Core alignment system for optical fibers

Claim 1

A process for aligning the cores of a pair of optical fibers to be spliced and each having an inner core, a cladding surrounding said core and having a higher refractive index than air, a buffer layer surrounding said cladding and having a higher refractive index than said cladding, and a protection layer surrounding said buffer layer, comprising the steps of: removing said protection layer and said buffer layer over a predetermined distance from opposed spaced butt ends of each of a pair of optical fibers to be spliced; positioning a light source, emitting a pair of aligned beams in opposite directions, between said opposed spaced butt end of said pair of optical fibers to be spliced; illuminating said butt ends with respective beams of said light source; sensing leakage beams from each optical fiber at a point close to each of said butt ends and radially spaced apart form each optical fiber such that said leakage beam is propagated through said cladding and into said buffer layer of each of said pair of optical fibers and is sensed after passing through side walls of the pair of optical fiberes and the air; adjusting the position of at least one of said pair of optical fibers so that the sensed leakage beam signal therefrom becomes minimized; removing said laser source from between said butt ends; and sliding at least one of said butt ends linearly in an axial direction of the optical fiber so that a spacing between said butt ends is in a desired range for splicing thereof.