Investigation of influence of tilt angle on mode dispersion in step-index plastic optical fibers

Abstract

Effect of numerical aperture on mode dispersion and bandwidth is reported for commercially available step-index plastic optical fibers. For the first time, the functional relationship is given between dispersion and the “tilt-angle” describing the slant of the input/output face for a fiber terminated by a plane not perpendicular to the fiber axis. This tilt of a non-squarely terminated fiber may be intentional as in some biomedical spectroscopic sensors, or otherwise when exploiting the quick-interconnectivity potential of plastic fibers.

Fabrication of Cellulose-Based Biopolymer Optical Fibers and Their Theoretical Attenuation Limit

“…A higher NA means that more light can be collected by the fiber, but this also leads to the reduction of the bandwidth due to modal dispersion, thus limiting the useable range. 53 However, in optical fibers that are not only used in a rectilinear form, so-called macrobends often occur. In such bent optical waveguides, changes in the propagating modes can occur.…”

“…A polymer optical step-index fiber generally shows a high application potential for high-speed communication at short distances. POFs are characterized by a large core diameter (∼1 mm) and numerical apertures (NA) ranging from 0.2 to 0.8, which mainly facilitates the coupling technology. , The NA is an important parameter because it indicates the capacity of receiving and guiding the light. A higher NA means that more light can be collected by the fiber, but this also leads to the reduction of the bandwidth due to modal dispersion, thus limiting the useable range …”