The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently administered two interlaboratory comparisons, coordinated within the Fiber Optics Committees of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), of measurements on single-mode optical fibers. The first dealt with Effective Area (A c rrl but also included Mode-Field Diameter (MFD) measurements; the second concerned Nonlinear Coefficient (n 2 / Aeff). The A c rrcomparison included five participants. Standard deviations, per fiber, for all participants' measurements, ranged from 0.4 % to 0.7 % for MFD and from 1.3 % to 3.9 % for A e lf. The n2/A ctrcomparison included data from six participants. Differences in measurement test sets required different participants to use wide ranges of specimen lengths and input powers. Standard deviations, per fiber, for all participants' measurements of n 2 /A e tf, ranged from 9.6 % to 18.7 %.

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