Tapered fiber bundle couplers for high-power fiber amplifiers

In this work, we would like to demonstrate our results on performing (6+1)x1 tapered fiber bundle combiners using a tri-electrode fiber splicing system. In our combiners we have used 9/80 mu m (core/clad) diameter fibers as single-mode signal input ports. Using this fiber, instead of a conventional 9/125 mu m single-mode fiber allowed us to reduce the taper ratio and therefore significantly increase the signal transmission. We have also performed power combiner which is based on the LMA fibers: input signal fiber 20/125 mu m and passive double clad fiber 25/300 mu m at the output.