Low-loss fusion splicing of anti-resonance hollow-core fibers

With the development of anti-resonance hollow-core fiber (HCF) in various applications, low-loss HCF self-splicing technique is more and more significant. In order to solve the existing problems such as large splicing loss, poor splicing strength, and slow splicing speed, we investigate the impact of discharge intensity, discharge duration and ring alignment on splicing loss and strength experimentally in this work. The low-loss and high-strength homogeneous fusion between HCFs are realized with the proposed rules as: short-duration and high-power discharging are necessary to ensure the stable splicing between HCF claddings without damaging the inner rings; the ring size and shape of the inner rings should be aligned with each other strictly to satisfy mode-field matching. The lowest splicing loss as 0.012±0.004dB has been archived.