Optical Propagation Characteristics of Side-polished Fibers

Based on beam propagation method,analysis and simulation on optical propagation characteristics of side-polished fiber have been made.A kind of fiber side-polished machine and the manufacturing process have been reported.These factors that affect optical propagation characteristics of side-polished optical fiber,such as the remaining thickness d from the polished surface to the core of side-polished fiber,the length of polished area,the roughness of the polished surface and the materials covered on the side-polished area have been investigated.The experiments show that the less d is,the more the loss of optical power will be,and the more sensitive to the refractive index of the materials covered on the polished area.When the side-polished area is put into the liquid with refractive index of 1.495 and the remaining thickness is less than 5μm,the loss of optical power propagating in the side-polished optical fiber is obviously increased.It is also shown that the loss of optical power is increased as the length of polished area or the roughness of the polished surface increases.