Annular Heating of Optical Fiber with a CO2 Laser Using Reflective Axicon Elements

By offsetting the light structure, precise localized zone heating and annealing of specific areas at a fiber’s surface can be achieved as well. This is essentially a passive devise into which active feedback elements can be incorporated to allow precise control of processes such as splicing, tapering, ball and axicon lensing, end capping and combiner fabrication.