Optical Coupling Efficiency of a Coupler with Double-Combined Collimating Lenses and Thermally Expanded Core Fibers

Improving the coupling efficiency of two optical signals is a hot issue, where the efficiency of optical coupling has a significant effect on the signal transmission over the fiber link. To this end, the Large-Beam Fiber Coupler (LBFC) with a Double-combined Collimating Lens (DCL) and a single-mode TEC fiber structure are proposed in this study. Based on the propagation principle of Gaussian beams and the coupling requirements, the coupling mechanism of the fiber coupler and the coupling mismatch between the coupler is analytically modeled. The model and the optical path are optimized, then the ray tracing is used to calculate the coupling efficiency of inter-coupler signals for different SMF. The coupling efficiency is evaluated through experiments in terms of coupling efficiency and the radial, axial, and angular mismatches between the couplers. The results showed that with a large Mode Field Diameter (MFD), better coupling efficiency can be obtained, i.e., a large MFD of 28 μm is tested with its maximal efficiency of 95.16%. Moreover, the angular mismatch has the most significant impact on the coupling efficiency, while the axial mismatch has the least. The use of large MFD can alleviate the angular mismatch and thus improve the optical coupling efficiency.