This paper presents nanogrinding as an alternative technique for the fabrication of optical fiber micro profiles. Grinding
of these lenses is carried out on a nanogrinding machine (NGM) specially built for this purpose. Cleaved single mode
optical fibers with core diameter of 9 &mgr;m and outside diameter of 125 &mgr;m were used. Optical fiber endfaces with a
multitude of micro profiles were successfully made. This includes conical lenses, tapered lenses, D-shaped endfaces, and
fibers with oblique endfaces. The results are presented in the form of optical microscopy and scanning electron
microscopy images of the produced lenses.
We present a purely mechanical means of producing highly concentric spherical lenses at the endfaces of optical fibers. The production process has two stages. First, conical lenses are produced in a grinding process that ensures excellent concentricity. Then, the conical lenses are transformed to spherical lenses using a novel process called loose abrasive blasting. The cone grinding is carried out on a microgrinding machine, which has a sophisticated control system that enables the production of precision conical lenses. The blasting is carried out on a diamond blasting machine. Plots showing automatic centering performance of the microgrinding machine and scanning electron microscopy images of the conical and spherical lenses are presented.
This paper presents a purely mechanical means of producing highly concentric spherical lenses at the endfaces of optical fibers. The production process has two stages. First conical lenses are produced in a grinding process that ensures excellent concentricity. Then the conical lenses are transformed to spherical lenses using a novel process called loose abrasive blasting. The cone grinding is carried out on a micro-grinding machine that has a sophisticated control system that enables the production of precision conical lenses. The blasting is carried out on a diamond blasting machine. Plots showing automatic centering performance of the micro-grinding machine and scanning electron microscopy photographs of the conical and spherical lenses are presented.
This paper presents a quantitative measurement of the effect of surface roughness of optical fiber end-faces on light coupling efficiency. Fibers tested included cleaved fibers and fibers with ground endfaces of varying degrees of surface roughness. The endfaces were ground on a specially built nano-grinding machine. The assessment was based on the Gaussian distribution of the intensity of light collected from both the cleaved and the ground endfaces of the fibers. Measurements of the total amount of light at the output end were also made. Results showed that light-coupling efficiency has improved dramatically with the improvement of surface finish. Surface roughness measurements were carried out using atomic force microscopy (AFM)
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