Dynamics simulation of photonic crystal fiber end face polishing

• Main Authors: Zhengqi Zhao, Di Feng, Qimeng Fang, Jingming Song, Ningfang Song
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2017-06-01
• Series: Advances in Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814017711810

The high quality of polished end face of photonic crystal fiber has a significant effect on coupling efficiency when photonic crystal fiber is used to couple with other optical devices. In order to obtain the smooth surface of the photonic crystal fiber, the end face polishing process of the photonic crystal fiber is analyzed using the finite element method in this article. Because there are many small air holes in the cladding of photonic crystal fiber, it needs better processing technology than that of ordinary fiber. The formation mechanism of cracks and the effects of cutting depth and grit tip radius on the processing results are researched, and this process is simplified as a single grit cutting a single hole wall and the cutting depth of grit with different diameters under certain lapping force is obtained by theoretical analysis. The simulation results show that finite element method can effectively simulate the end face lapping process of photonic crystal fiber, and that in the polishing process of photonic crystal fiber, the edge of hole wall is prone to the collapse area which is distributed along the circumference; cutting force and collapse area increase with the cutting depth and grit tip radius. For no collapse area generation, the maximum cutting depth of this photonic crystal fiber is less than the critical cutting depth of brittle plastic transition of ordinary fiber.