Experiments on room temperature optical fiber-fiber direct bonding

High quality permanent connection between optical fibers is a significant issue in optics and communication. Studies on room temperature optical large diameter fiber-fiber direct bonding, which is essentially surface interactions of glass material, are presented here. Bonded fiber pairs are obtained for the first time through the bonding technics illustrated here. Two different kinds of bonding technics are provided-fresh surface (freshly grinded and polished) bonding and hydrophobic surface (activated by H2SO4 and HF) bonding. By means of fresh surface bonding, a bonded fiber pair with light transmitting efficiency of 98.1% and bond strength of 21.2 N is obtained. Besides, in the bonding process, chemical surface treatment of fibers' end surfaces is an important step. Therefore, various ways of surface treatment are analyzed and compared, based on atomic force microscopy force curves of differently disposed surfaces. According to the comparison, fresh surfaces are suggested as the prior choice in room temperature optical fiber-fiber bonding, owing to their larger adhesive force, attractive force, attractive distance, and adhesive range. (C) 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.OE.51.8.085008]