We present a design and fabrication approach for 3D printed polymer microstructured optical fiber tapers on standard single-mode glass fibers for efficient and compact mode-field conversion. This paves the way towards complex functionalized fiber tips for various applications, like sensors and beam shaping components, currently limited by the mode-field size and distribution of standard optical fibers. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of mode-field converting tapers for relaxing the misalignment tolerance in fiber-to-fiber connections and maximizing the coupling efficiency in fiber-to-chip connections. We demonstrate a mode-field diameter expansion ratio of 1.7 and reduction ratio of 3 and show that our microstructured tapers achieve a comparable performance in coupling efficiency as their step-index counterparts, while providing greater robustness.

Despite the rapid developments in the field of two-photon polymerization-based direct laser writing, limited attention has been paid to the efficient design of optical waveguide-based building blocks. To fill that gap, we have numerically investigated air-clad waveguides, tapers, and S-bends, with the aim to minimize insertion losses, whilst reducing the device sizes. We have first demonstrated waveguides with square and circular cross-sections that are mode-matched with single-mode optical fibers featuring insertion losses below −0.6 dB and −1.5 dB around 1550 nm for lengths of respectively 0.2 mm and 1 mm. We have also identified parabolic tapers that allow for adiabatic transition between a wide range of input and output waveguide sizes. These shapes allow, for example, tapering down from 15 µm to 2 µm diameter waveguides over a length as short as 43.2 µm. We have fabricated a series of such components and confirmed their nearly lossless performance with insertion loss measurements. Finally, we have designed and optimized S-bends with Bezier curve shapes. As a proof-of-principle demonstration, we have fabricated a 160 µm long S-bend that offsets the waveguide axis by 50 µm. The insertion loss of the resulting 400 µm long component, which also included two parabolic tapers, was less than −1.7 dB. Apart from providing design rules and ready-to-use recipes for fabricating low-loss 3D-printed waveguide-based building blocks, we project that our work will spark the development of a series of efficient photonic devices that rely on these components and that can be exploited in diverse application fields.

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Electrodynamical model of a classical distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) consisting of alternating quarter-wave layers of high and low permittivity is considered at the plane wave normal incidence. Reflective characteristics of DBR possessing absorption loss in constituting layers are analysed via correct wavelength-scale boundary problem solution by the method of single expression (MSE). Analysis of optical field and power flow density distributions within the lossy DBR structures explained the peculiarities of their reflective characteristics. Optimal configurations of lossless and lossy DBRs are revealed. Specific DBR structures possessing full transparency at definite number of layers are also analysed.