Determining waveguide coupling efficiency by observing reflectedlight from the end face

摘要

The amount of light coupled into a waveguide depends on end-faceirregularities. We have developed a technique to assess the lightcoupling performance of waveguides by measuring their back reflectedlight characteristics. The reflected light can be separated into twoparts, the specular and the diffuse reflected light. The amount of eachgives us information on how well light can be coupled into a waveguide.This technique is especially useful in integrated optics made of polymermaterials where end face quality is a strong function of the materialpreparation technique and processing