An investigation on thermal splicing of ZBLAN optical fiber

Unlike traditional silica-based fibers, ZBLAN fibers possess exceptionally low phonon energy, making them ideal for transmitting signals in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) range. This characteristic is particularly significant because the mid-IR range harbors a wealth of information about molecular structures, enabling applications in environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and chemical sensing. However, to fully unlock the midIR capabilities of those fibers, we need to demonstrate repeatable procedures for handling these fibers, such as efficient connections between silica and ZBLAN fibers and between ZBLAN and ZBLAN fibers doped and passive ones. Working with soft-glass fibers such as ZBLAN fibers, it is required to have precise control of the thermal splicing conditions. This paper extensively investigates the splicing thermal conditions using the Vytran GPX-3400 system to achieve controllable and low-loss thermal splicing between ZBLAN to ZBLAN and ZBLAN to silica fibers. The temperature information in the filament was monitored using a silica FBG sensor by adjusting the Power, the splicing duration, and airflow of the Argon gas, and the calibration curves were extracted.