title: Pressure-assisted low-loss fusion splicing between photonic crystal fiber and single-mode fiber.
abstract: We demonstrate low-loss splicing between a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and a single-mode fiber (SMF) with a conventional electric-arc fusion splicer, where nitrogen gas (N2) with a proper pressure is pumped into the air holes of the PCF to control the air-hole collapse ratio so as to optimize the mode-field match at the joint. The method is applicable to both solid-core and hollow-core PCFs. With this method, we achieve a splice loss (measured at 1550 nm) of ~0.40 dB for a solid-core PCF and ~1.05 dB for a hollow-core PCF. The method could find wide applications in the fabrication of PCF-based devices.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology & Systems, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Fufeng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Laicai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Kin Seng
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Chiang