Hot splices of optical waveguide fibers.

The application of optical waveguides in long lengths may require permanent joints (splices). The idea behind hot splices is simple and basic to glass: heat the fibers and fuse them together. This is accomplished by a small electric arc. A series of twenty splices of identical multimode fibers shows an average splice loss of 0.26 dB. Single mode fiber splices were also attempted, as well as a series of splices on different multimode fibers, and results are reported.