Experimental Research on In Situ Uniaxial Tensile Response of Silica-Based PLC Optical Splitters

In this study, the mechanical and optical properties of silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical splitters under uniaxial tensile loading are studied by building an in situ experimental test platform. The tensile test results revealed that the adhesively-bonded fiber array-PLC chip joints are weak areas of the PLC optical splitter. Combined with the real-time monitoring of the optical performance index insertion loss (IL) during the tensile test, it was found that the changing trend of Delta IL-time curves is related to the deformation, damage, and debonding process of the weak area. Based on the experimental results and phenomena, the correspondence between Delta IL at 1.55 mu m wavelength and the damage degree of PLC optical splitters is established, that is, Delta IL in (-5 dB; 0 dB], (-15 dB; -5 dB], and (-infinity, -15 dB] belong to light damage, moderate damage, and severe damage, respectively. This research can provide a useful reference for damage characteristics analysis and reliability design of PLC optical splitters.