Arrayed Lensed Fibers Collectively Fabricated Utilizing UV-Curable Fluorinated Polymer

A novel fabrication method for lensed fiber array has been proposed utilizing UV-curable fluorinated polymer, whose refractive index is matched to fused silica. The structure is composed of three segments; single mode fiber, coreless silica fiber and UV-curable polymer lens-tip. Flexible control of the curvature of lens-tip was realized by control of deposited volume of the liquid polymer and free-space interconnection performances are characterized.

Characteristics of High-power GaAs Laser Beams and Their Coupling with Fibers

The beams of 980nm high-power LDs are analyzed, and the reasons that aspect ratio of LD beams is high are explained. It is certified by the test that cylindrical lens can efficiently compress the perpendicular divergence angle of the beam. Some typical and popular lensed fibers were compared and analyzed according to coupling characteristics. The factors which affect the coupling efficiency and tolerance of the wedged-shaped GRIN tipped lensed fiber are pointed out, and some methods to reduce the coupling loss of the lensed fibers are proposed finally.

Application of slant lens fiber in reflective optical fiber displacement sensor

This paper introduces the application of a slant lens fiber in a reflective fiber optical displacement sensor, namely the receiving fiber use the slant lens fiber. Based on the characteristic formula expression of the intensity modulation of planar single fiber pair, a mathematic model of single fiber fair intensity modulation is established. After simulation experiment, the influence of fiber spacing, fiber core diameter and fiber numerical aperture on the modulation characteristics of the sensor is summarized.

Microball lens integrated fiber probe for optical frequency domain imaging

An integrated microball lens fiber catheter probe is demonstrated, which has better lateral resolution and longer working distance than a corresponding bare fiber probe with diverging beam for Fourier domain optical coherence tomography （FDOCT）. Simulation results are shown to gain the effect of the distance between the mieroball lens and the bare fiber to the focusing plane and beam width. The freedom of modifying the working distance and lateral resolution is shown. This is achieved by changing the gap distance between the single-mode fiber and the microball lens within the packaged surgical needle catheter without using an additional beam expander having a fixed length. The probe successfully acquired crosssectional images of ocular tissues from an animal sample with the proposed miniaturized imaging probe.

Fabrication method of ultra-small gradient-index fiber probe

Fabrication method and device of ultra-small gradient-index （GRIN） fiber probe were investigated in order to explore the development of ultra-small probes for optical coherence tomography （OCT） imaging. The beam- expanding effect of no-core fiber （NCF） and the focusing properties of the GRIN fiber lens were analyzed based on the model of GRIN fiber probe consisting of single-mode fiber （SMF）, NCF and GRIN fiber lens. A stereo micro- scope based system was developed to fabricate the GRIN fiber probe. A fiber fusion splicer and an ultrasonic cleaver were used to weld and cut the fiber respectively. A con- focal microscopy was used to measure the dimensions of probe components. The results show that the sizes of probe components developed are at the level of millimeter. Therefore, the proposed experimental system meets the fabrication requirements of an ultra-small self-focusing GRIN fiber probe. This shows that this fabrication device and method can be employed in the fabrication of ultra- small self-focusing GRIN fiber probe and applied in the study of miniaturized optical probes and OCT systems.

Improved optical coupling based on a concave cavity lens fabricated by optical fiber facet etching

We report a low-fabrication-complexity and wideband fiber lens,which is formed by fiber facet etching and filling high refractive index UV adhesive.The optical field can be significantly shrunk by the facet lens so as to obtain improved optical coupling.Numerical simulations were carried out for different coupling conditions,on both fundamental mode and highorder mode,for a nine-mode fiber.The fundamental mode area can be reduced from 152.17 to 12.57μm^(~2),and the coupling loss between the fiber lens and a photonic waveguide can be reduced to-2.9 d B with over 1000 nm 3 d B bandwidth.

Theoretical analysis of lens array for uniform irradiation on target in multimode fiber lasers

We propose and demonstrate a scheme to smooth and shape the on-target patterns in multimode fiber lasers, which includes expanding-collimating system and lens array （LA）. A smooth pattern with flat-top and sharp-edge profiles can be obtained with the irradiation nonuniformity decreasing significantly. We analyze the effects of the parameters such as defocus distance, the tilt angles, the number of the incident fiber lasers, and the diffraction-weakened LA on the uniformity irradiation of target by numerical simulations.