Precise control of the optical microfiber tapering process based on monitoring of intermodal interference

This paper describes the effective rectification of the estimated diameter of an optical microfiber (OM) during the tapering process. A high-coherence laser is used to monitor the OM-tapering process. The evolution of the intermodal interference between the fundamental mode and the coupled modes can be clearly observed. We analyze the point in time at which the excited mode vanishes and use that to justify the correlative diameter of the fabricated OM for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. By comparing the measured cutoff time of the coupled LP(02) mode and the theoretically predicted value, we can judge whether the theoretical estimation of the OM diameter has been correctly obtained, and we can introduce a modification method with feedback by changing the initial parameters or the manufacturing conditions to ensure OM diameter accuracy. This identification and rectification method is helpful for precise fabrication of OMs with different waist lengths and waist diameters, and it can also be used to check the repeatability of OMs.