Examination of threshold powers for high-power problems in optical fiber

Some high power problems in optical fiber are paid attention to, accompanying the increase of operating optical power. Especially, this paper reports experimental data gathered on three problems stated as follows. The first problem is the destruction of fiber endface, and short-term 2W exposure tests of mated FC connector pairs prepared with various endface conditions are evaluated in this paper. The second problem is so-called fiber fuse, which is the phenomenon that only core region of an optical fiber melts locally by high optical power in the fiber and the damage propagates toward the light source. We measured threshold power of the propagation, concerning several kinds of fiber, and suggest how to stop it. The third problem is the fiber coat burning, which is caused by the leak light when the fiber is broken or bent accidentally under high power environment. Several kinds of fiber coated with different materials and colors were made loops of various diameters and examined under high power condition at 1W to 3W of 1480 nm.