Reducing Splicing Loss Between a Silicon-Cored Optical Fiber and a Silica Optical Fiber

Splicing a silicon-cored fiber with a silica fiber usually suffers from splicing loss because of large refractive index mismatch. We applied a solution-based metal-assisted chemical etching method with silver catalyst to create anti-reflection structures on the end surface of a silicon-cored fiber, which reduced laser splicing loss to 1 dB when spliced with a silica fiber for working in 1550-nm wavelength. Experiment and stimulation indicated good integrity of the etched silicon structure in splicing with a silica fiber.