New optical monitoring method for arc-fusion splice of single-mode fibres and high-precision estimation of splice loss

A new local monitoring system with a 1.5 μm LD is proposed, utilising fibre bending just behind the splice. By the use of index-matching fluid completely evaporated by arc-discharge, splice loss and strength of splice point are not degraded, and, furthermore, the splice loss can be estimated with a precision of ± 0.01 dB.