Flexible fiber-to-fiber optical optical self-coupling using gel materials

In order to achieve lightweigt and high-speed in-vehicle data transmission in the future, there is growing anticipation for the utilization of multimode optical fibers. Conventional physical contact of two fibers cause damage of the fiber end face due to vibration. As a way to solve such problems related to splicing between optical fibers, we are developing light-induced self-writing (LISW) optical waveguide technology using gel materials that retain adhesiveness and flexibility. Recently, we have realized a flexible LISW optical interconnect between graded index optical fibers (50GI-fiber) to solve the optical coupling problem under vibration. In this study, an all-solid flexible LISW optical interconnect between 50GI-fibers is presented.