Investigations of photonic crystal fiber splicing

Splicing between single mode fiber (SMF) and photonic crystal fiber (PCF) using conventional electric arc splicer is not easily achieved, the condensation within the capillaries resulted in bubble developed at the fiber-ends in the midst of splicing is observed. A novel and effective splicing technique using CO₂ laser has successfully eliminated this limitation and a complete splicing process is achieved within few seconds. The splice losses have been recorded to be in the range of 1.3-2.8 dB; the high splice losses are possibly due to the field mode discrepancy of the sampled PCF with a diameter of 100 μm.