title: Light beam coupling between standard single mode fibers and highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers based on the fused biconical tapering technique.
abstract: We propose and experimentally demonstrate light beam coupling between a single-mode fiber (SMF) and a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber (HN-PCF) based on the fused biconical tapering (FBT) technique. In our experiment, a standard SMF is pre-tapered to match its propagation constant to that of a HN-PCF. In order to remove the condensation in the air holes, the temperature is increased gradually to preheat the fibers. An appropriate level of hydrogen flow is administered to avoid the air-hole collapse. As a result, coupling ratio exceeding 90% between the SMF and HN-PCF is achieved. This technique avoids back Fresnel reflection, mode-field diameter (MFD) mismatch and fiber-core misalignment, bubble generation and air-hole collapse in the interface fusion splice.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798, Singapore. jgliu@ntu.edu.sg
authors.forename: Jianguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tee-Hiang
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yong-Kee
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Zhaowen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang