The titled method has been systematically studied to improve existing alignment control difficulties between optical components to be coupled. Using UV curable resin as a waveguide material, UV cured optical waveguide is “self-written” by UV exposure from an edge of optical fiber. So far we have shown that this method is very effective for optical fibers coupling under existence of gap and offset. We tried here to couple different optical circuit using polymer optical waveguide. One key technique to produce a self-written waveguide from a polymer waveguide is to use visible light curable resin instead of so far used UV curable resin in which self-written waveguide hardly forms because of strong UV absorption of the polymer waveguide. Similar coupling loss is also obtained for polymer waveguide/optical fiber coupling as well as so far studied optical fibers coupling. Clad stabilizing process in the optical fiber coupling is also optimized to decrease coupling loss. The obtained coupling loss is less than 1 dB for 500 um gap; the value is significantly lower than the previously reported value, > 2 dB. Using this unique and easy coupling method, significant cost reduction can be expected in optical coupling procedure.
Optical component coupling using self-written waveguides is one of the promising methods to improve the existing alignment control difficulties in optical component coupling. Using conventional UV curable resin as a waveguide material, waveguide spontaneously forms by UV light exposure from an edge of an optical fiber. When UV light is exposed from two faced optical fiber edges, self-written waveguide forms and connect the two optical fibers with decreasing its coupling loss between them. As one interesting feature, optical coupling of the fibers can be attained even significant gap and offset would exist between the fibers. The observed coupling loss after waveguide formation is significantly lower than that before the waveguide formation. Another remarkable feature is that the coupling technique
requires no edge treatment of the fibers to be coupled because of similarity of refractive indexes between UV resin and the fibers. Buffer-coated optical fibers are thus coupled using this technique simply after cutting by conventional scissors. The coupling using all solid type self-written waveguides, which have stabilized cladding material can also be achieved though further investigation is necessary to attain low loss waveguides materials. Using this interesting coupling method, conditions required for conventional optical couplings, such as severe alignment control and edge treatment would be significantly relaxed in a optical component coupling procedure.
Optical component coupling using self-written waveguides is one of the promising methods to improve the existing alignment control difficulties in optical component coupling. Using conventional UV curable resin as a waveguide material, waveguide spontaneously forms by UV light exposure from an edge of an optical fiber. When UV light is exposed from two faced optical fiber edges, self-written waveguide forms between them and connect the two optical fibers with decreasing its coupling loss between them. The effectiveness of this unique method is systematically studied on multi-mode fiber coupling; single mode fiber coupling can also be attained. The observed coupling loss after waveguide formation is significantly lower than that before the waveguide formation. Coupling of multi-mode fibers with not only gap but also some offset was also studied; the input light is actually bending and guiding along the formed self-written waveguide between two multi-mode fibers. Using this easy, quick and convenient coupling method, severe alignment control would not be required in a optical component coupling procedure and significant cost reduction could be expected.
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