Microbending Losses Of Metal Coated Single Mode, Multimode, And Cladding-Free Fibers

Abstract

Under optimized conditions the microbending sensitivity is comparable in metal coated multimode and single mode fibers. Microbending losses in step index fibers may show significant wavelength dependence and this dependence is quite similar for single and multimode fibers. The spectral characteristics of the losses depend not only on the fiber parameters but also on the periodicity of microbending. An inexpensive cladding-free fiber exhibits two-region displacement sensitivity. The maximum sensitivity of the single region fiber can exceed the maximum sensitivities of conventional fibers.