Influence of fiber design on light-guidance in step-index fibers for bundle applications in the UV-VIS-region

Abstract

Silica-based multimode fibers with a step-index refractive-index profile are commonly used for light transportation from 185 nm (DUV) up to 2300nm (NIR). Core diameters of such mono fibers range from 100 to 600 μm and their clad-tocore- ratios (CCR) typically are 1.1 and larger. If bundles are required for applications in the UV- and VIS-region, fibers with smaller core diameter and thinner cladding thicknesses are desired to reduce coupling losses, as their light acceptance surface area is then relatively larger. However, using these bundles at higher wavelengths, e.g. in the NIR-region, change of light-guiding properties can be observed. In fiber-optic light delivery systems, the transmission including light acceptance and guidance can be described by the concept of pupil apodization. However in fiber characterization, the numerical aperture (NA) of specialty fibers is an useful key parameter, which will be determined using the inverse far-field method at two separate laser wavelengths with focused light excitation. With parallel light, skew rays/modes must be taken into account. In addition, the spectral fiber attenuation with Uniform Mode Distribution (UMD) illumination and mode-selective illumination will be discussed and compared with experimental NA results. As expected, the ratio of cladding thickness and wavelength is the most important parameter on the light-guiding properties in short-length applications with increasing wavelength.