Large core optical planar splitter for visible and infrared region

Large core optical elastomer splitter fabricated by using 3D printing pattern

“…Takezawa et al 1994 [10] reported on Y-branching plastic optical waveguide with low access losses 1.91 dB at 660 nm and Park et al 2011 [20] reported on properties low-cost 1x2 plastic optical beam splitter using a v-type angle polymer waveguide for the automotive network with optical losses 3.45 dB at 650 nm. Our previous presented splitters optimized for visible spectrum had optical losses 4.3 dB and 5.0 dB at 650 nm [21] and for infrared wavelengths 8.2 dB at 850 nm, 6.1 dB at 1310 nm and 6.2 dB at 1550 nm [22].…”

Properties of Large Core Polymer Optical Bend Waveguides

“…For fabrication of the large core bend waveguides with radius 10, 20 and 30 mm (sample #1) we used a similar fabrication process, which has been already presented for large core 1x2Y splitter assembled with 1 mm POF waveguides [24] or 910 µm core optical fibers (FG910LEC Thorlabs Inc.) [19]. Here we made U-grooves with dimensions 750 μm × 750 μm (wide × high) needed for filling with the waveguide material into the 3 mm thick PMMA substrate.…”

“…The core layer of the fiber is made from polymethyl-methacrylate resin with diameter of the core 735 µm and refractive index n f = 1.49 (λ = 650 nm) and cladding layer is made from fluorinated polymer with cladding diameter 750 µm, and numerical aperture (NA) is 0.5. We have already shown that Norland Optical Adhesives (NOA) UV glues had suitable properties for using as the waveguide core materials as it had low optical losses in the spectral region from visible to infrared [19] and was why our bends have the core waveguides made from UV photopolymer NOA and the substrate and cover layers are made from PMMA. Bending radius is from 1 to 30 mm.…”