HIGHLY EFFICIENT COUPLING BETWEEN SINGLE-MODE FIBER AND POLYMER OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES

Single-mode optical D-fiber is fabricated and coupled to single-mode a crylic waveguides by use of a novel technique utilizing alignment ways and a transcision. The D-fiber is fabricated by lapping the cladding layer of a single-mode fiber to the core, Optical waveguides and align ment ways are made with polymers by photolithography. This technique a llows coupling of the optical elements by means of a transcision place d perpendicularly to the optical axis of the waveguide in order to ach ieve efficient coupling of single-mode fiber to optical waveguides wit h typical coupling losses of 0.5 +/- 0.2 dB with index matching liquid , The technique also allows for passive coupling resulting in an exces s loss over active alignment of 0.35 dB, Coupling efficiency results p resented here are the highest for single-mode fiber to single-mode opt ical waveguide. The best coupling produced an efficiency of 97.3% (or 0.12 dB loss).