High-efficiency Fusion Splicing of Mid-infrared Special Fibers with the Silica Fibers

An efficient and mechanically robust fusion splicing method for the splice of special soft glass fiber to standard silica fiber has been demonstrated. An asymmetric temperature gradient fusion splicing method created a temperature gradient between the special soft glass fiber and the silica fiber by heat conduction, hence met the fusion temperature requirement of the two fibers with different softening temperatures. Adding the preheating process avoided the over-softening at splicing interface of soft glass fibers and help to reduce the splicing losses causing by core offset and bending. In this paper, by adjusting parameters such as fusion splicing power, offset distance, preheating time and heating time, the minimum splicing loss of 0.49 dB between a 12/220 μm fluorotellurite fiber and an 8.2/125 μm silica fiber (SMF-28e) was achieved experimentally.