Optical fiber processing

Optical fiber processing for shaping and joining of optical fibers

At Fraunhofer IZM, a wide variety of fiber optic components have been developed in order to cover the current demand in areas of Telecom, Datacom, Medicine and High-power Lasing.

Optical fibers with different geometries and spectral operation from UV to MIR can be processed to create radial-firing fibers, fused couplers, lensed fibers, bundles, fiber caps, 3D resonators, bended fibers, connections of fiber-to-chip & fiber-to-GRIN lens, etc. Customized CO2 laser processing systems, IR heaters, Vytran cleaver and Fujikura splicer are used as standard tools.

Laser shaping of fiber ends

By using laser processing techniques, the end of glass optical fibers can be also deformed in such a way that several geometries can be defined. For example, convex fiber lenses and inverse-cone fiber are shaped and used for collimation and side-firing irradiation of light.

More Info: Fiber lensing

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Laser shaped fiber for side-firing irradiation

Hydrofluoric acid-free fiber etching

Fraunhofer IZM develops an innovative hydrofluoric acid-free etching process to manufacture reliable and robust glass fiber optic components and glass integrated optics. Glass fibers and capillaries are uniformly etched by using molten salts as etchants.

More Info: Hydrofluoric acid-free etching of glass