Fabrication of optical fiber microprobe using electric arc heating and one-sided pulling technique

A method to fabricate optical fiber microprobe by using manual fusion splicer has been developed. Electric arc heating and one-sided pulling technique was applied in order to produce sharp tips. Small diameter of probe tip can be produced using low value of discharge current and heating time. By setting the discharge current at 8 mA and heating time at 4.43 s on the fusion splicer, small tip dimension as small as 1.47 μm was fabricated where 60% of the tip dimensions were within 1.00 μm to 6.00 μm.