Abstract

Interconnection of optical components with dissimilar modal spot sizes has been an area of active research for several years. Three different scenarios of interest include the connection of (i) laser sources to fibers, (ii) two fibers with dissimilar modal properties, and (iii) silica-on-silicon integrated-optic waveguides to fibers. Pretapered preforms have been drawn to smaller diameters for connecting lasers to fibers,¹ and fibers have been threaded through capillaries and then tapered in order to achieve beam expansion.² More recently, thermally expanded cores have been used for splicing dissimilar fibers.³ In this paper we describe photoinduced methods of fabricating interconnection devices and discuss the maximum mode-field-radius (MFR) conversion that can be achieved in fibers with different core compositions.

© 1994 Optical Society of America