Abstract

As shown by Marcuse,¹ the fields of a single-mode fiber near cutoff are approximately Gaussian. Splice loss can, therefore, be calculated by evaluating the coupling between misaligned Gaussian beams. Based on this analysis, Nemoto and Makimoto² derived a general equation for splice loss between nonidentical single-mode fibers with combined transverse x, longitudinal z, and angular θ misalignments (Fig. 1). This equation is in a particularly useful form (Fig. 2), since the splice loss depends only on the spot size of each fiber rather than the details of the refractive-index profile.

© 1984 Optical Society of America