Low-loss fusion splicing of erbium-doped optical fibers for high performance fiber amplifiers

The authors describe an optimization process for reducing the fusion splice loss between Er-doped and standard single-mode fibers which have significant differences in their physical and optical properties. As a result of this process, an average splice loss of 0.11 dB at 1300 nm in such fiber pairs has been achieved. The experimental splice loss data approached the theoretically predicted values. The low-loss splices obtained in the Er-doped and standard fiber combination have been used in high-gain fiber amplifier experiments. It is concluded that low-loss splices can be prepared through optimization, which will directly affect the performance of fiber lasers and amplifiers in future optical-fiber networks