Fusion splicing of double-clad specialty fiber using active alignment technology

The fusion splicing of double-clad (DC) specialty fibers based on active alignment is crucial to the investigation of high-power monolithic fiber lasers. Given the wave-guiding characteristic of DC fiber, a light stripper is introduced in an active alignment experiment. We propose a novel method for stripping light that is convenient, highly effcient, and low cost. This method is also effective for low-numerical-aperture beams that escape from the fiber core. A splice loss as low as 0.05 dB is achieved.