Abstract

A fiber end must be optically flat and perpendicular to the fiber axis to produce high coupling efficiency in a fiber connection. The cleave quality of the fiber end is usually inspected by using a Michelson interferometer. The interferogram is visually inspected by a microscope. The disadvantage of this equipment is that the whole system is bulky and not portable. We improve the system by using a compact laser diode emitting coherent light at 670 nm with 5 mW of power. Since the optical power is sufficiently high, the interferogram can be directly projected onto a screen. Therefore, we can observe the interferogram without using a microscope. This makes the system very compact and portable.

© 1992 Optical Society of America