CN111694098A - Tapered non-concentric core optical fiber - Google Patents
Tapered non-concentric core optical fiber Download PDFInfo
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- CN111694098A CN111694098A CN202010160644.2A CN202010160644A CN111694098A CN 111694098 A CN111694098 A CN 111694098A CN 202010160644 A CN202010160644 A CN 202010160644A CN 111694098 A CN111694098 A CN 111694098A
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- 239000000835 fiber Substances 0.000 claims description 149
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- 230000001419 dependent effect Effects 0.000 description 4
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- G—PHYSICS
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- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
- G02B6/26—Optical coupling means
- G02B6/262—Optical details of coupling light into, or out of, or between fibre ends, e.g. special fibre end shapes or associated optical elements
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- G—PHYSICS
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- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/02—Optical fibres with cladding with or without a coating
- G02B6/02295—Microstructured optical fibre
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- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
- G02B6/255—Splicing of light guides, e.g. by fusion or bonding
- G02B6/2552—Splicing of light guides, e.g. by fusion or bonding reshaping or reforming of light guides for coupling using thermal heating, e.g. tapering, forming of a lens on light guide ends
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Abstract
An apparatus may splice a first end of a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core to an input end of a target optical fiber having a concentric core at a target splice point to form a spliced optical fiber, wherein the concentric core of the target optical fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted optical fiber have a particular offset at the target splice point. The apparatus can taper at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber to form a progressively tapered region of the spliced optical fiber, and cause a particular offset at a target splice point to correspond to a preconfigured core offset, wherein the target splice point is within the progressively tapered region of the spliced optical fiber.
Description
Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to optical fibers and taper-spliced non-concentric core twisted fibers that couple an input fiber having a first diameter to a target fiber having a second diameter different from the first diameter and produce a rotating beam having a particular beam shape (e.g., without the use of free-space optics).
Background
The beam profile of a beam has a significant impact on the processing performance associated with material processing using the beam. For example, a beam with an annular beam profile may achieve superior metal cutting. However, most optical fibers transmit a beam with a relatively simple beam profile. For example, for a low beam-parameter-product (BPP) laser (e.g., a BPP of less than or equal to about 3 millimeters by milliradians (mm-mrad)), the beam profile may be a Gaussian or near Gaussian profile that may be used to process thin metal sheets (e.g., metal sheets having a thickness of less than or equal to about 3 mm) using a tightly focused beam. As another example, the beam profile may be a top-hat (sometimes referred to as a flat-top) profile for a high BPP laser (e.g., BPP greater than about 3 mm-mrad) that may be used to process thick metal sheets (e.g., metal sheets greater than about 3mm thick) using a larger beam. Splicing optical fibers can provide a beam with a particular beam profile. Splicing the optical fibers may include splicing together an input optical fiber, a twisted optical fiber, and a target optical fiber to form a spliced optical fiber.
Disclosure of Invention
According to some embodiments, a method may include splicing, by an apparatus, a first end of a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core to an input end of a target optical fiber having a concentric core at a target splice point to form a spliced optical fiber, wherein the concentric core of the target optical fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted optical fiber have a particular offset at the target splice point; and tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber by the apparatus to form a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber, and such that a particular offset at a target splice point corresponds to a preconfigured core offset, wherein the target splice point is within the tapered region of the spliced optical fiber.
According to some embodiments, the spliced fiber may include a twisted fiber having a non-concentric core that is twisted about an axis of the twisted fiber along a length of the twisted fiber; and a target optical fiber spliced to the twisted optical fiber at a target splice point and having a concentric core, wherein a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber includes at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target optical fiber such that the target splice point is within the tapered region, and wherein the tapered region is tapered such that an offset of a first axis of the non-concentric core and a second axis of the concentric core at the target splice point corresponds to a preconfigured core offset.
According to some embodiments, the twisted optical fiber may include a non-concentric core that is twisted about an axis of the twisted optical fiber along a length of the twisted optical fiber; a first end receiving a target optical fiber having a first concentric core at a target splice point; and a second end receiving an input optical fiber having a second concentric core at an input splice point, wherein at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber is tapered to form a tapered region such that a target splice point is included within the tapered region, and wherein an offset of the first axis of the non-concentric core and the second axis of the concentric core corresponds to a preconfigured core offset at the target splice point.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a diagram of example embodiments described herein.
Fig. 2 is a diagram of an example embodiment described herein.
3A-3C are graphs of optical properties of light beams output from example embodiments described herein.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an example process for coupling a first optical fiber to a second optical fiber using an intermediate taper joint.
Detailed Description
The following detailed description of example implementations refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements.
As described above, the beam shape of the optical fiber delivery beam is relatively simple (e.g., has a gaussian or near-gaussian profile, a top-hat profile, etc.). Producing beams with relatively more advanced beam shapes, such as a ring beam shape (i.e., a ring beam), typically requires expensive, specialized, alignment-sensitive free-space optics, such as axicons, helical phase plates, and the like. In addition, such optics may need to be located in the processing head (processing head) remote from the optical fiber associated with transmitting the light beam. The processing head is an opto-mechanical assembly that is susceptible to acceleration and contamination (e.g., from smoke, metal debris, dust, and/or the like), and thus is an undesirable location for expensive, alignment-sensitive, bulky, and/or heavy optical components.
Furthermore, prior art techniques for producing beams having an annular beam shape typically provide beams of poor beam quality. For example, previous techniques may produce beams with too high a BPP, excessive power in the middle of the ring, diffuse beam edges (e.g., with relatively long radial tail of power resulting in poor process quality), and so forth.
Offset splicing (offset splice) may include decentering (center) the input optical fiber and the target optical fiber by a predetermined amount. Offset splicing can be used to implement a turn-key fiber laser (TKFL) design. However, offset splicing may require manual movement of the input fiber and the target fiber to achieve a predetermined amount of eccentricity. As a result, alignment may be operator dependent, and resulting performance may be operator dependent. Furthermore, the surface tension characteristics of the glass in the input optical fiber and the target optical fiber may result in a reduction in the preconfigured eccentricity, which may make it difficult to achieve the preconfigured eccentricity using manual alignment.
A twisted fiber (twisted fiber) may be introduced to couple the input fiber to the target fiber. The twisted fiber may include a waveguide core that is offset from the geometric center of the fiber. A taper may be introduced on the twisted fiber to control the modal excitation and the resulting beam shape. Previous techniques include performing a tapering process on a twisted fiber and then coupling the twisted fiber to, for example, a target fiber. As a result, the pitch (pitch) at the splice point between the twisted fiber and the target fiber may be maintained through the tapering and splicing process. Since the tapering is done prior to splicing, the tapering affects the pitch inside the twisted fiber, but not at the target splice point. However, this technique results in poor levels of modal excitation and control of the final beam shape.
Some embodiments described herein can improve the manufacture of offset splices. For example, the target fiber may be coupled to a twisted fiber, and then the target fiber and the twisted fiber may be tapered together. As a result, the pitch at the target splice point where the twisted fiber and the target fiber are spliced can be varied by varying the taper parameter, allowing additional control of the modal excitation and final beam shape by controlling the taper parameter. Furthermore, by controlling the final beam shape, an increase in the beam parameter product (beam parameter product) may be induced in the target fiber during operation, which may improve the manufacturing process performed using the beam passing through the target fiber. Furthermore, by positioning the splice point where the target fiber is spliced to the twisted fiber within the tapered region, the beam parameter product can be controlled without changing the parameters of the tapered region. For example, the distance between the taper waist (e.g., the smallest diameter portion of the tapered region) and the location of the target splice point can be used to control the offset and/or angular orientation (e.g., beam profile) between the concentric core of the target fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber, which can be used to control the parameters of the beam. In this manner, the process described herein is able to control the parameters of the light beam by varying the distance between the cone waist and the location of the target splice point, thereby improving controllability of the beam parameters over the prior art.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a spliced optical fiber 100 as described herein. As shown in fig. 1, the spliced fiber 100 includes an input fiber 110, a twisted fiber 120, and a target fiber 130. Tapered region 140 may be defined for splicing optical fiber 100 as the portion of spliced optical fiber 100 that is tapered.
The input fiber 110 may include a concentric core to transmit the beam to the twisted fiber 120. The input fiber 110 may be coupled to the twisted fiber 120 at an input splice point 150. In some embodiments, the concentric core of the input fiber 110 may be offset from the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber 120. For example, the concentric core of the input fiber 110 may be offset from the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber 120 at the input splice point 150 by a pre-configured offset amount. In some implementations, the input fiber 110 can be associated with a particular diameter (e.g., at the input splice point 150). For example, the input fiber 110 may be associated with a first diameter and the twisted fiber 120 may be associated with a second diameter. In this case, the first diameter and the second diameter may be a common diameter. Additionally or alternatively, the first diameter may be within a threshold amount of the second diameter, such as within 10% of the second diameter, within 5% of the second diameter, within 1% of the second diameter, and so forth. In some embodiments, the outer cladding of the input fiber 110 is aligned with the outer cladding of the twisted fiber 120.
In some embodiments, the input fiber 110 may not be tapered. For example, the input fiber 110 may not be included in the tapered region 140 and/or may not be included in another tapered region separate from the tapered region 140. Alternatively, the input fiber 110 may be tapered. For example, after splicing the input fiber 110 to the twisted fiber 120, a tapering process may be performed to taper the input fiber 110 and the twisted fiber 120. In this case, the tapering process may result in a single continuous tapered region 140 that includes at least a portion of the input fiber 110. Additionally or alternatively, the tapering process may result in a plurality of tapered regions 140 being defined for the spliced optical fiber 100, and at least one of the plurality of tapered regions 140 may comprise at least a portion of the input optical fiber 110. In some embodiments, the input fiber 110 may be coupled to the twisted fibers 120 after the target fiber 130 is coupled to the twisted fibers 120. In some embodiments, the input fiber 110 may be coupled to the twisted fibers 120 before the target fibers 130 are coupled to the twisted fibers 120.
The twisted fiber 120 comprises a clad fiber having a non-concentric core. For example, the twisted fiber 120 may include a non-concentric core that is twisted around the axis of the twisted fiber along the length of the twisted fiber. In some embodiments, the axis of the twisted optical fiber 120 may be a first axis that is offset from a second axis of the target optical fiber 130 by a preconfigured core offset amount. Additionally, or alternatively, the first axis of the twisted fibers 120 may be offset from the third axis of the input fibers 110 by another preconfigured core offset (e.g., the same or a different core offset). In some embodiments, the twisted optical fiber 120 may have a pre-tapered cladding diameter of about 400 microns (μm) to 500 μm, about 100 μm to 1000 μm, etc., and a core diameter of about 50 μm to 100 μm, about 20 μm to 400 μm, etc.
In some embodiments, the non-concentric core portions of the twisted fibers 120 may be associated with a particular pitch P, as described herein with reference to fig. 2. For example, the non-concentric core portions may have a pitch that decreases by a quadratic (quadratically) relative to the increase in diameter of the twisted optical fiber 120 associated with the taper. In some embodiments, an increase in pitch may result in a particular beam shape, as described in more detail herein.
The target fiber 130 may include a concentric core to receive the beam from the twisted fiber 120 and provide a beam having a particular beam parameter product, beam profile, and/or beam shape. The target optical fiber 130 may be coupled to the twisted optical fiber 120 at a target splice point 160. In some embodiments, the concentric core of the target fiber 130 may be offset from the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber 120. For example, the concentric core of the input fiber 110 may be offset from the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber 120 at the target splice point 160 by a preconfigured offset amount. In some embodiments, the offset may be controlled based on controlling the position of the target splice point 160 relative to a tapered waist (e.g., a portion of the tapered region 140 having the smallest diameter). In some embodiments, the offset may vary with respect to position along the spliced optical fiber 100. For example, the offset may be a first offset at a first location along the axis of the spliced optical fiber 100 and a second offset at a second location along the axis of the spliced optical fiber 100.
In some embodiments, the target optical fiber 130 may be associated with a particular diameter (e.g., at the target splice point 160). For example, the target fiber 130 may be associated with a first diameter and the twisted fibers 120 may be associated with a second diameter. In this case, the first diameter and the second diameter may be a common diameter. Additionally or alternatively, the first diameter may be within a threshold amount of the second diameter, such as within 10% of the second diameter, within 5% of the second diameter, within 1% of the second diameter, and so forth. In some embodiments, the outer cladding of the target fiber 130 is aligned with the outer cladding of the twisted fiber 120. In some embodiments, the outer cladding of the input optical fiber 110, the twisted optical fiber 120, and the target optical fiber 130 are aligned.
In some embodiments, the target fiber 130 may be tapered. For example, after splicing the target optical fiber 130 to the twisted optical fibers 120, a tapering process may be performed to taper at least a portion of the target optical fiber 130 and at least a portion of the twisted optical fibers 120 such that the target splice point 160 is within the tapered region 140. In this case, based on controlling the cone parameter, a particular beam shape, beam profile, beam parameter product, etc. may be achieved. In some embodiments, a portion of the target fiber 130 may not be tapered. For example, a portion of the target optical fiber 130 may extend from one end of the tapered region 140 to provide a light beam.
In some embodiments, the taper length defining the tapered region 140 can be selected to control one or more characteristics of the spliced optical fiber 100. For example, the length of the taper may be selected to be a preconfigured length to achieve a particular offset of the concentric core (e.g., the target fiber 130, the input fiber 110, and/or a combination of both) relative to the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber 120. In some embodiments, the taper length may be about 20 millimeters (mm) to 40mm, about 5mm to 100mm, etc., with a pitch of about 4mm to 12mm, about 2mm to 20mm, etc. In some embodiments, a portion of the spliced fiber can be associated with a numerical aperture of about 0.06 to 0.30. Additionally, or alternatively, the length of the taper may be selected to achieve a particular angular orientation of the non-concentric core relative to the concentric core. In some embodiments, the length of the taper may be selected to achieve a particular beam characteristic. For example, the length of the taper may be selected to achieve a preconfigured mode excitation pattern, a preconfigured beam profile, a preconfigured beam parameter product, a preconfigured beam shape, and the like.
As noted above, fig. 1 is merely provided as one or more examples. Other examples may be different than that described with respect to fig. 1.
FIG. 2 includes a set of graphs 200-240 of the core portion described herein.
As shown in fig. 2, with the schematic 200, a twisted fiber 250 having a diameter D, which may correspond to the twisted fiber 120, may include a non-concentric core 251. The non-concentric core portion 251 may have an axis 252, the axis 252 being offset from an axis 253 of the twisted optical fiber 250 by an offset R. As shown in schematic 210, non-concentric core 251 may be twisted such that the angular position of axis 252 relative to axis 253 varies along the length of twisted fiber 250 and axis 253. For example, in the first position shown in fig. 260, axis 252 may be at an angular position of about 90 degrees relative to axis 253. In contrast, in the second position shown in fig. 261, axis 252 may be at an angular position of approximately 270 degrees relative to axis 253. As further shown in diagram 210, the pitch of non-concentric core 251 may be the distance between points at which axis 252 is at the same angular position relative to axis 253. For example, the pitch may be along the distal length of non-concentric core 251 to complete a single revolution about axis 253.
As further shown in fig. 2, by schematics 220 and 230, the parameters of twisted fiber 250 may differ at the input splice point where twisted fiber 250 is spliced to input fiber 270 relative to the target splice point where twisted fiber 250 is spliced to target fiber 280. For example, at the input splice point, the twisted fiber may be associated with a diameter D ' and an offset R ', and the non-concentric core portion 251 may be coupled to the concentric core portion 271 of the input fiber 270 at the angular position W ', which may correspond to the input fiber 110. In contrast, at the target splice point, the twisted fiber 250 may be associated with a diameter D and an offset R, and the non-concentric core 251 may be coupled to the concentric core 281 of the target fiber 280 at the angular position W, which target fiber 280 may correspond to the target fiber 130.
As described above, fig. 2 is merely provided as one or more examples. Other examples may be different than that described with respect to fig. 2.
FIG. 3 includes a set of beam characteristic maps 300-320 described herein.
As shown in FIG. 3, different types of beam shapes with different beam parameter products can be achieved using an eccentric fiber with an intermediate taper splice, as described herein. For example, by changing the position of a fiber splice point (e.g., a target fiber splice point) within a taper (e.g., relative to the taper waist), a circular beam output with a relatively low beam parameter product can be achieved, as shown in diagram 300. Similarly, at another location of the fiber splicing point (e.g., relative to the tapered waist), a top hat beam having a relatively high beam parameter product may be output, as shown in diagram 310. Similarly, at yet another location of the fiber splicing point (e.g., relative to the tapered waist), an annular beam can be output, as shown in diagram 320. For example, moving the splice location from relatively close to the input fiber to relatively close to the target fiber may result in the beam shape moving from a gaussian beam shape to a top hat beam shape and then to a ring beam shape.
As described above, fig. 3 is provided merely as one or more examples. Other examples may be different than that described with respect to fig. 3.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an example process 400 for manufacturing a spliced optical fiber. In some embodiments, one or more of the process blocks of fig. 4 may be performed by equipment (e.g., fiber splicing equipment, fiber tapering equipment, micromachining systems, manufacturing equipment, etc.).
As shown in fig. 4, the process 400 may include splicing a first end of a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core to an input end of a target optical fiber having a concentric core at a target splice point to form a spliced optical fiber (block 410). For example, as described above, the apparatus may splice a first end of a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core to an input end of a target optical fiber having a concentric core to form a spliced optical fiber. In some embodiments, the concentric core of the target optical fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted optical fiber have a specific offset at the target splice point.
In some embodiments, process 400 may include splicing the second end of the twisted fiber to the output end of an input fiber having another concentric core at an input splice point. For example, after splicing the target fiber to the first ends of the twisted fibers, the apparatus may splice the input fibers to the second ends of the twisted fibers. In this manner, as described above, the spliced optical fiber is formed to transmit a light beam having a specific beam shape. In some embodiments, the other concentric core of the input fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber have another offset at the input splice point. In some embodiments, to splice the input fibers to the twisted fibers, process 400 may include cleaving the second ends of the twisted fibers. For example, based on cleaving the second ends of the twisted fibers, the second ends of the twisted fibers may be cleaved and spliced to the output ends of the input fibers. In some embodiments, the first ends of the twisted optical fibers may be cleaved to enable splicing of the target optical fiber to the twisted optical fibers.
In some implementations, to splice the target fiber to the twisted fiber, the process 400 can include aligning the outer cladding of the twisted fiber with the outer cladding of the target fiber. For example, a first end of the twisted optical fiber may be spliced to an input end of the target optical fiber based on alignment of the twisted optical fiber and an outer cladding of the target optical fiber.
As further shown in FIG. 4, the process 400 may include tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber to form a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber, and causing a particular offset at the target splice point to correspond to a preconfigured core offset (block 420). For example, as described above, the apparatus may taper at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber to form a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber, and cause a particular offset at the target splice point to correspond to a preconfigured core offset. In some embodiments, the target splice point is within a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber.
In some embodiments, tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber includes tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target fiber to form a tapered region of the spliced fiber. For example, the tapering process may include tapering some of the twisted fibers and some of the target fibers based on splicing the twisted fibers to the target fibers. Additionally or alternatively, the tapering process may include tapering all of the twisted fibers, tapering all of the target fibers, or the like.
In some embodiments, the twisted optical fiber and the target optical fiber may be tapered such that the pitch at the target splice point is a preconfigured pitch different from the pre-tapering pitch. For example, the taper parameter may be selected to change the pitch from a pre-taper pitch to a pre-configured pitch to achieve a pre-configured set of beam parameters. Additionally, or alternatively, the taper lengths of the twisted optical fiber and the target optical fiber are selected to control the offset or angular orientation of the non-concentric core relative to the concentric core. Additionally, or alternatively, the taper parameters may be selected such that the angular orientation of the non-concentric core at the target splice point is a preconfigured angular orientation. Additionally, or alternatively, the taper parameters may be selected such that the target fiber is configured to achieve a preconfigured modal excitation pattern associated with a preconfigured beam profile.
Although fig. 4 shows example blocks of the process 400, in some implementations, the process 400 may include additional blocks, fewer blocks, different blocks, or a different arrangement of blocks than those depicted in fig. 4. Additionally or alternatively, two or more blocks of process 400 may be performed in parallel.
The foregoing disclosure provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the implementations to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure or may be acquired from practice of the implementations.
Depending on the context, meeting a threshold may refer to a value that is greater than the threshold, greater than or equal to the threshold, less than or equal to the threshold, and so forth.
Even if specific combinations of features are set forth in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of the various embodiments. In fact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Although each dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of various implementations includes a combination of each dependent claim with every other claim in the claim set.
No element, act, or instruction used herein should be construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article "a" is intended to include one or more items and may be used interchangeably with "one or more," and further, as used herein, the article "the" is intended to include one or more items related to the article "the" and may be used interchangeably with "one or more," and further, as used herein, the term "collection" is intended to include one or more items (e.g., related items, unrelated items, combinations of related and unrelated items, etc.). And the phrase "only one," or similar language may be used interchangeably with "one or more," if only one item is intended. Furthermore, as used herein, the terms "having," "containing," and the like are intended to be open-ended terms. Further, the phrase "based on" is intended to mean "based, at least in part, on" unless explicitly stated otherwise. Further, as used herein, the term "or" when used in a series is intended to be inclusive and may be used interchangeably with "and/or" unless specifically stated otherwise (e.g., if used in conjunction with "either" or "only one of").
Related applications
This application is a partial continuation of U.S. patent application No.16/457,018 entitled "ROTARY OPTICAL BEAM GENERATOR" filed on 28.6.2019, which claims priority of U.S. provisional patent application No.62/715,040 entitled "ROTARY OPTICAL BEAM GENERATOR" filed on 6.8.8.8.2017, and is a partial continuation of U.S. patent application No.15/802,897 entitled "ROTARY OPTICAL BEAM GENERATOR" filed on 3.11.11.2017, which claims priority of U.S. provisional patent application No.62/425,431 entitled "ROTARY OPTICAL BEAM GENERATOR" filed on 22.6.2016, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
This application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application No.62/817,858, filed on 3/13/2019, entitled "OFFSET split FOR CONTROLLED FIBER exact," the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Claims (20)
1. A method, comprising:
splicing a first end of a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core to an input end of a target optical fiber having a concentric core at a target splicing point by an apparatus to form a spliced optical fiber,
wherein the concentric core of the target optical fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted optical fiber have a particular offset at the target splice point; and
tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber by the apparatus to form a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber, and such that a particular offset at a target splice point corresponds to a preconfigured core offset,
wherein the target splice point is within the tapered region of the spliced optical fiber.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein tapering the at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber comprises:
tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target optical fiber to form a tapered region of the spliced optical fiber.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
splicing the second end of the twisted optical fiber to the output end of an input optical fiber having another concentric core at an input splice point,
wherein the other concentric core of the input fiber and the non-concentric core of the twisted fiber have another offset at the input splice point.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:
cleaving the second end of the twisted optical fiber; and
wherein splicing the second ends of the twisted optical fibers to the output ends of the input optical fibers comprises:
splicing the second ends of the twisted optical fibers to the output ends of the input optical fibers based on cleaving the second ends of the twisted optical fibers.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
aligning the outer cladding of the twisted optical fiber with the outer cladding of the target optical fiber; and
wherein splicing the first ends of the twisted optical fibers to the input end of the target optical fiber comprises:
the first end of the twisted optical fiber is spliced to the input end of the target optical fiber based on aligning the outer cladding of the twisted optical fiber with the outer cladding of the target optical fiber.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein tapering the at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber comprises:
tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target optical fiber such that a pitch at the target splice point is a preconfigured pitch different from the pre-tapering pitch.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the length of the taper is selected to control the offset or angular orientation of the non-concentric core relative to the concentric core.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein tapering the at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber comprises:
tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target optical fiber such that an angular orientation of the non-concentric core at the target splice point is a preconfigured angular orientation.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein tapering the at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber comprises:
tapering at least a portion of the twisted optical fibers and at least a portion of the target optical fibers such that the target optical fibers are configured to achieve a preconfigured modal excitation pattern associated with a preconfigured beam profile.
10. A spliced optical fiber comprising:
a twisted optical fiber having a non-concentric core, the core being twisted about an axis of the twisted optical fiber along a length of the twisted optical fiber; and
a target optical fiber spliced to the twisted optical fiber at a target splice point and having concentric cores,
wherein the tapered region of the spliced optical fiber includes at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber and at least a portion of the target optical fiber such that the target splice point is within the tapered region, and
wherein the tapered region is tapered such that an offset of the first axis of the non-concentric core and the second axis of the concentric core corresponds to a preconfigured core offset at the target splice point.
11. The spliced optical fiber of claim 10, further comprising:
an input optical fiber spliced to the twisted optical fiber at an input splice point and having another concentric core,
wherein at the input splice point, another offset of the third axis of the other concentric core and the first axis of the non-concentric core corresponds to another preconfigured offset at the input splice point.
12. The spliced optical fiber of claim 11, wherein the input optical fiber at the input splice point has a first diameter and the twisted optical fiber at the input splice point has a second diameter, and
wherein the first diameter and the second diameter are within a threshold amount.
13. The spliced optical fiber of claim 10, wherein a portion of the twisted optical fiber not within the tapered region has a first diameter and a portion of the target optical fiber not within the tapered region has a second diameter different from the first diameter.
14. The spliced optical fiber of claim 13, wherein the diameter of the tapered region changes from the first diameter to the second diameter along the length of the tapered region.
15. The spliced optical fiber of claim 10, further comprising:
a cladding disposed around the target fiber and the twisted fiber.
16. The spliced optical fiber of claim 10, wherein the offset varies with respect to position along the spliced optical fiber.
17. A twisted optical fiber comprising:
a non-concentric core twisted about an axis of the twisted optical fiber along a length of the twisted optical fiber;
a first end receiving a target optical fiber having a first concentric core at a target splice point; and
a second end receiving an input optical fiber having a second concentric core at an input splice point,
wherein at least a portion of the twisted optical fiber is tapered to form a tapered region such that the target splice point is included within the tapered region, and
wherein an offset of the first axis of the non-concentric core and the second axis of the concentric core corresponds to a preconfigured core offset at the target splice point.
18. The twisted optical fiber of claim 17, wherein the second end is cleaved to receive the input optical fiber.
19. The twisted optical fiber of claim 17, further comprising:
a cladding aligned with a corresponding cladding of the target fiber.
20. The twisted optical fiber of claim 17, wherein the length of the tapered region is selected to achieve a set of preconfigured beam parameters.
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| US201962817858P | 2019-03-13 | 2019-03-13 | |
| US62/817,858 | 2019-03-13 | ||
| US16/573,814 | 2019-09-17 | ||
| US16/573,814 US10690855B2 (en) | 2016-11-22 | 2019-09-17 | Tapered non-concentric core fibers |
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| CN111694098B CN111694098B (en) | 2022-12-27 |
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