Theoretical, numerical, and experimental analysis of optical fiber tapering

An optical fiber taper is fabricated by heating and stretching a fiber. The resulting taper shape is important as it strongly affects optical performance. In this paper, the tapering process of solid optical fiber is modeled and analyzed under several heating and stretching conditions. The fiber material is assumed to be of non-Newtonian inelastic type. The results show that for a given heating profile, the shape of a tapered fiber is independent of the material properties and the stretching conditions applied at the fiber ends, and a section of uniform waist can be formed as long as the extensional deformation rate in a section of the heating zone is position-independent. Different shapes of fiber tapers can only be achieved by using different heating profiles. Therefore, spatially uniform heating of the fiber within the heating zone is of critical importance for producing a taper with a uniform waist. This is particularly true if the fiber material has a low deformation temperature.