Fabrication and analysis of a special optical connector containing a 1/4-inch-long optical fiber for DOI tests.

摘要

A technique was developed for fabricating a special optical connector containing an optical fiber of approximately 1/4-inch length for positioning in one end of an adapter to mate with a standard SMA optical connector that terminates a much longer optical fiber. A special holding block was devised for lapping and polishing both ends of the short fibers in four connectors simultaneously. The very short connector was for use in experiments at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in coupling a high-energy laser beam through the short fiber into the long fiber cable. On the basis of geometrical optics, an analysis was made of the distribution of light energy arriving at the rear face of the short, straight optical fiber segment as a function of the half-angle of a cone of light incident on the front face of the fiber segment.