Quantitative evaluation of fiber fuse initiation with exposure to arc discharge provided by a fusion splicer

The optical communication industry and power-over-fiber applications face a dilemma as a result of the expanding demand of light power delivery and the potential risks of high-power light manipulation including the fiber fuse phenomenon, a continuous destruction of the fiber core pumped by the propagating light and triggered by a heat-induced strong absorption of silica glass. However, we have limited knowledge on its initiation process in the viewpoint of energy flow in the reactive area. Therefore, the conditions required for a fiber fuse initiation in standard single-mode fibers were determined quantitatively, namely the power of a 1480 nm fiber laser and the arc discharge intensity provided by a fusion splicer for one second as an outer heat source. Systematic investigation on the energy flow balance between these energy sources revealed that the initiation process consists of two steps; the generation of a precursor at the heated spot and the transition to a stable fiber fuse. The latter step needs a certain degree of heat accumulation at the core where waveguide deformation is ongoing competitively. This method is useful for comparing the tolerance to fiber fuse initiation among various fibers with a fixed energy amount that was not noticed before.