Polarization maintaining fused coupler is covering a wide range of optical devices that may have been used or not, includes optical splitters, optical combiners, and couplers. The couplers are operating in different applications that require other than specific connections. The fused coupler is used to split optical signals between two fibers into one and they are constructed by fusing & tapering the fibers together. This method is used for creating a simple and rugged method of splitting. Polarization maintaining fused coupler is built using unique fusing technique and polarization maintains fiber.
What is the main use of PM fused couplers?
The PM fused coupler is the type of component that is allowing the redistribution of optical signals. The device is able to distribute the other optical signals from one fiber among two or more fibers. The coupler is having the ability to combine the optical signals from two or more fibers into a single fiber. The input signal is not directly transmitted from one fiber to another, but divided among the output ports.
The operating wavelength of fused PM Splitter is up to ±20 nm for 1550 nm region devices. If you are looking for a fused coupler for operations within the standard bandwidth or splitter, it is best to order a standard center wavelength. There are companies manufacturing the polarization maintaining fused coupler. The manufactures uses unique fusing techniques and PM fiber to build couplers. They have the features of excess loss, small size and high polarization extinction ratio.
The PM fused coupler is split into high power linearly polarized light into multiple paths without perturbing the line. It is also used as the power tap to monitor signal power in a PM fiber system without disturbing the linear SOP of light propagating in the PM fiber.
Listed below are the features of PM fused coupler –
- Available for slow or fast axis operation
- Compact in-line package
- High extinction ratio
- Low insertion loss
- High stability and reliability
The fused coupler is used in applications like fiber optic instruments, fiber amplifiers, fiber sensors, coherent detecting, and research. Optical couplers are important devices in optical communication and there are various types of optical couplers with different transmission characteristics. Fused PM splitters have a wide variety of options with the standard configuration of 1×2, 2×2, 1×3 (monolithic) and 1×4 (compact cascaded). The couplers are configured and built in-line with the industry requirement.