title: Reflowed solgel spherical microlens for high-efficiency optical coupling between a laser diode and a single-mode fiber.
abstract: To improve the coupling efficiency between a laser diode and a single-mode fiber, we propose a two-microlens coupling scheme that uses two solgel spherical microlenses for high coupling efficiency. The conventional reflow technique was employed and extended to the inorganic-organic hybrid SiO2/ZrO2 solgel material to form the microlenses. Preliminary results show that the coupling efficiency was increased to--1.28 dB (74.5%) by the proposed scheme, compared with a coupling efficiency of--10.13 dB (9.7%) by the butt-joint method. The proposed fabrication technique demonstrates that use of a reflowed solgel spherical microlens is a cost-effective mass-production approach to application of micro-optical elements in optical communication.
authors.affiliation: Photonics Research Centre, School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xiaocong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.forename: Wai Chye
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: Ken Jin
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Moh