Ultrasonic splicing of polymer optical fibres

Abstract

A new method of splicing polymer optical fibres by irradiation of megahertz ultrasonic waves is demonstrated. The lowest connection loss of 1.5 dB is obtained at 2 MHz, and a high mechanical strength of 59 N (close to the strength of the base polymer) is achieved at 1 MHz. It is shown that the loss and strength are in a trade-off relationship, and that the duration of ultrasonic irradiation has a certain optimal value of ~1 s.