Tapered splice technique for capillary optical fiber

We propose a simple but effective technique. It is concerned with a tapered splice technique for capillary optical fiber. In order to contrast, we investigate two kinds of capillary optical fiber. One of the capillary optical fiber has the annular core around the air hole and the other one has the embedded annular core around the inner cladding. We demonstrate the tapered splice technique works for both of the capillary optical fiber in experiment. It is the key to improve the coupling efficiency of the capillary optical fiber. We also build a theoretical model to predict the optical power of the capillary optical fiber and it is confirmed by the experimental results. The method provides an insight of the mode conversion characteristics of capillary optical fiber. It should be used as an easy way to realize the fiber-based in-line components and should be more importantly to explore new possibilities with this kind of fiber.