Inexpensive, efficient optical fiber end-face mirror

The rapid fabrication of inexpensive, efficient optical fiber end-face mirrors by dipping the fiber into a small-volume drop of a molten, low-melting-point metal alloy is described. The technique uses a small (a couple hundred micrometers thick, about 1 mm wide) drop of molten metal to achieve reliable, repeatable adhesion of the metal to the fiber that is not possible with larger volumes. The resulting mirrors have an average reflectance of 65–75% for wavelengths in the telecommunications range of 1300–1600 nm. The efficient and robust nature of the resulting mirrors is demonstrated with a novel end-of-fiber mirrored long-period fiber grating.