Optical fiber fusion connector and method

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical fiber fusion connector and method. The optical fiber fusion connector includes an optical fiber end cap and a transition ring, which can realize the fusion of different types of optical fibers, especially for the fusion of a solid core optical fiber and a hollow-core optical fiber which are used for high-power laser transmission. The optical fiber end cap technology is used for performing beam expanding on the laser, so as to reduce the power density of the output end face; then a transition ring is introduced at the laser output end face of the end cap, so as to perform antireflection film treatment on the laser output end face of the end cap; and then the transition ring and the hollow-core optical fiber are fused. The invention can realize efficient fusion between the hollow-core optical fiber and the solid core optical fiber, and solves the problem of connection matching between the hollow-core optical fiber and the optical fiber laser system in the prior art, especially the high-power optical fiber laser system, which is convenient for remote flexible transmission of the laser.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the technical field of optical fibers, in particular to an optical fiber and an optical fiber fusion splicing connector and method. Background technique [0002] In recent years, fiber lasers have been widely used in industrial, medical, scientific research, military and other fields due to their advantages of high power, high reliability, and high beam quality. However, with the gradual increase in the output power of fiber lasers, nonlinear effects such as stimulated Raman scattering, stimulated Brillouin scattering, and self-phase modulation caused by the interaction between laser and dielectric materials, as well as thermal damage restrict the development of fiber lasers. Also more obvious. In terms of application, the restrictive effect is mainly manifested in the difficulty of finding a suitable medium for long-distance transmission of high-power lasers, because ordinary transmission fibers are affected by nonlinear effe...

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Problems solved by technology

[0004] However, when the hollow-core fiber is used as the remote flexible transmission link of the fiber laser system, it is inevitable to fuse the hollow-core fiber with the solid-core fiber in the fiber laser, which is limited to the structural difference between the solid-core fiber and the hollow-core fiber , which often leads to difficulties in the fusion splice coupling of the two fibers

Specifically, since the power of current fiber lasers is generally high (for example, the power of commercial fiber lasers has exceeded 10,000 watts), and the core diameter of the commonly used double-clad fibers is generally only tens of microns, which makes the fiber core The transmitted power density is very high, so if the laser output end face directly faces the hollow core, it will be very easy to damage, and at the same time, the reflected light from the end face will also damage the laser; in addition, there are air hole collapse and mode Field matching issues need to be considered

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