All-glass 3D-printed fiber couplers

We apply three-dimensional micro-printing techniques for fused silica in the fabrication of low cost, flexibly-designed allglass waveguides. For the proof of concept, a 3-to-1 fiber-waveguide-fiber optical coupler with three 800 μm long tapered waveguides suspended in air, ideally aligned with the fiber facets, was fabricated. The measured coupling loss is 1.7~2.7dB/facet at a wavelength of 632nm.