JPH07157338A - Method for coating optical fiber and end face of optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute a coating treatment in a manner as to avoid exerting undue force on optical fibers by bundling and fixing plural pieces of the optical fibers on a part of a mask plate which is held fixed in a vacuum chamber and subjecting the respective end faces thereof to the antireflection coating treatment. CONSTITUTION:Plural pieces of the optical fibers are bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate 21 in the vacuum chamber 20. The respective end faces 4c are then subjected to the antireflection coating treatment in the state of fixing the mask plate 21. The coating of the end faces in a manner as not to exert the undue force on the optical fibers is possible according to this coating method. Cracking or breaking of the optical fibers is surely prevented and there is no more energy loss even if a large-output laser for processing is transmitted. Further, the danger of heat generation and laser leakage is eliminated. In addition, there is no need for rotating the mask plate and, therefore, the structure is simplified and the highly reliable coating is executed at a low cost.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber used in, for example, a YAG laser beam machine and a method for coating an end face of the optical fiber.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the case of coating optical parts such as lenses, in order to increase the number of pieces that can be processed at one time and to reduce the coating cost, as many optical parts as possible are fixed on the entire surface of the dome in the vacuum chamber. In order to achieve a coating with a uniform film thickness over the widest possible area,
The coating was performed while rotating the dome by the driving device.

[0003]

By the way, when coating the end face of an optical fiber, only the end face is coated with a very small portion, but the portion other than the end face is long. Must be bundled on top of. Especially when it comes to large diameter optical fibers,
The bend radius had to be large, and the optical fiber was bulky. If the dome is rotated in this state, the optical fiber will be caught in the drive device, and even if the optical fiber is placed away from the drive device, the dome rotation will apply an excessive force to the optical fiber. There is a risk of cracks in the optical fiber near the base of the connector or sleeve, or the fiber may break at worst, and not only loss (energy loss) will occur if a high-power laser for processing is transmitted as it is, but heat will also be generated from it. There was a risk that the laser would leak.

Particularly, in an optical fiber drive relay for driving an optical fiber by an external force, since the optical fiber is repeatedly switched, a bending stress is applied to the optical fiber. In this case, even a little is applied to the optical fiber. If there were cracks, there was a risk that they would grow and the cracks would gradually grow. The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its object is to fix the optical fiber end face to a mask plate and perform coating without applying excessive force to the optical fiber when coating. It is to provide an optical fiber and a coating method of an end face of the optical fiber which can be treated, and yet another object is to provide an optical fiber capable of efficiently setting a connector and an optical fiber with a sleeve on a mask plate. Another object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber capable of sufficiently withstanding high-frequency switching in a structure in which the optical fiber is driven by an external force.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, an optical fiber according to the present invention has a vacuum chamber 20.
A plurality of them are bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate 21 inside, and each end surface 4c is provided with an antireflection coating 40 in a state where the mask plate 21 is fixed. Further, the optical fiber according to the present invention includes a plurality of optical fibers 4 each having a sleeve 4a having a different diameter and a connector 25 mounted on both ends thereof.
A plurality of the sleeves 4a and the connectors 25 are alternately bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate 21, and the antireflection coating 40 is provided on each end surface 4c in the fixed state of the mask plate 21. It is characterized by being applied.

Here, of the plurality of optical fibers described above,
One optical fiber 4 is the movable side, the other two optical fibers 1 and 2 are the fixed sides, and one end of the movable side optical fiber 4 and both ends of the fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2 are opposed to each other. Alternatively, the movable-side optical fiber 4 may be driven so that the light emitted from one end of the movable-side optical fiber 4 can be switched so as to be received by one of both ends of the fixed-side optical fibers 1 and 2.

Further, according to the coating method of the end face of the optical fiber of the present invention, the mask plate 21 in the vacuum chamber 20 is used.
It is characterized in that a plurality of optical fibers 4 are bundled and fixed to a part of the above, and an antireflection coating 40 is applied to each end face 4c with the mask plate 21 fixed.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a plurality of optical fibers 4 are bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate 21 in the vacuum chamber 20, and each end face 4c of the optical fiber 4 is coated with an antireflection coating without moving the mask plate 21. Since 40 is applied, the end face 4c can be coated so as not to reduce the number of the optical fibers 4 that can be processed at one time as much as possible and to prevent the optical fiber 4 from being subjected to an excessive force. It becomes possible to prevent the occurrence of cracks and the like.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a large-diameter optical fiber 4 which is used in a YAG laser processing machine or the like and which has an end face 4c provided with an antireflection coating 40 and to which a connector 25 and sleeves 4a and 4b are attached is illustrated.

In FIG. 1, a dome-shaped mask plate 21 is arranged in a fixed state in a vacuum chamber 20 in which coating is performed, and a plurality of optical fibers 4 are provided in a space above the mask plate 21 up to an allowable bending radius. It is arranged so as not to bend. These optical fibers 4 are positioned and fixed by bundling them on a part of the mask plate 21 so that the end surface 4c to be coated faces the direction of the target 22.
The target 22 is a material to be coated, and by irradiating the target 22 with electrons from the electron gun 23,
A plurality of films are simultaneously formed on the plurality of end faces 4c.

As shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), the optical fiber 4 is covered with an opaque resin 24 such as a nylon resin except for the end face 4c, and includes a portion where the coating is peeled off. At both ends, sleeves 4a and 4b made of metal having good heat dissipation and formed in a substantially cylindrical shape are respectively attached by caulking, and the end faces 4 together with the sleeves 4a and 4b.
c is optically polished. A large-diameter connector 25 is attached to one end of the optical fiber 4, and the end of the optical fiber 4 is connected to the connector 18 of the housing E described later via the connector 25. There is.

Then, a plurality of optical fibers 4 are bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate 21 in the vacuum chamber 20 so as to face the target 22, and the mask plate 21 is reflected on each end surface 4c without moving. Since the anti-reflection coating 40 is applied, the end face 4c can be coated with the anti-reflection coating 40 without applying excessive force to the optical fiber 4, and therefore the optical fiber 4 is not cracked or broken. Even if a high-power laser for processing is transmitted, the loss (energy loss) is small, and there is an advantage that the danger of heat generation and laser leakage can be eliminated.

Further, at the time of coating, as shown in FIG. 3, the mask plate 2 is formed by bundling the large-diameter connector 25 and the small-diameter sleeve 4a (or 4b) alternately.
It may be fixed to a part of 1. In other words, since the diameter of the connector 25 is much larger than the diameter of the sleeve 4a, the number of optical fibers 4 that can be coated at one time is reduced by only mounting the connector 25 side by side, and the efficiency is reduced. By alternately arranging the sleeve 4a (or 4b) side, which is thinner than the diameter of the connector 25, with the connector 25 side, the number of optical fibers 4 that can be processed at one time can be increased, and efficient coating can be performed. There is an advantage that you can.

Here, the amount that can be coated at one time is
Although the amount of the organic gas from the target 22 which is an organic substance and the space of the optical fiber 4 occupying the inside of the vacuum chamber 20 are determined, the area of the end surface 4c to be actually coated is very small. By the way, if the mask plate 21 is not rotated like a conventional dome, the mask plate 21
The area of the place where the film thickness becomes uniform is small,
Since the area of the end surface 4c that is actually coated is small in an emergency, the film thickness does not become uneven by bundling a plurality of optical fibers 4. Moreover, by bundling and fixing a plurality of optical fibers 4, the number of optical fibers 4 that can be processed at one time need not be reduced as much as possible, and inexpensive coating is possible. Further, even when the optical fiber 4 thus formed is used as a large-diameter optical fiber used in a YAG laser processing machine or the like, by controlling the two film thicknesses of ZrO ₂ and SiO ₂ , for example. , The reflection of the YAG laser at the wavelength of 1064 nm can be suppressed as much as possible.

Next, the end face 4 is formed by the above coating method.
An example in which the large-diameter optical fiber 4 to which the antireflection coating 40 is applied to c and the connector 25 and the sleeves 4a and 4b are attached is used for an optical fiber drive relay of a time division device will be described below. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, this optical fiber drive relay has a fixed block A for fixing both ends of a pair of fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2 in parallel.
A movable block B for switching the movable side optical fiber 4 to the fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2, an electromagnet device C for driving the movable body 5, a chamber D containing the fixed block A and the movable block B, and the like. To be done.

The fixed block A includes a fixed base 3 and is fixed to the fixed base 3 with screws so that the sleeves 1a and 2a of the pair of fixed-side optical fibers 1 and 2 are parallel to each other via the pair of fixed metal fittings 3a and 3b. Has been done. In the movable block B, the movable side optical fiber 4 is fixedly supported by being screwed to the movable body 5 via the band 5a. This movable body 5 has a through groove 5b.
The support rod 5c having both ends fixed to both side walls of the chamber D described later is inserted into the through groove 5b, and the intermediate portion 6a of the substantially rod-shaped connecting member 6 is fixed. It can move integrally with the member 6.
Both ends 6b and 6c of the connecting member 6 are pierced and supported by two holes provided on both sides of the chamber D so as to be movable in parallel. Further, valves 30a and 30b that come into contact with or separate from the holes of the chamber are attached to both ends 6b and 6c of the connecting member 6, respectively.

Here, as shown in FIG. 6, when one end face of the movable side optical fiber 4 faces one end face of the one fixed side optical fiber 1, one end portion 6b of the connecting member 6 adjusts the stopper base 7. By abutting on the screw 7a, one end face of the movable side optical fiber 4 and one end face of the fixed side optical fiber 1 are positioned so as to be able to face each other with an extremely small interval. At that time, the valve 30b on the other end 6c side of the connecting member 6 closes a slight gap between the bush 60 and the connecting member 6. Further, when one end face of the movable side optical fiber 4 faces one end face of the other fixed side optical fiber 2, the connecting member 6
The other end portion 6c of the stopper abuts on the adjusting screw 8a of the stopper base 8 so that the one end surface of the movable side optical fiber 4 and the one end surface of the fixed side optical fiber 2 can face each other with an extremely small interval. Positioned. At this time, the valve 30a on the one end 6b side of the connecting member 6 is configured to close a slight gap between the bush 60 and the connecting member 6.

On the other hand, the electromagnet device C shown in FIG. 4 comprises a rotating bistable polar electromagnet 9, and the rotating armature 10 is provided with a driving piece 11 formed of a thin leaf spring material so as to have elasticity. The driving piece 11 is attached, and one end portion 11a of the driving piece 11 is connected to a substantially rod-shaped connecting member 6, and a contact portion 31 between the driving piece 11 and the connecting member 6 is provided with a wear preventing coating for reducing wear. There is. Then, when the electromagnet device C operates, the connecting member 6 is pressed and driven by the driving piece 11 and the movable body 5 of the movable block B moves in parallel, so that the movable body 5 is fixed to the movable body 5 via the sleeve 4a. One end of the side optical fiber 4 also moves in parallel, and the laser light emitted from the one end is switched so as to be received by one of both ends of the pair of fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2. In the figure, reference numerals 12 and 13 denote operating position detecting devices each having a contact in the electromagnet portion, and the movement of the electromagnet 9 is used to easily open and close the contact to determine the operating position of the movable side optical fiber 4 and the electromagnet 9. This is to detect the malfunction of.

The chamber D has a base portion 14 and a lid portion 1 made of a metal material such as an aluminum alloy.
It consists of 5 and. The base portion 14 is formed in a substantially box shape that is open in one direction, and the fixed base 3 is fitted to one end portion inside thereof and the fixed block A guides and stores a pair of fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2. A movable block B fixed to the connecting member 6 is led out and accommodated in the movable side optical fiber 4 at a substantially central portion thereof, and a lid 15 is fitted to cover the opening thereof. Further, the housing E includes a case 16 formed in a substantially box shape, and the base portion 1 of the chamber D is provided at the center of the inside of the case 16.
4 is fixed. This housing E has a connector 18
Is provided. The connectors 18 are provided in the holes provided in the side walls of the case 16 located in the direction of the other ends of the pair of fixed-side optical fibers 1 and 2 and the movable-side optical fiber 4, respectively. The connectors 25 of the fibers 1, 2 and 4 are connected.

When the movable-side optical fiber 4 is driven by the electromagnet device C to be switched, the movable-side optical fiber 4 is bent in the opposite direction by the switching operation so that bending stress is applied. When the optical fiber 4 with the antireflection coating 40 is used, cracks do not occur in the initial state and the cracks do not gradually increase with time. There is an advantage that the fiber 4 does not bend or break, and an optical fiber drive relay can be obtained with less deterioration due to repeated switching operations of the optical fiber 4.

By the way, in the conventional optical fiber drive relay, the optical fiber switching section is housed in the chamber D, and it is difficult for foreign matter to enter, but the relay was operated for a long time. In the case, the connecting member 6 and the driving piece 1
When the contact portion 31 of No. 1 is worn and enters the chamber D and adheres to the end faces of the movable side optical fiber 4 and the fixed side optical fibers 1 and 2, and the high energy laser is transmitted as it is, the optical fiber end face is Although there is a risk of damage, in this embodiment, the drive piece 11 and the connecting member 6 shown in FIG.
Since the anti-wear coating for reducing the wear is applied to the contact portion 31 with, the structure is such that the wear powder is less likely to be generated, and the wear powder can be prevented from adhering to the end face. Therefore, the end face is not damaged during laser transmission. You can prevent it from happening. Moreover, even if a small amount of abrasion powder is generated from the contact portion 31 between the connecting member 6 and the drive piece 11, the valves 30a and 30b that come into contact with or separate from the holes of the chamber are attached to both ends 6b and 6c of the connecting member 6, respectively. Therefore, even when the relay is in operation, there is no concern that a slight amount of wear powder will enter the chamber through the hole in the chamber, and it is possible to reliably prevent wear powder from adhering to the end face of the optical fiber and prevent damage to the end face during laser transmission. You can prevent it as much as possible.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of optical fibers are bundled and fixed to a part of the mask plate in the vacuum chamber,
Since the anti-reflection coating is applied to each end face with the mask plate fixed, the end face can be coated without applying excessive force to the optical fiber, and the optical fiber can be cracked or broken. Even if a high-power laser for processing is securely prevented, the loss (energy loss) is eliminated, and the risk of heat generation and laser leakage can be eliminated. Moreover, since it is not necessary to rotate the mask plate, the structure is simplified, and highly reliable coating can be realized at low cost.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a plurality of optical fibers in which sleeves and connectors having different diameters are mounted on both ends, and the sleeves and the connectors are arranged alternately so that a part of the mask plate is provided. Since multiple anti-reflection coatings are applied by bundling and fixing the mask plate while fixing the mask plate, the connector and the optical fiber with sleeve can be efficiently set on a part of the mask plate and processed at once. It is possible to increase the number of optical fibers.

Here, among the plurality of optical fibers,
One optical fiber is the movable side, the other two optical fibers are the fixed side, and one end of the movable side optical fiber and both ends of the fixed side optical fiber are opposed to drive the movable side optical fiber. When the optical fiber with the antireflection coating formed by the above method is configured to be switched so that the light emitted from one end of the movable side optical fiber is received by one of both ends of the fixed side optical fiber, When used in an optical fiber drive relay that is driven by the force from, the optical fiber can sufficiently withstand a high-frequency switching operation, so that an optical fiber drive relay with less deterioration of the optical fiber can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a coating method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (a) is a front view of the above optical fiber with a part thereof omitted;
(B) is a sectional view near the end face of (a).

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a focused state of a plurality of optical fibers of the same.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the above optical fiber drive relay.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the above optical fiber drive relay.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a main part of the above optical fiber drive relay.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 optical fiber 4a sleeve 4c end face 20 vacuum chamber 21 mask plate 25 connector 40 antireflection coating

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 28, 1994

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a large-diameter optical fiber 4 which is used in a YAG laser processing machine or the like and has an end face 4c provided with an antireflection coating 40 and a connector 25 and a sleeve 4a is attached.

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0011

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

As shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b), the optical fiber 4 is covered with an opaque resin 24 such as a nylon resin except for the end face 4c, and includes a portion where the coating is peeled off. and at both ends, the sleeve 4 a which is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape made of good heat dissipation metal while being deposited by each caulking both end faces 4c and its sleeve 4 a is optically polished. A large-diameter connector 25 is attached to one end 4b of the optical fiber 4, and the end of the optical fiber 4 is connected to the connector 18 of the housing E described later via the connector 25. ing.

[Procedure 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0013

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0013] During the coating, as shown in FIG. 3, may be fixed to a portion of the mask plate 21 are bundled so that the connector 25 of the large-diameter and small-diameter sleeve 4 a are alternately arranged. In other words, since the diameter of the connector 25 is much larger than the diameter of the sleeve 4a, the number of optical fibers 4 that can be coated at one time is reduced by only mounting the connector 25 side by side, and the efficiency is reduced. By alternately arranging the sleeve 4a side, which is thinner than the diameter of the connector 25, with the connector 25 side, the number of optical fibers 4 that can be processed at one time can be increased, and efficient coating can be performed. The advantage is that

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0015

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

Next, the end face 4 is formed by the above coating method.
An example in which the large-diameter optical fiber 4 to which the antireflection coating 40 is applied to c and the connector 25 and the sleeve 4a are attached is used for an optical fiber drive relay of a time division device will be described below. This optical fiber drive relay
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a fixed block A for fixing both ends of the pair of fixed-side optical fibers 1 and 2 in parallel, and a movable block for switching the movable-side optical fiber 4 to the fixed-side optical fibers 1 and 2. The block B, an electromagnet device C that drives the movable body 5, a chamber D that houses the fixed block A and the movable block B, and the like.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Hiromi Nishimura Inventor Hiromi Nishimura 1048, Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka Matsushita Electric Works Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical fiber, wherein a plurality of mask plates are bundled and fixed to a part of a mask plate in a vacuum chamber, and an antireflection coating is applied to each end face of the mask plate in a fixed state. 2. A plurality of optical fibers in which sleeves and connectors having different diameters are mounted on both ends, wherein the sleeves and the connectors are alternately arranged, and a plurality of the fibers are bundled in a part of a mask plate. An optical fiber, which is fixed and has an antireflection coating applied to each end face while the mask plate is fixed. 3. One of the plurality of optical fibers is a movable side and the other two optical fibers are a fixed side, and one end of the movable side optical fiber and both ends of the fixed side optical fiber are set. 2. The optical fiber is arranged so as to oppose to the other part, and the movable side optical fiber is driven so that the light emitted from one end of the movable side optical fiber can be switched to be received by one of both ends of the fixed side optical fiber. Alternatively, the optical fiber according to claim 2. 4. A plurality of optical fibers are bundled and fixed to a part of a mask plate in a vacuum chamber, and an antireflection coating is applied to each end face in a state where the mask plate is fixed. Coating method.