Power splitters

A power splitter, comprising:

• a single-core optical fiber, the single-core optical fiber comprising:
• a fiber axis CLS;
• a non-tapered portion having a cladding diameter DS;
• and
• a transition portion extending from the non-tapered portion from a first location to a second location, the transition portion have a transition length LTS extending between the first location and the second location along the fiber axis CLS;
• a multicore optical fiber, the multicore optical fiber comprising:
• a fiber axis CLM;
• a plurality of cores;
• a non-tapered portion having a cladding diameter DM;
• and
• a transition portion extending from the non-tapered portion from a first location to a second location, the transition portion have a transition length LTM extending between the first location and the second location along the fiber axis CLM;
• wherein:
• a terminal end of the single-core optical fiber is spliced to a terminal end of the multicore optical fiber at a splice location;
• the terminal end of the single-core optical fiber and the terminal end of the multicore optical fiber comprise a common, splice diameter Dsp;
• at least one of a taper ratio RS of the splice diameter Dsp to the cladding diameter DS of the non-tapered portion of the single-core optical fiber or a taper ratio RM of the splice diameter Dsp to the cladding diameter DM of the non-tapered portion of the multicore optical fiber is greater than or equal to 0.05 and less than or equal to 0.4;
• and
• at least one of the transition length LTS of the single-core optical fiber or the transition length LTM of the multicore optical fiber is greater than or equal to 2 mm;
• wherein when the power splitter is in operation, the power splitter exhibits at least one of the following:
• an insertion loss of the power splitter is less than or equal to 1 dB;
• or
• a power distribution variance among the plurality of cores of the multicore optical fiber is less than or equal to 10%.