Temperature stabilization of tapered fiber optic components

Abstract

A temperature stabilized tapered fiber optic component is produced, such as a fiber optic coupler or a fiber optic filter. In the case of the component such as a coupler, at least two fibers are fused and tapered to achieve a desired taper profile with suitable mechanical and wavelength properties. In the case of a component such as a fiber filter, only one fiber is tapered. Once the component is formed, it is solidly secured to a rigid substrate that produces a mechanical stress such as to compensate for any modal phase shift of the component due to temperature variation. Also, the mechanical phase dependence of the component may be adjusted in relation to the substrate to provide the desired temperature compensating effect. Preferably, both these features are used to achieve the best possible temperature stabilization.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.