Research

The fiber fuse effect manifests a scintillating hot spot that emerges in an optical fiber transmitting light and moves towards the direction from which comes the transmitted light. The fiber after the propagation of fiber fuse can no longer transmit light since its core structure has decomposed into bubbles of usually micron-level sizes. We study the physical mechanisms and characteristics of fiber fuse and the ways to suppress it. We have for the first time observed the spontaneous initiation of fiber fuse under no externally applied mechanical damages before the initiation. We have determined the critical temperature and optical power conditions for the initiation and have revealed the quantitative correlation between the conditions, which leads to the revelation of important physical mechanism lying beneath the instantaneous initiation of fiber fuse. Moreover, we have exploited control of the conditions for the initiation and have turned it into a non-invasive and cost-effective method to fabricate in-fiber spherical microcavities in a production-line manner (seconds per microcavity).