Low loss elliptical core D-fiber to PANDA fiber fusion splicing

Abstract

Elliptical core D-fiber is difficult to fusion splice to other types of fiber due to its small core and D-shaped cladding. The presented method of splicing D-fiber to PANDA fiber involves using E-fiber in a bridge splice. The E-fiber core is expanded to match the mode of the PANDA fiber. The D-fiber is then connected to the E-fiber with a low temperature splice. Total system loss for fibers spliced using this method is 0.72 dB with a polarization crosstalk of less than 25 dB.