The recently-introduced coatings, designed for use on optical fiber end faces, have been in great demand by customers. With these coatings back reflections are reduced by nearly 3% at the interface between glass and air. LASER COMPONENTS has continued to make developments in this area, which has resulted in new standard designs, the suitability of which for high vacuum coating processes has been tested and proven.
Many customers, and their applications, require – in addition to the optical coating – a robust and, yet, flexible metal jacket as a protective covering around the optical fiber. We use a corrugated tube made of stainless steel (see the cable on the left in the photo) and, thus, the best metal jacket available. The protective tubing has an outer diameter of 7.1 mm, does not contain any plastic parts, and is free of any oily or fatty residues.
To ensure that the connection between two optical fiber plugs connected by a metal jacket is potential free, vacuum-suitable isolators are mounted on both ends between the plug and the metal jacket.
If less robust protective jackets are required, we offer AR-coated fibers which are also available with protective jackets made of Teflon. The tubes have an outer diameter of 2.2 mm and are available in different colors.
The jackets described above will be available in the future on a standard basis for coated fibers. Naturally, these fibers will also be available as so-called “bare fibers” (i.e., without a protective jacket).
The SMA connector and D-80 plug, which is compatible with the Mitsubishi LD-80, have established themselves on the market for high power applications. Both connectors have a free-standing fiber; the fiber bore hole of said connectors can be adjusted for use with different types of fibers. For very high power, we recommend using plugs with copper ferrules to optimally conduct the accumulating heat. The body of the D-80 plug is equipped with cooling fins for this purpose.
