Abstract

The lowest loss splicing of single-mode fibers in the field will require peaking-up or optimizing transmission through the splice prior to completion of the splice. For a typical transmission measurement, access to the optical signal at the far end is required, and although looping back through other fibers could provide signals at the splice for most of the fibers, a great deal of complication and interaction is required. The device described in this paper alleviates this problem by detecting a signal just after the splice that can be used to align the splice and measure splice loss. The principle of detecting scattered light was reported^1,2 for use in an adjustable, multimode fiber, eccentric connector. This technique is applied to single-mode fiber splicing in this paper but could also be used for multimode fibers.

© 1982 Optical Society of America