Acrylic-based asymmetric and variable coupling ratio Y-branch plastic optical fiber coupler

Abstract

Acrylic-based asymmetric and variable couplers have been developed using a single structured Y-branch design with a high-index-contrast waveguide taper and a void structure for fiber attenuation using the lateral displacement of two fibers. Device fabrication is performed by producing the device structure on an acrylic block using a computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool. The fabricated device has an excess loss of 5.85 dB, while the coupling ratios are 56.86 and 43.14% when the device is operated as a 3 dB coupler. In the asymmetric coupler mode, the coupling ratio ranges from 44.84 to 8.01% for port 1 and 55.16 to 91.99% for port 2. The excess loss of this device varies from 5.42 to 7.64 dB. In the variable coupler mode, the coupling ratio ranges from 10.09 to 32.88% for port 1 and from 89.91 to 67.12% for port 2. The excess loss of the device varies from 5.85 to 8.49 dB.

Evanescent Field Study on a U-Shaped Silica Fiber Absorption Sensor Using Non-Sequential Ray Tracing

“…Tested fiber has Numerical Aperture (NA) at 0.22 with wavelength of 1310 nm, so the calculated V is 55. 4. Number of mod, N [6] in this system is 1534.6.…”

“…1. Due to the multimode characteristics, ray-tracing technique [4] has been used to model these optical devices by using Zemax simulation. The influence of the geometry of sensing region such as absorbing medium refractive index, n 2 shape of fiber and the bending radius is analyzed by using Zemax simulation.…”

Characterization of a Y-Coupler and Its Impact on the Performance of Plastic Optical Fiber Links

“…As a result, the need to design and manufacture POF-specific components, and particularly passive devices, arises. In this context, multi-port couplers are key elements to implement different layouts that require combining or splitting optical signals, whereas similar designs are needed for sensor applications and for power monitoring in network management and testing [1][2][3]. Thus, depending on their function, several coupler designs based on different technologies have been developed: waveguide plates, injection molding, fused-tapered, thermally bended/glued or misaligned fibers and beam-splitter cubes [4][5][6][7][8].…”