(DURIP) GLASS PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR SPECIALTY OPTICAL FIBERS

Several defense applications, including directed energy (DE) and infrared countermeasures (IRCM), require optical transmission systems capable of transmitting high power laser light from the source to the target in an efficient and flexible manner. Standard optical fiber is limited in both the maximum power, as well as range of wavelengths, that can be transmitted with low loss. In order to overcome these limitations, specialty optical fibers and fiber components must be used. Currently, the power handling capability of optical fibers is primarily limited by glass damage thresholds and induced nonlinearities. Damage thresholds can be increased through the use of fiber end caps, and nonlinearities are greatly reduced by using large core or hollow core fiber. Hollow core fiber can also be used to transmit light in wavelength bands which are not transparent to silica. The requested instrumentation is an LZM-100 LazerMaster splicing system from AFL. The LZM-100 is a glass processing system that uses a CO2 laser as a heat source. While most splicers use the heat generated from electric arcs to fuse optical fibers, the laser-based heat source enables greater precision, uniformity, stability, and cleanliness to the splices. The enhanced quality of the heat source opens up many possibilities beyond a standard splicer.