An
optical fiber coupler capable of providing a low loss, high
coupling coefficient interface between conventional optical fibers and optical
waveguide devices is provided. The novel coupler, which may be polarization maintaining, if a polarization maintaining preform is used in its fabrication includes a core, a cladding, a first end for
interfacing with an
optical fiber and a second end for
interfacing with an optical
waveguide device. The sizes of the core and cladding are gradually reduced from the first end to the second end in accordance with a predetermined reduction profile. Various parameters, such as refractive indices and sizes of the core and cladding and the reduction profile are selected to produce a low
numerical aperture at the first end and a
high numerical aperture at the second end, while advantageously minimizing
insertion loss and maximizing the
coupling coefficient at each end. In another embodiment, the novel coupler includes a secondary cladding which is also reduced between the first and second ends to improve the strength of the coupler structure at the second end. In yet another embodiment, one or two novel couplers are formed along with a chiral
fiber based optical
waveguide device as a single continuous element. The
optical fiber preform used to fabricate the novel
optical fiber coupler can be etched prior to fabrication to facilitate application of the reduction profile.