Enhanced Spatial Light Coupling Efficiency of Polymer Optical Fiber via Micro-lens Self-heating Melting Technique

The coupling issue of polymer optical fiber (POF) for short-distance optical access network exists. In this paper, a method of fabricating an optical fiber end-face lens with a special structure based on the burning ball of a fusion splicer is proposed, which can be used to improve the performance of POFs in spatial light coupling. The experimental results show that the coupling efficiency is improved from 28.64% (5.4 dB loss) to 70.61% (1.5 dB loss), which reveals the feasibility of this method. The high coupling efficiency of the fiber end face optimized by this technology helps to extend the communication distance based on POF. Moreover, this method is simple in structure and low in cost.