Antireflection subwavelength gratings on optical fiber tips fabricated by a dedicated UV nano imprint lithography system

Yoshiaki Kanamori; Masaaki Okochi; Kazuhiro Hane

doi:10.1117/12.2075791

27 February 2015 Antireflection subwavelength gratings on optical fiber tips fabricated by a dedicated UV nano imprint lithography system

Yoshiaki Kanamori, Masaaki Okochi, Kazuhiro Hane

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9372, High Contrast Metastructures IV; 93720T (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2075791
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Antireflection (AR) layers at the tips of optical fibers are indispensable in order to reduce propagation loss and optical noise. Conventional thin-film AR layers have problems about cost due to vacuum apparatus usage in the fabrication and requirement of many thin-film layers to obtain excellent AR characteristics. Thus, easy AR coating methods are needed to reduce Fresnel reflection. AR structures consisting of subwavelength gratings (SWGs), which have periodic structures with the periods smaller than operating wavelengths, have been extensively investigated. Desired refractive index to realize the ideal AR condition can be obtained by SWGs. Nano imprint lithography (NIL) is known as the low cost fabrication technology of SWGs. However, it is difficult to carry out an NIL process on the tips of flexible and long optical fibers. In this study, we developed a dedicated UV-NIL system for optical fiber end-faces. An SWG with a period of 700 nm, a width of 560 nm, and a height of 250 nm was successfully fabricated at the tip of a single-mode optical fiber for optical communications system. We evaluated that reflectance decreased by using the SWG over measured spectral range. For example, reflectance decreased to 0.2% at a wavelength of 1550 nm.

Citation Download Citation

Yoshiaki Kanamori, Masaaki Okochi, and Kazuhiro Hane "Antireflection subwavelength gratings on optical fiber tips fabricated by a dedicated UV nano imprint lithography system", Proc. SPIE 9372, High Contrast Metastructures IV, 93720T (27 February 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2075791

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