Examples disclosed herein illustrate systems and methods to determine and evaluate the quality of mechanical splices of optical fibers using insertion loss estimation. In at least some of the disclosed systems and methods, an optical fiber termination system may include a reference fiber coupling a light source and a stub fiber of a fiber optic connector, a digital camera sensor and lens to capture images of scattered light emanating from a portion of the fiber optic connector and a portion of the reference fiber both in a field of view (FOV) of the digital camera sensor, and a processor. The processor may analyze digital images of scatter light emitted from at least a portion of the fiber optic connector and the reference fiber to estimate insertion loss at the fiber optic connector.

The present disclosure aims to reduce the size and cost of this optical monitoring device that detects the intensity of light propagating through an optical fiber.

The present disclosure relates to an optical monitoring device for detecting the intensity of light propagating through an optical fiber, the optical monitoring device comprising an optical component that branches part of incident light in a first direction and branches the rest in a second direction at a specific branching ratio and emits the light, wherein the optical component includes: a single-layer film having a uniform thickness; an incident-side member provided on the incident side of the single-layer film; and an outgoing-side member provided on the outgoing side of the single-layer film, a first refractive index interface between the single-layer film and the incident-side member and a second refractive index interface between the single-layer film and the outgoing-side member are provided at a specific angle with an optical axis of the incident light, the first direction is a direction in which the light transmits through the first refractive index interface and the second refractive index interface, and the second direction is a direction in which the light is reflected on the first refractive index interface and the second refractive index interface.

A method of making an optical fiber sensor device for distributed sensing includes generating a laser beam comprising a plurality of ultrafast pulses, and focusing the laser beam into a core of an optical fiber to form a nanograting structure within the core, wherein the nanograting structure includes a plurality of spaced nanograting elements each extending substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of optical fiber. Also, an optical fiber sensor device for distributed sensing includes an optical fiber having a longitudinal axis, a core, and a nanograting structure within the core, wherein the nanograting structure includes a plurality of spaced nanograting elements each extending substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the optical fiber. Also, a distributed sensing method and system and an energy production system that employs such an optical fiber sensor device.

A method for measuring a mechanical property of a coating on an optical fiber may include collecting Brillouin frequency shift data of the coating on the optical fiber, and determining the mechanical property of the coating by comparing the collected Brillouin frequency shift data with correlation data that may include a set of collected sample Brillouin frequency shift data and a set of collected sample mechanical property data of a plurality of sample materials. The sample materials may include a substantially identical sample composition including one or more curable polymers, be prepared with varying processing conditions, and have different mechanical property values. The coating on the optical fiber may include a material composition substantially identical to the sample materials composition. The set of collected sample Brillouin frequency shift data may be correlated with the set of collected sample mechanical property data to determine a quantitative relationship therebetween.

A method for inspecting an intermittent connection type optical fiber ribbon includes: accumulating one-dimensional images in a width direction of the intermittent connection type optical fiber ribbon, arranged intermittently with connection parts that connect adjacent optical fibers by repeatedly capturing images of the intermittent connection type optical fiber ribbon along the width direction while moving the intermittent connection type optical fiber ribbon in a longitudinal direction; and creating a two-dimensional image of the intermittent connection type optical fiber ribbon by aligning the one-dimensional images in a second direction orthogonal to a first direction where pixels configuring the one-dimensional image are aligned.

A visual inspection system (100, 200) for optical fibers (150) includes at least a pattern source (120, 220A, 220B, 220C, 520); at least a first illumination source (130, 230A, 230B, 230C, 510, 522) to direct light towards an optical fiber (150); and at least a first camera (140, 240A, 240B, 240C, 540) positioned at an opposite side of the fiber (150) from the pattern source (120, 220A, 220B, 220C, 520). At least one image (170, 180, 190) of the optical fiber (150) is taken and a pattern visible through the optical fiber (150) in the image (170, 180, 190) may be analyzed to detect distortions in the pattern.

Briefly, embodiments of methods and/or systems for tomographic imaging are disclosed. In an example embodiment, optical measurements may be obtained for at least a portion of an illuminated object at a plurality of focal positions between the illuminated object and an imaging lens and at a plurality of angular orientations. Rotated representations of the optical measurements may be projected onto a coordinate plane in which in-focus and out-of-focus rotated representations of the optical measurements may form a cross-sectional image of the illuminated portion of the object.

Techniques are provided for controlling azimuthal alignment of a cross-section of the anti-resonant hollow core fiber when winding such anti-resonant hollow core fiber into a coil.

A multicore optical fiber with a reference section having a material defining a marked multicore glass optical fiber. The multicore fibers can be in groupings, for example, the groupings can be in the form of one of an optical fiber ribbon covered by a matrix, and a tight buffered cable. Fiber optic connectors can be assembled to the multicore optical fiber at either or both ends, and the colored portion can be associated with the optical fiber connector aligning the optical core elements with the optical connectors. The assembly can have at least one transceiver device with a transmit port and a receive port defining a two-way communication channel. Further aspects describe methods of manufacturing multicore fibers including application of curable coatings and reference sections.

At least some embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of optical fiber splicing and the evaluation of resulting splice joints. In an embodiment, the present invention is an apparatus for evaluating the integrity of a mechanical splice joint, and comprises a light source, digital video camera, digital signal processor, and visual indicator, wherein the apparatus connects to the test connector and the digital signal processor analyzes digital images of the scatter light from at least a portion of the test connector.