Design Parameters for Multimode Fluoride Fibers: Effects of Coating and Bending on Loss

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DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR MULTIMODE FLUORIDE FIBERS: COATING AND BENDING ON LOSS

EFFECTS OF

L. E. BUSSE AND I. D. AGGARWAL Naval Research Laboratory, Code 6505,

Washington, DC

20375-5000

ABSTRACT Numerical

calculations

of

losses

due

to

polymer

coatings

and

macrobending have been made for step index multimode fluoride fibers. avoid

such

losses,

fiber

core

and

cladding

diameters

and

To

numerical

aperture must be chosen carefully.

Introduction Fluoride

single mode optical fibers provide the potential

for very

long length communications networks with their predicted minimum loss of

0.01 dB/km at 2.5 pm.

Many fibers currently being made are step index

multimode,

to their relative ease

however,

due

of fabrication.

To the

authors' knowledge, there are no published criteria for parameters such as core and clad diameters and numerical aperture. In this paper it will be

shown

that

substantial

such

induced

parameters losses

due

must to

be

chosen

typical

carefully

polymer

to

avoid

coatings

and

macrobending.

Coating Losses The theory applied [1]

involves numerically calculating the induced

loss due to an outer jacket, core and cladding.

assuming no mode coupling and a lossless

The absorption loss of a typical polymer coating was

determined to be 107 dB/km at 2.5 pm. Table I lists core diameters (2a),

numerical apertures (N.A.)

resultant values for V, the normalized frequency (at A-2.5 pm),

and for step

index multimode fluoride fibers and a typical silica fiber (at A-1.3 pm).

Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 172. e1990 Materials Research Society

178

TABLE I:

Step index multimode fiber parameters

179

Fig. 1 shows,

for various values of V, the dependence of the fraction

of modes with calculated induced losses > 0.01 dB/km on the ratio of clad to core diameter for each value is

(b/a).

In Table

I the values of b/a and 2b are given

of V such that only 10% of the modes have such loss.

apparent that such parameters

of the silica fiber. of 56 pm and an N.A.

For example, of 0.2 (V=14)

preclude coating induced

losses,

a fluoride fiber with a core diameter needs an overall diameter of 181 jim to compared to the 50 um/125 pm structure

suitable for silica fiber.

801 0

660ov=10 0 -

= 0U

40

0

20

"AV=14 1-)

n

It

are significantly different from those

* V = 20 0V=24 L

b/a (Clad dia./Core dia.) Fig. 1: Modes with loss > 0.01 dB/km

180

The which

is

total

induced

loss

depends

strongly

often assumed to be Gaussian

cases b/a - 2 and 3)

on

[2,3].

the mode Fig.

distribution

2a shows

(for

the

the calculated losses for a fluoride fiber with V-14

assuming the Gaussian distributions shown in

Fig. 2b characterized by the

parameter G, i.e.:

P(9)/9 - exp[-(O/GOc) where 8c = the critical

angle.

There

is

a

2

]

(1)

strong dependence on the mode

distribution, at this point unknown for fluoride fiber. the calculated loss with G =o

By comparison,

for the silica fiber was only 0.007 dB/km

at 1.3 jm.

m %0

02 101

"W 0 00 •j 10 1 -(., 10_2