The intrinsic mode activation and evolution in fiber splicing based on 3D refractive index profile characterization

Fiber fusion splicing tremendously affects the modal stability, insertion loss and transmission quality of the optical fiber communication systems. Especially, in the few-mode fibers, a tiny dissatisfactory fiber splicing operation may lead to a big modal perturbation or unexpected mode coupling. In this paper, we propose a 3D refractive index profile visualization method to demonstrate the mode activation and evolution in fiber fusion splicing. A refractive index profile measuring instrument is established and applied to detect the 3D refractive index profile deformation caused by the fiber splicing. Then, based on the measured values of 3D refractive index profile, the mode activation is analyzed for fiber splicing between a single-mode fiber and a two-mode fiber with different core-offset distance. Results show that the mode begins to tremble with a core-offset of 4 mu m and the high-order modes are effectively activated at the core-offset of 7 mu m. The basic theoretical model and experiment results provide a profound support in almost all kinds of fiber splicing operation, mode interference construction and mode coupling modulation. Additionally, the method can be expanded to the research on fiber cleaving and bending.