Experimental measurement and numerical analysis of fused taper shape for optical fiber coupler

To find out the effect of the shape of fused taper region on the optical fiber coupler, the fiber couplers were fabricated at different drawing speeds with a six-axes fiber coupler machine. The results, which were obtained from the shape of fused taper region measured with microscope, show that there is a close correlation between the cone angle and optical performance of fiber coupler. High-performance fiber coupler cannot be obtained until rheological shape is controlled accurately. The numerical analysis model, which was built based on generalized Maxwell viscoelastic theory, is resolved with ANSYS software. The calculated results accord with the experimental data. It can apply a theoretic basis for forecasting the shape of fiber coupler fabricated under the conditions of different technological parameters.