Vytran® Optical Fiber Glass Processors: Capability Highlights

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Examples of Lensed Fibers Manufactured Using a GPX Series Glass Processor

Summary

Lensed fibers are designed to enhance the coupling efficiency in certain optical systems. Lensing the optical fiber results in small, focused spot sizes and increased working distances, mitigating signal loss due to core size mismatch and the divergent nature of light exiting the fiber. Examples include conical, ball, segmented, and graded-index (GRIN) end cap lenses. Thorlabs' Vytran GPX Series Glass Processors are engineered to create and measure high-quality lensed fiber tips with precision and repeatability.

Applications

• Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Coupling
• Telecommunication
• Biological Imaging
• Optogenetics
• Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

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Lensed fibers can be used for light collection in PIC testing applications. Here, light emitted from a chip is collected by a lensed multimode fiber and coupled into an optical spectrum analyzer. For more information, please see our PIC Demo Testing Station.

Related Content

This Application Note discusses methods to measure the spot size of single-mode lensed fibers.

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Examples of Structured Fibers Manufactured Using a GPX Series Glass Processor

Summary

Structured optical fibers are fabricated to include microstructures with specific patterns to produce fibers with unique optical properties. These fibers often include periodic arrays of holes, resulting in a broad range of index profiles for fibers with unique optical characteristics such as high nonlinearity and high birefringence. Thorlabs' Vytran GPX Series Glass Processors are capable of fabricating and processing high-quality structured fiber with precision and repeatability, including photonic crystal fibers (PCFs), hollow core fibers, and photonic bandgap fibers (PBFs).

Applications

• Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers
• Supercontinuum Generation
• Imaging
• Spectroscopy
• Fiber-Optic Sensors

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Thorlabs' Supercontinuum Generation Kit uses a highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber to spectrally broaden femtosecond pulses near 800 nm. An image of the dispersed supercontinuum output of the SCKB2(/M) kit is shown here; the output beam combines the high power and spatial coherence of a laser with the broad visible-to-NIR spectrum of an incandescent source. For more information, please see our Supercontinuum Generation Kit.

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Thorlabs' Miniaturized Two-Photon Microscope (Mini2P) uses a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber to deliver 920 nm femtosecond laser pulses for stable two-photon imaging. Here, the Mini2P was used to image the spontaneous signal of a mouse somatosensory cortex expressing GCaMP6. For more information, please see our Miniaturized Two-Photon Microscope.

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Examples of Soft Glass Spliced Using a GPX Series Glass Processor

Summary

Soft glass fibers are commonly used in mid-IR applications, but they are notoriously more challenging to work with than silica fibers due to low glass transition temperatures. Thorlabs' Vytran GPX Series Glass Processors have a precisely controlled heat source to handle the delicate processing these fibers require. They are capable of fabricating splices, tapers, couplers, terminations, and combiners using soft glass fiber while maintaining the fibers' strength and minimizing loss.

Applications

• Mid-IR Spectroscopy
• Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers
• Chemical Sensing
• Supercontinuum Generation
• Surgical Lasers

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Thorlabs’ O-Band Fiber Amplifiers (PDFAs) use a fluoride fiber doped with praseodymium (Pr) ions to allow for a higher radiative transition efficiency compared to silica fiber. Shown here is an eye diagram measured by amplifying a 50 GBaud/s PAM4 signal using our PDFA100 fiber amplifier. For more information, please see our O-Band Praseodymium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers.

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Thorlabs' Mid-IR and Long-Wave IR Supercontinuum Lasers use a dispersion-engineered indium fluoride (InF₃) fiber pumped with a high-power femtosecond fiber laser, resulting in stable pulses from 1.3 µm to 4.5 µm and 3.5 µm to 11 µm, respectively. A numerical simulation of the non-linear processes used to generate the output of the SC4500 mid-IR supercontinuum laser is shown here. For more information, please see our Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Laser and Long-Wave Infrared Supercontinuum Laser.

Related Content

This webinar discusses some differences between fluoride fiber and traditional silica fibers and how handling procedures can be changed to work with exotic glass types. Glass processing solutions, such as splicing and tapering of fluoride fiber, are also discussed.