Bristol Instruments (Victor, NY) offers the LC Series fiber-optic laser couplers that can be used to launch a free-space laser beam into a fiber, or return the laser to a collimated free-space beam. The couplers contain a 1"- diameter mounting disk attached to 3 meters of 9-μm core-diameter fiber that is terminated with an FC/PC connector. The LC-1 input coupler includes built-in alignment optics that provide two slightly off-axis back reflections to facilitate alignment. With the LC-1 installed in a standard theta-phi optical mount, alignment is achieved by centering the laser beam on the input aperture, and then adjusting the mount so that the two back reflections straddle the input beam symmetrically. The LC-2 output coupler is identical to the LC-1, but without the alignment optics. It is used to return the laser to a collimated free-space beam.


Topics:
Photonics