This article details the design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of a fused-tapered few-mode fiber coupler, specifically an SMF-Six-MF coupler, to efficiently generate first-order orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes for applications in optical communication and fiber lasers. Thorlabs' 1x2 multimode fused fiber optic couplers, also known as taps, allow a single fiber input to be split into two outputs. Couplers fabricated from graded-index (GRIN) fiber are available with Ø50 µm or Ø62. Employing a unique fiber fusing process, Lfiber is now able to fabricate and offer a wide variety of fiber optic. At the heart of many fiber-optic systems lies FBT (Fused Biconical Taper) technology, a method used to create optical couplers, splitters, and wavelength division multiplexers.
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