Optical Fibers

Ideally suited for TOPTICA's tunable diode lasers

  • Polarization Maintaining (PM)
  • High Power and AR Versions
  • Wide wavelength coverage (350 nm .. 1625 nm)
  • Ideal match for FiberDock

TOPTICA Photonics AG offers a wide range of optical fibers ideally suited for use with TOPTICAs lasers and FiberDock. These economically priced fibers cover a wide range of wavelengths. TOPTICA recommends to always purchase a fiber along with a laser and fiber coupler, as this ensures maximum fiber coupling efficiency.

TOPTICAs laser systems generally produce light that is diffraction limited or at least nearly so. It can therefore be coupled efficiently into single-mode fibers. Coupling single-mode light into a multi-mode (MM) fiber will result in a loss of brightness, although the coupling efficiency might be better and the coupling is less sensitive to misalignment – the output of the MM fiber will generally be multi-mode. To preserve the favorable properties of single-mode light, it should be coupled into single-mode (SM) fibers.

Coupling polarized light into a single-mode fiber will result in random polarization at the output of the fiber, because the fiber is generally slightly birefringent. As this birefringence changes with temperature and movement/bending of the fiber, also the output polarization of a SM fiber varies.

Polarization maintaining (PM) fibers can preserve the input polarization under certain circumstances. In PM fibers, a strong birefringence is introduced intentionally in a controlled way, and coupling linearly polarized light into a PM fiber along one of its principal axes will maintain the polarization. The polarization crosstalk from one axis to the other is generally smaller than -25 dB/100 m, for wavelengths below 480 nm smaller than -20 dB/100 m. The key of PM fibers is mostly aligned along the slow axis, and this is normally the axis along which the polarization is coupled into the fiber. TOPTICAs fiber coupler FiberDock offers a degree of freedom to rotate the fiber around its axis to optimize this alignment.

Normally, every fiber facet introduces 4% loss, reducing the theoretical maximum transmission through a fiber to 92%. Anti-reflection coated (AR) fibers reduce these reflection losses to below 1%, so that the power behind the fiber can be increased by 6-8%. The AR coating withstands high powers, but is not suited for physical contact (PC) fiber-to-fiber coupling. AR coated fibers are available at many wavelengths upon request.

High power (HP) fibers are recommended for powers greater than 1000 mW in the infrared, and 100 mW in the visible. The output beam from high power fibers shows very little distortion with M² << 1.1.

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  • Specification

    Type Wavelength Range Connectors Cutoff MFD NA Length Jacket Fiber
    PM Patchcords
    PM 350 - 440 nm 2 x FC/APC < 340 nm 2.3 .. > 2.6 µm 0.12 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000676
    PM 405 - 480 nm 2 x FC/APC < 400 nm 3.8 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000633
    PM 480 - 630 nm 2 x FC/APC < 470 nm 3.8 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000677
    PM 630 - 820 nm 2 x FC/APC < 620 nm 4.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000678
    PM 760 - 980 nm 2 x FC/APC < 760 nm 5.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000679
    PM 980 - 1300 nm 2 x FC/APC < 970 nm 6.6 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000661
    PM 1290 - 1550 nm 2 x FC/APC < 1280 nm 9.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000680
    PM 1460 - 1625 nm 2 x FC/APC < 1450 nm 10.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-000319
    HP Patchcords
    PM/HP 375 - 488 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 370 nm 3.5 µm 0.07 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-001060
    PM/HP 395 - 500 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 395 nm 3.5 µm 0.07 2 m 3 mm PVC #OE-001075
    PM/HP 460 - 640 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 450 nm 4.0 µm 0.08 2 m 3 mm PVC #OE-000874
    PM/HP 620 - 780 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 620 nm 4.5 µm 0.10 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-001109
    PM/HP 760 - 980 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 760 nm 5.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-000796
    PM/HP 940 - 1300 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 930 nm 6.6 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-000799
    PM/HP 1290 - 1550 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 1280 nm 9.0 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-001113
    AR Patchcords
    PM/AR 760 - 850 nm 2 x FC/AFC < 760 nm 5.5 µm 0.11 3 m 3 mm PVC #OE-000660
    PM/AR 1460 - 1620 nm 2 x FC/APC < 1460 nm 10.5 µm 0.09 3 m 3 mm PVC #OK-001293
  • Options

    Isolation is often required for diode lasers to protect them from back reflections. For grating stabilized diode lasers like TOPTICAs scientific diode laser series, optical isolation is mandatory for reliable single frequency operation if the laser is fiber coupled. Depending on the laser, single stage or double stage isolators are recommended.

  • Downloads

    Brochure: Scientific Lasers (please see website for latest specs!)
    Manual: FiberDock v3
    Technical Drawing: FiberDock

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