Fabrication methods and high-precision diameter control techniques of optical micro-/nanofibers

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Owing to their favorable properties including small sizes, tight optical confinement, large fractional evanescent fields, and low waveguiding losses, optical micro-/nanofibers have attracted broad research interest and technological applications in recent years, in which the precision in micro-/nanofiber fabrication is critical to determine their waveguiding properties and performances. Here, we firstly introduce the principles of high-temperature taper drawing of glass fibers. Next, we review typical fabrication methods including flame-heated manual drawing approach, flame-heated mechanical drawing technique, electric-heated mechanical drawing technique and laser-heated mechanical drawing technique. Cons and pros of the above-mentioned techniques are discussed, followed by a brief introduction to the fabrication of polymer micro-/nanofibers. Thirdly, we introduce the principle and techniques of high-precision diameter control in glass micro-/nanofiber fabrication based on a in-situ feedback from the cutoff of high-order waveguiding modes, which can offer a diameter precision down to nanometer level. In addition, several techniques for diameter measurement of a micro-/nanofiber are also introduced. Finally, we end the review with a brief summary in micro-/nanofiber fabrication, as well as an outlook to future possibilities.