Fiber Collimator Information

Fiber collimator is a device for collimating the light coming from a fiber, or for launching collimated light into the fiber. This kind of device can be used for launching light from a collimated beam into a fiber, or for fiber-to-fiber coupling, light from the first fiber is collimated with a fiber collimator and then focused into the second fiber by another collimator. Basically, fiber connectors can be seen as the natural interface between fiber optics and free-space optics.

-Easy to Integrate

-Models for FC and SMA Connections Available

-Three Wavelength Ranges Covering 350-1600nm

Two Different Basic Types of Fiber Collimator

- Some can be directly attached to bare fibers. This is the cheapest and most compact solution, but such a fiber collimator is more or less permanently attached to a fiber.

- Other fiber collimators have a mechanical interface to a fiber connector, e.g. of FC or SMA type, they are not for use with bare fibers. One can easily attach and remove such a collimator from a connectorized fiber.

It is often necessary to transform the light output from an optical fiber into a free-space collimated beam. In principle, a simple collimation lens is sufficient for that purpose. However, the fiber end has to be firmly fixed at a distance from the lens which is approximately equal to the focal length. In practice, it is often convenient to do this with a fiber optic collimator.

The fiber optic collimators have an axial limit stop for the fiber ferrule, which is locked using a grub screw to ensure a constant focal position and highly reproducible assembly. The eccentric key is used to focus the fiber collimator and the desired position is locked using two radially arranged clamping screws.

Another application of fiber optic collimator is the combination with a back-reflecting mirror and some additional optical element. For example, one may insert a Faraday rotator in order to obtain a fiberized Faraday mirror, or a quarter-waveplate for an effective half-waveplate reflector. In other cases, one may be using some optical filter or a saturable absorber.