Fabrication method and device of ultra-small
gradient-index (GRIN) fiber probe were investigated in
order to explore the development of ultra-small probes for
optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging. The beamexpanding
effect of no-core fiber (NCF) and the focusing
properties of the GRIN fiber lens were analyzed based on
the model of GRIN fiber probe consisting of single-mode
fiber (SMF), NCF and GRIN fiber lens. A stereo microscope
based system was developed to fabricate the GRIN
fiber probe. A fiber fusion splicer and an ultrasonic cleaver
were used to weld and cut the fiber respectively. A confocal
microscopy was used to measure the dimensions of
probe components. The results show that the sizes of probe
components developed are at the level of millimeter.
Therefore, the proposed experimental system meets the
fabrication requirements of an ultra-small self-focusing
GRIN fiber probe. This shows that this fabrication device
and method can be employed in the fabrication of ultrasmall
self-focusing GRIN fiber probe and applied in the
study of miniaturized optical probes and OCT systems.
Chi Wang
,
Fang Zhang
,
Shu-Bo Bi
,
Xue-Qin Xia
,
Ting-Ting Xu
. Fabrication method of ultra-small gradient-index fiber probe[J]. Advances in Manufacturing, 2014
, 2(4)
: 327
-332
.
DOI: 10.1007/s40436-014-0089-7
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