How does the fiber cross section surface look like after fiber cleaving?
After cleaning, the fiber cross section typically consists of three regions: the mirror region, the mist region and the hackle region. The mirror region is first produced while the crack propagates across the fiber. We want the mirror region to be as large as possible. A perfect fiber cleaving will be 100% mirror region which will result in minimum fusion splicing loss. But in reality, as the crack propagates more, multiple crack fronts are produced close to the end of the cleave and that region is called the hackle region. The hackle region is a rough surface area which will cause bad fusion splicing. We never want hackle region to exist. Mist region is the transition area between the mirror region and the hackle region. Factors that affect the fiber cleaving quality There are two major factors which mainly determines a fiber cleaving’s quality: the size of the initial crack and the applied tensile stress. In these two factors, the applied tensile stress plays a major part. Ideally, t
