| 摘要 |
PURPOSE:To provide the optical switch having a self holding property without having disconnection time by providing means for bending and restoring an optical coupling part along the longitudinal direction of two pieces of optical fibers. CONSTITUTION:The optical coupling part is formed by polishing the flanks of the optical fibers 1, 2 or fusing and stretching these fibers by heat over a certain length of several 10mm thereby narrowing the spacing between the two fibers to several 10mum. The optical coupling part is coated with a coating material having the refractive index lower than the refractive index (about 1.45) of the cladding layers of the optical fibers. The light propagated in the optical fibers is not coupled at several 10mm coupling length and several 10mum spacing between the cores 4 and the incident light from the optical fiber 1 is emitted from the optical fiber 1 as it is, if the optical fiber pair which is the optical coupling part is in a straight state. The light propagated in the optical fiber 1 is bled to the optical fiber 2 side by the curvature and the effective inter-core spacing is narrowed if the optical coupling part is bent at a curvature to the optical fiber 1 side. Then, the direction and quantity of bleeding of the propagated light are controlled by the bending and restoring of the optical coupling part. |
