Large diameter D-shaped optical waveguide and coupler

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A large diameter D-shaped optical waveguide device 9, includes an optional circular waveguide portion 11 and a D-shaped waveguide portion 10 having at least one core 12 surrounded by a cladding 14. A portion of the waveguide device 9 has a generally D-shaped cross-section and has transverse waveguide dimension d2 greater than about 0.3 mm. At least one Bragg grating 16 may be impressed in the waveguide 10 and/or more than one grating or pair of gratings may be used and more than one core may be used. The device 9 provides a sturdy waveguide platform for coupling light into and out of waveguides and for attachment and alignment to other waveguides, for single and multi-core applications. The core and/or cladding 12, 14 may be doped with a rare-earth dopant and/or may be photosensitive. At least a portion of the core 12 may be doped between a pair of gratings 50, 52 to form a fiber laser or the grating 16 or may be constructed as a tunable DFB fiber laser or an interactive fiber laser within the waveguide 10. The waveguide may resemble a short “block” or a longer “cane” type, depending on the application and dimensions used.