A simple and low-cost fabrication method of microlens on optical fiber end facet.

In order to control the divergence angle of the optical fiber and reduce the focal spot size of the beam, we have proposed and experimentally proved a simple and low-cost method for fabricating microlens on the end facet of the fiber, which involves only two steps: dripping and curing. We successfully fabricated hemispherical microlenses with different sizes on the fiber end facets and proved that the shape of microlens can be adjusted through multiple titration and curing processes. The measured characteristics of the beam output from a lensed fiber are in agreement with numerical simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]