METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVING LIGHT POWER HANDLING CAPABILITIES OF POLYMER FIBERS

摘要

The power handling capability of polymer fibers is increased by broadening aninput intensity profile, which is typically Gaussian, without significantlydecreasing the efficiency of coupling light into a polymer fiber. The methodfor increasing the power handling capability of polymer fibers includes thesteps of: a) emitting light having a Gaussian intensity profile from a fiberlight source (100); b) broadening the Gaussian intensity profile so thatenergy at the center of the Gaussian intensity profile is distributed to theperimeter to reduce the peak power intensity of the emitted light before it islaunched into the polymer fiber; c) transmitting the emitted light into atleast one polymer fiber (300). Preferably, a tapered or twisted fused bundle(200) is used to broaden the intensity profile and preferably the fused bundlehas an angled input end face. As a result, more total power can be coupledinto the polymer fiber while keeping below the melting threshold caused by thelight absorption -- enabling, for example, power in excess of 1 Watt to betransmitted through a 1-mm diameter PMMA fiber.