Loose abrasive blasting as an alternative to slurry polishing of optical fibre end faces

Abstract A novel method of polishing the end face of an optical fibre by blasting it with loose dry abrasive grit travelling at high speeds is presented. The method, called loose abrasive blasting (LAB), is specifically designed to improve the surface quality of micro-lenses ground at the tips of optical fibres. Thus, the method described is suitable for polishing non-flat surfaces. Blasting is carried out by immersing the fibre tip in a stream of high kinetic energy abrasive grit. The surface finish attainable using LAB is compared with that of cleaved, ground and slurry polished fibre end faces. Optical microscopy photographs are presented as a qualitative comparison. The surface roughnesses are measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). For cleaved fibres, the surface roughness improved by a factor of 2 and 6 for slurry polished and dry diamond blasted fibres, respectively.

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