tapered to ⅓ to 1/50 of an original diameter of the bare optical fiber, wherein during the tapering process, one end of the optical fiber receives a laser beam and another end splices with power meter or spectrometer in order to detect transmission characteristics.

Assignees

• Univ Jiangsu

Inventors

• Chen Mingyang

Classifications

• G02B6/2552

  reshaping or reforming of light guides for coupling using thermal heating, e.g. tapering, forming of a lens on light guide ends · CPC title

• G02B6/385

  Accessories for testing or observation of connectors (means for centering or aligning the light guide within the ferrule with auxiliary facilities for movably aligning or adjusting the fibre within its ferrule, measuring position, eccentricity G02B6/3843; mechanical features associated with the optical testing of optical fibres G01M11/088) · CPC title

• G02B6/107

  Subwavelength-diameter waveguides, e.g. nanowires · CPC title

• C03B2203/14

  Non-solid, i.e. hollow products, e.g. hollow clad or with core-clad interface · CPC title

• G02B6/02295 Primary

  Microstructured optical fibre (polarisation properties thereof G02B6/105 and G02B6/024) · CPC title