A passive mechanical splice for polarization-maintaining fibers

Author

Sears, Frederick M.

Author_Institution

AT&T Bell Labs., Norcross, GA, USA

Volume

7

Issue

10

fYear

1989

fDate

10/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1494

Lastpage

1498

Abstract

The author reports that at least one cladding surface of the fiber can be used as an external reference in the splice to locate the polarization eigenaxis. This splice is versatile enough to allow active alignment of the polarization eigenaxis. A hybrid rectangular-shaped polarization-maintaining fiber with an external reference is used in the passive mechanical splice. Mean splice extinction ratios were measured at -28.6 and -33.4 with splice losses of 1.6 and 1.7 dB for passive and active alignment, respectively. Splice performance is more than adequate for most practical applications of polarization-maintaining fibers such as coherent communications, fiber devices and sensors, integrated optics, and photonic switching

Keywords

claddings; fibre optic sensors; light coherence; light polarisation; optical communication equipment; optical fibres; optical logic; optical losses; optical switches; optical workshop techniques; 1.6 dB; 1.7 dB; active alignment; cladding surface; coherent communications; fiber devices; fibre sensors; integrated optics; passive alignment; passive mechanical splice; photonic switching; polarisation eigenaxis locating; polarization eigenaxis; polarization-maintaining fibers; rectangular-shaped polarization-maintaining fiber; splice extinction ratios; splice losses; Extinction ratio; Integrated optics; Loss measurement; Mechanical sensors; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber devices; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fiber sensors; Optical losses; Optoelectronic and photonic sensors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.39087

Filename

39087