An investigation on optical microfiber reflector with low reflectance

Abstract

The backscattering characteristics of optical microfiber (OM) are experimentally studied by controlling heating temperature and cooling method during the OM fabrication process. OM samples with various reflectances from 0.1% to 1% are achieved. An OM with waist length of 5 mm, waist diameter of 1 µm, and approximately 0.5% reflectance is used as the end reflector of a fiber Fabry-Perol (F-P) interferometer. A piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT) fiber phase modulator is used to test the sensing performance of the fiber F-P interferometer. Experimental results verify that the OM with low reflectance can be used as a reflector in the F-P interferometer.