Index Profile Measurements of Fibers and

666 PROCEEDINGS
IEEE, OF THE VOL. 68, NO. 6 , JUNE 1980
array data,” Geophysics,vol. 39, pp. 843-851, Dec. 1974. vol. 64, pp. 239-212, Feb. 1976.
[ 101 W. R. King, “Maximum entropy spectral analysis in the spatial [ 191 0.L. Frost, “An algorithm for linearly constrained adaptive array
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Index Profile Measurements of Fibers and

Their Evaluation
DIETRICH MARCUSE, FELLOW, IEEE, AND HERMAN M. PRESBY
Invited Paper
A h m c t - l h e refractive index distriiution in the core of amulthnode I. INTRODUCTION

optical-fiber waveguide plays an important r d e in determiningthe t r a m
mission properties of the guide. “be doser the index profile is to the PTICAL FIBERSare an attractivemediumfortrans-
required i d 4 d i d i t i o n , the great- the resulting information ary-
ing capacity of the fik. ’Ihis review paper discosaes methods for
mitting light signals that are used as carriers of wide
measuring the refractive index distn’butionin optical bbers and for p r e bandcommunications [ 1I . Fibers werebeginning to
dicting their impulse response and signnt bandwidth from the measured attract the attention of communications engineers when their
profiles. Some attention is also given to preform and dngle-mode fiber losses were reducedfromapproximately1000dB/km to 20
profiling. dB/km [ 21 . One decade after this achievement their losses
have been reduced by two more ordersof magnitude; losses as
Manuscript received January 3, 1980;revised March 4 , 1 9 8 0 .
The authors are with Bell Laboratories, Crawford Hill Laboratory, low as 0 . 2 dB/km have been reported in the literature [31.
Holmdel, NJ 07733. As their losses decrease, fiber cable spans between repeaters
@ 1980 IEEE
0018-9219/80/0600-0666$00.75
Authorized licensed use limited to: BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE. Downloaded on January 25, 2010 at 12:02 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEX PROFILE MEASUREMENTS FOR FIBERS 661
can bemade even longerand-insomefibertypes-become PLASTIC JACKET

limited less by fiber loss than by the bandwidth of the signal
that can be transmitted through the fibers.
Opticalfibersare basically of twotypes 141: Single-mode
fibers which can support only the HEll-mode, albeit in two
mutuallyorthogonalpolarizations,and have thepotential
for transmitting signals with bandwidths in the hundreds or
even thousands of GHz . km range. However, because of their
small core diameters single-mode fibers are somewhat difficult
to workwith.Theymustbe-excitedwith laser light and
splicing becomesa challenging problem. For this reason the
other fiber type, multimode fibers, are a prime consideration
for applications where signal bandwidth is limited to below a
thousand MHz * km. In this article we are primarily concerned
with multimode fibers.
In multimode fibers the signal bandwidth is critically depen-
dent on the refractive index distribution of the fiber core [ 5 1 ,
[ 61 . With ideal refractive index distributions multimode fibers Fig. 1. Cross section of a multimodegraded-indexoptical fiber. The
plastic jacket which preserves the pristine strength of the fiber, is not
can, in principle, have signal bandwidths on the order of ten drawn t o scale. It is typically over 50 pm thick.
GHz . km. However, extremely careful control of the index
profile is required to achieve this theoretical goal. It is clear
that precise methods for measuring index profiles are required with light illumination parallel to the axis of the slab 113 1,
if the desired ideal index profiles are to be produced. This is [ 141 . A nondestructive interferometric method uses transverse
especially so sincemode-couplingeffects [7] dueeither to illumination of the unbroken fiber,again under an interference
index fluctuation or microbending can substantially increase microscope [ 151, [ 161. The strong influence of the outer fiber
thebandwidthin a generally unpredictablemanner.Thus boundary must be eliminated by immersion in index matching
inferring that a fiber possesses a good index profile because fluid.
it exhibits a large bandwidth can, in general,be misleading. The refractive-index distribution can also be obtained from
It is the purpose of this paper to providean overview of observation of the pattern of scattered light when a collimated,
methodsfor measuringrefractive index profiles of optical coherent light beam is incident at right angles to the fiber axis
fiberswithsome attention also given to the preformsfrom [ 171 , [ 181 . A different method, also using transverse illumina-
which the fibersaredrawn.Theshape of the refractive tion, relies on the focusing power of the fiber core which is re-
indexprofile, the diameter of the guide, andthe loss and garded as a cylindrical lens [ 191, [ 201. The refractive index
dispersion of the material from which the fiber is made com- distribution can be computed from the intensity distribution
pletelydeterminetheproperties of lightpropagationin the of the focused light. This latter method is also applicable to
fiber.Thus it is possible to predict theperformance of the the much larger preforms from which the fibers are produced
fiber in the absence of mode coupling once its index profile is [ 211. In preformsone may alternatelycomputetheindex
accuratelyknown [ 81, [ 91. We shall alsodiscuss how the distribution from measurements of the deflection angle of a
signal bandwidth can be calculated from the measured index lightray passing transverselythrough the core [22]. All
profile. these methods require immersion of the fiber or preform in
The various methods for determining index profiles arebased index matching fluid, to achieve high accuracy.
on different physical principles. Some methods utilize mode Finally,nonopticalmethods canbe employed to measure
guiding properties by measuring the light intensity at the out- the concentration of dopant materials which are responsible
put end of a short length of fiber. If leaky modes and differ- for the change of the refractive index of the Si02 host material.
ential mode losses can be neglected, the output light intensity Such methods can employ scanning electron microscopy [ 23 ],
is proportional to the difference of the refractive index of the X-ray microprobe analysis [ 241 or chemical etching analysis
fibercoreand the cladding [ 51, [ 101. A complementary [25]. However, we shall concentrate on optical methods and
method utilizes the light that is not guided but escapes from pay particular attention to those methods with which we are
thefiber core to determine theindex profile [ 11 1 . The most intimately acquainted, such as the interferometric meth-
profile shape is established by moving a tiny light spot, illumi- ods and the focusing method.
nating the fiber input, across its face and measuring the light A comparison of accuracies expected from each method is
intensity escaping sideways through the core boundary as a exceedingly hard to give. It is hard enough to get a feeling for
function of the radial position of the sharply focused input the accuracy of the method which one is familiar with, but it
light. is far more difficult t o assess some other method which one
The refractive index can, in principle, be obtained by utilizing only knows theoretically. For this reason no comparison of
thedependence of the reflectivity ofglass on its refractive accuracies, other than those reported in the literature,shall be
index. For this purpose the reflectivity of a fiber endface is attempted.
measured as a function of radial position [ 121 .
Interferometry can beused in different ways. An accurate, A , Multimode Fibers
but destructive, method consists in cutting a slab out of the Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing of the cross section of a multi-
fiber, polishing itsendsand observing interference fringes mode, graded-index fiber. The central region, the core, typi-
across the faceof the slab using an interference microscope cally consists of doped silica glass. The low refractive index
668 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 6 , JUNE 1980
I STEP INDEX
Rg. 3. Schematic diagram of modified

chemical vapor deposition
process.
rotated while reactants, usuallySiCl4, and dopant reactants

such as GeC14 and BCIB, flow through it in an oxygen stream.
An oxy-hydrogen burner is slowly traversed along the outside
I of the tube toprovide simultaneous deposition and fusionof a
I b layer of the reacting materials. On the order of 50 layers are
a r
depositedbymultiple passes of the burner. A borosilicate
Flg.2. Refractive-indexdistributions of step-index and graded-index barrierlayer is generallyincorporated atthe core-cladding
optical fibers.The cladding index is that of SiO, and is equal to about interface t o preventdiffusion of impuritiesfrom theouter
1.450 at a wavelength of 1 pm.
support tube t o the core [ 3 4 ] . To fabricate step-index fibers
the dopant concentration is heldfixed as a function of the
of pure Si02, no = 1.450 at a wavelength of A = 1 p m , is modi- layer deposited whereas for graded-index fibers it is gradually
fied by doping with materials such as oxides of germanium, increased with increasing layer number.
phosphorousandboron [261. Germanium [271 and phos- At the conclusion of deposition the temperature of the burner
phorous [ 281 increase the refractive index of SiOz, boron [ 291 is raised to collapse the tube into a solid preform. The high-
decreases it. The fiber can guide light if the core has a higher temperaturesexperiencedby the preformduring this stage
refractive indexthanthesurrounding region [30]. Thus lead to the vaporization of the dopants from the innermost
mostfibersconsist of acladding region of pure Si02 and a layers causing an index depression in the center. The magni-
core whose index is increased by addition of germanium or tude of this dip is such that the index value at the center is
phosphorous oxides. In some fibers the situation is reversed, the same as that of the cladding [ 351.
the cladding is doped with boronoxide to loweritsindex A thin slice of an MCVD fabricatedpreform is shownin
relative to the undoped fibercore. Fig. 4 as observed byopticalmicroscopy. In order to bring
The amount of dopant that is added to the core is subject to outthe details of the depositionprocess,thesample was
a variety of tradeoffs. On the one hand, the more dopant the etchedindilutedhydrofluricacid. This particularpreform
greater the acceptance angleof thefiberandits resulting was fabricated with a ten-step linear increaseof GeC14, chosen
numerical aperture. This increases the number of modes that as the simplest variation which would aid in analyzing the re-
can propagate, as will be shortly described, enables the fiber to sulting structure and index distribution. The cladding,boro-
gather more light from an LED sokce and reduces the fibers silicate layer andthe tenstages of increasing germanium dopant
sensitivity to bending loss. On the other hand, increasing the arelabeled. Each step is composed of a number of layers
dopant increases compositional fluctuations which lead to fiber formedduringeachtranversal of the oxy-hydrogenburner.
lossesvia scattering, increases group delay spread and intro- For example, step 3 is composed of 15 layers deposited while
duces fabrication difficulties dueto mismatches in the physical the GeC14 flow was maintainedconstant.Theintegrity of
properties of the core and cladding glasses. Typical gemanium- these layers in the preform indicates relatively little diffusion
doped fibers have a maximum index differenceof 0.02. Fibers, of the dopant.
with germanium dopant, however, have been fabricated with A photomicrograph of a polished transverse cross section
maximumindexdifferences of 0.05 [3 11. For comparison, of the fiber pulled from the preform is shown in Fig. 5. The
single-mode fibers typically have index differences an order of step structure is maintained through the drawing process. To
magnitude lower. observe the layers within each step, scanning electron micro-
Depending on theshape of the refractive-index profile of the scopy was utilized on an etched fiber end. Results seen in Fig.
fiber core, we distinguish stepindex and graded-index fibers 6 also indicatethe preservation of the layerstructure.The
whose profiles are schematically shownin Fig. 2. Both types of index depression on axis appears as the tapered elevation in
fibers can be fabricated by various deposition processes. Cur- the center.
rently the lowest-loss highest-bandwidth fibers are fabricated The fiberorpreform, then, whose indexdistribution we
by the modified chemical-vapor deposition (MCVD) process would like t o measure can be rich in structure. Generally its
[27]. Losses as low as 0.2 dB/km at a wavelength of 1.55 pm scale in the fiber is on the orderof less than a wavelength, and
have been achieved [3] andbandwidths of 1 GHz km have the observed structure is smoothed out by the measurement.
been realized in production [ 33 I . Notable exceptions can occur near the centerwhere the deposi-
In the MCVD process, shown schematicallyin Fig. 3, a fused- tion layers are thickened and in any region where several layers
quartz tube is mounted on a glass-working lathe and slowly may have the same index due to fabrication faults.
LAYER
H0.5mm
Fig. 4. Slice of MCVD fabricatedpreform having a linear refractive-
index profrle as observed by optical microscopy.
Fig. 5. Slice of fiber pulled from preform shown in Fig. 4. The GeO,
dopant was increased in 10 steps.
In addition, as will be seen, the refractive index is not uni-

form within each layer and this variation, with the exception
of the above cases, is also smoothed over by the measurement.
Thewidthandheight of the index profiledeterminethe
number of modes that can be guided by the fiber. To quantify
this relationship it is convenient to introduce the V-parameter
defined as follows:
V = n1 k n a .
fined as the relative difference between the maximum value of
In this formula, n l indicates the maximum value of the refrac- the index in thefiber core and its value n 2 in the cladding,
tive index profile near the axis of the fiber core with radius ‘u’.
The parameter k is the propagation constant of a plane wave in
(3 1
vacuum,
k=- 271
h
( h is the vacuum wavelengthof the light). Finally, A is de-
2 as a superposition of locally plane waves whose propagation

vector has the magnitude n ( r ) k . Its direction may be regarded
as the direction of light rays propagating inthe fiber. The
ray and mode picture of light guidance in fibers is often used
interchangeably. The magnitude and direction of the propaga-
tion vector is dependent on the position of the quasiplane
wave or ray in the fiber core. The projection of the propaga-
tion vector on the fiber axis is the propagation constant pv,,
of the mode [ 391 . Its value is constant for each mode because
of the change of direction of the light rays. This relationship
between the propagationvector of the quasiplane wave and
its projection on the z-axis is shown in Fig. 7. The importance
of the propagation constant for our discussion is the fact that
it is confined to the range [301, [ 391
nzk<&,,,<nlk. (5)
I
P
The upper limit n k of Pur is approached by the modes with
the lowest possible values of Y and p. The lower value n z k is
the cutoff value which is approached by the modes of highest
order. Waves with flu,, < n z k are the aforementionedleaky
modes.
1
Before discussing the various measurementprocedures it
would be helpful to consider the ideal profile, that one would
like to be measuring in graded-index fibers, and how accurately
this profile need be measured. Modal delay distortion occurs
in multimode optical fibers because the many different modes,
as discussed above, travel at different group velocities, spread-
ing an impulse over a time interval that is equal t o the differ-
9 ence of the arrival times of the slowest andfastestmodes.
fig. 7. Relationship of propagation vector and propagation constant. This pulse spreading is accompanied by a reduction of the
signal bandwidth.
It is well known that the fiber bandwidth can be maximized
by optimizing the shape of the refractive index distribution
of the fibercore [SI, [ 61. Near optimumbandwidth is
achieved with a power-law index profile of the form
n ( r ) = nl [ 1 - (r/aIg AI
s" 1.8 -
FLEMING - -- -- in which g is the exponent of the power law.' In the absence
1,6 - PRESBY - KAMINOW - - of chromatic dispersion the bandwidth is maximized for
SLAMN. PAYNE et rl---
12
1.4 I I I I I I g=2--A.
0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 1.5 5
1 (pm)
The optimum value of g also depends on chromatic dispersion
Ftg. 8. Optimum profile constant g versus wavelength for G e 0 , - S O ,
fibem as determined by several investigators. which arises from the wavelength dependence of the refractive
index of the dopant material [ 6 ] ,[401 ;it is shown for germa-
nium in Fig. 8, based on measurements by various authors in
In graded-index fibers the number of guided modes also de- both fibers (Presby and Kaminow [401, Sladen 141I , and bulk
pends on V z but, in addition, depends on the shape of the (Fleming [421) samples.
index profile. For parabolic index profiles thenumber of
Thetheoreticalbandwidththat can be realized with an
guided modes is half that of the step index fiber [SI . Typi- optimum profile is about 8500 MHz * kmforafiberwith
cally, this number is on the orderof one thousand. n l - n z = 0.02. Fig. 9, shows that a departure of only 0.05
In addition to guided modes the fiber supports leaky modes from the optimum g-valueof 2-2.4A is sufficient t o reduce
which continuously radiate power fromthe core intothe the fiber performance by more than one order of magnitude.
cladding [ 371. But the radiation losses of some of these leaky Clearly, techniques to determine g t o betterthan0.05 are
modes can be quite low. Modes are characterized by two num- required if meaningful correlation between fiber performance
bers, the radial mode number p, which is a measure of the and index profiles is to be obtained.
number of zero crossings of the electric field as a function of An appreciation of the sensitivity required in index profiling
radius, and the azimuthal mode number v, which describes the to achieve this accuracy in g can be gained from Fig. 10, which
azimuthal variation of the mode field. The radiation losses of shows various gprofilesnormalized t o the same maximum
leaky modes decrease with increasing azimuthal mode number
[381.
An important parameter,characterizing guided modes, is 'At the suggestion of S. E. Miller, the commonly used symbol u has
the propagation constant &,,. Each mode can be represented been replaced by g t o avoid confusion with the attenuation constant.
0.2 -
2 3 0 ” ” ” ” ’ I
g 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

NORMALIZEDRADIUS r/o
Fig. 9. rms pulse width of step over graded index fibers versus g, assum-
ing an optimum value near 2 and a profde dispersion parameter Fig. 10. Refractive index profiles for the values g = 2.0, 2.05, 2.1 and
P = @/A) (dA/dA) = 0. 2.3.
index value and radius. Notice that the difference between the
g = 2 curve and the g = 2.05 curve is barely distinguishable on
this scale. In order to determine g accurate to 0.05, the preci-
sion required in the measurement of An(r) must be about 1
part in i o 4 .
It is also important to note that even very slight local dis-
tortions of the refractive indexprofilefromitsoptimum
shape decreases the fiber bandwidthmarkedly [8],[43], [44].
Consider, forexample, asinusoidal indexdistortionon an
optimum profile
n ( r ) = n l [ l - ( r / a ) g A l + A sin [2nNr/a].
Let there be 10 sinusoidal periods, N = 10, in the radius 0 < Fig. 1 1 . Experimental setup for reflected power measurement.
r < a . If the amplitudefactor is A = 2 X corresponding
to a distortion of 1 percent, the bandwidth is reduced from its into indexmatchingliquid to eliminatereflectedrays. The
maximum of about 8500 MHz * km to about 150 MHz km! variation of reflectedpower is measured by adifferential
An amplitude factor of A = 5 X lo-’, corresponding to a dis- amplifier relative to the incidentpower.The laser beam is
tortion of only 0.25 percent, reduces the bandwidth to about focused on the fiber’s faceby a 40X objective lens, and the
550 MHz * km (see Fig. 43 for the effect of these distortions beam spot is less than 0.5 pm.
on the bandwidthspectrum).The precision of the An(r) The reflection coefficient is defiied as the ratio of reflected
measurement must again be about 1 part in lo4 to detect even light power P, t o incident light power 4. For illumination at
the 1 -percent distortion. right angles to the reflecting surface we have the relationship
B. Reflection Method [301, [461
Conceptually, the reflection method is one of the simplest
ways of determiningthe refractive index profile of optical
fibers [ 121, [ 4 5 ] . It is only necessary to observe the amount
of light that is reflected from the endface of the fiber when a On the other hand, we obtain the following relation between
collimatedbeam is incident parallel to thefiber axis. The the ratio of power PC reflectedfrom the claddingregion to
experiment canbe performed by observing the fiber endface incident light power
underamicroscopewith top illumination.Theamount of
reflectedlight can be observed in the microscope image by
means of a moveable diode detector, by a diode array or by
a video camera. It is also possible to scan the fiber end past
the focal spotandrecordthe reflectedpowerwithafixed Next we take the ratio of the two equations, introduce the
detector as shown in Fig. 11. abbreviation
In this embodiment of the technique the prism and the h/4
plate are used to collect the reflected beam from the sample’s
surfaceeffectivelyand to eliminate the reflectedlightfrom
all other surfaces. The far end of the fiber sample is dipped and obtain, after same rearrangements, for the difference be-
672 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 6, JUNE 1980
tween the refractive index distribution n ( r ) of the coreand z

the cladding index n 2
Once the ratio F of light power reflected from the core relative
to the cladding has been measured the refractive index distri-
bution of the core can be calculated from (9).
The reflection method is simple in concept.Inpractice it
requires that the amount of reflected light must be measured
to very high accuracy because the amount of light reflected
from the coreand cladding regions is almost the same. If a
digitial measuring system is to be used, the resolution of the
digitizer must be high. A digitizer with256 quantization
levels would limit the accuracy of the refractive index mea-
surement to approximately A n = lo-'. The success of the
reflection method is also critically dependent on the condition
of the fiber endface [321. Adsorption of thin films of foreign
material such as water vapor can easily give misleading results, I b
/
as can compaction of the surface layer density by polishing. Y
I ,
C. Near-Field Method
The near-field method determines the refractive index dis-
tribution of the fiber core from the measured light intensity in
the near field at the end of the fiber [ 101. It utilizes the fact X J
that the power carried by all the guided modes is proportional Fig. 12. Element of solid angle du&uY cos 8.
to the excess of core over cladding index provided that all
modes carry equal amounts of power [SI. Excitation of the p d e f i e d as [301
fiber with an incoherent source, such as a light emitting diode
butted against one endface of the fiber, assures equal excitation p = nu. (1 2)
of all the modes. We can derive the relationbetween light
We need these quantities to express the element of solid angle
intensity distribution inthe near field and refractive index
into which a bundle of light rays is pointing.
by a simple geometricoptics picture provided we account
Consider the unit vector u shown in Fig. 12 which is directed
properly for the cutoff conditionof guided modes.
tangentially to a ray that is not shown in the figure. The ray
We have mentioned earlier that the propagation constant
with vector u is a member of a ray bundle, the unit vectors of
of guided modes is bounded by the relation (5). We also know
that the direction of trapped light rays relative to the fiber the other neighboring rays can be expressed in the form u + du.
We can now define the element of solid angle into which the
axis (the z-axis) is given by the angle e ,
rays are pointing as the ratio of an infinitesimal element of
area dux duy cos 6 divided by the square of the distance from
the origin, which is unity in thecase of unit vectors. The cosine
factor is needed to provide the projection of the area element
The maximum angle 8 = e, occurs for P = n 2 k and is defined as dux du, on the area element normalto the vector u.
Using p instead of u we get the following expression for the
element of solid angle
1
dSl = ;;? dp, dpy cos 8.
This is the maximum angle relative to the fiber axis at which a
ray will s t i l l be trapped if it enters the fiber at a radius r . A
rayenteringwitha larger angle (measured inside the fiber) We introduce the power density S(e) (per unit area and unit
escapes into the cladding. This angle is typically on the order solid angle). The infinitesimal amount of powerflowing
of 10". through the area element dx dy into the solid angle dS2 is
Thenextstepinour derivation of the near-field power cos e
density requires us to trace a uniform power distribution from dP = S(6) d x d yd a = S(e) -n2
dW
outside the fiber intothe core. Before we can handle this
problem we digress t o some fundamental properties of ray with
optics. dW
dpy
dp,dy
= dx (15)
Aray is described mathematically by avector r ( s ) whose
endpoint lies on the ray. The parameter s is the length of the dW is the volume element in phase space which has the impor-
ray measured from an arbitrary, convenient point on the ray. tant property of being conserved along every ray bundle. This
The derivative u = dr/ds is a unit vector that points in the conservation property is one version of Liouville's theorem
direction tangential to theray at locations. Another important which is derived and discussed in [30]. The volume element
quantity describing a ray is its generalized momentum vector dW is defined by the positions and directions of a ray bundle.
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEXPROFILEMEASUREMENTSFORFIBERS 673
UMBERTlAN
y UGHT SOURCE FIBER CORE
\
DETECTOR
Fig. 13. Setup for implementation of near-field method.
, HIGHLY FOCUSED
LIGHT SOURCE FIBER CORE /
Fig. 14. Alternate arrangement for near-field method.
Ifwedesignate the volumeelementbysubscripts1and2, of(l1)

to indicate two different positions along a ray, we can express
the conservation property as dW1 = d W z . Also unchanged is
the amount of light power dP carried by the rays, dP1 = dPz .
These two conservation laws allow us to relate the light power
densities at two different points along the ray, we obtain from
(14)
The index difference n(r) - nz is small compared to n2. Thus
the product n ( r ) [ n ( r )- n 2 ] deviates from n2 [n(r)- n z ] only
to second order. Therefore, we use the approximation
We are now ready to compute thepower density perunit area
(but for all possible angles) that is injected into the fiber by
an outside source. We assume that the source is located im-
This expression shows clearly that the light power density
mediately infront of thefiberandthatit is immersed in
per unit area in the fiber core is proportional to the index
matching oil of the same refractive index as the cladding to
difference n ( r ) - n z . Ifwe indicateby n l the maximum
minimize reflection from the fiber endface. The power density
value of n(r), wecan express the power density in terms of
of the source is assumed to be S1(@ =S. Actualsources
its maximum value
usually are Lambert law radiators whose intensity is propor-
tional to cos 8. However, for all fibers of interest in optical
communications the angles are so small that we approximate
cos 8 = 1 notonly in the expression fortheLambert law
source but also in (16). The power density outside the fiber is The near-field method is not difficult to implement [ 101.
transformed to its inside value according to (16) so that we Fig. 13 showsasketch of the implementation that was the
have basis for our derivation of (1 8) and (20). An incoherent source,
such as a light-emitting diode, is used to inject light into one
n z( r )
Sfi& = s -. (17) end of the fiber and a sharply focused microscope scans the
n: near-field power distribution at the other end. It is necessary
Per unit volume, the power flowing into the element of solid to use a sourcewhose light intensity is uniform over the region
angle (the coordinate system of Fig. 7 is used) of the fiber core and which emits light uniformly (or according
to Lambert's law) over the range of acceptance angles of the
da=sinOdBd@ (18) fiber.
An alternate wayofusing the near-field method is by in-
in the fiber core is
verting the process [47]. Fig. 14 shows an arrangement which
utilizes a sharply focusedbeam of incident light and a detector
which must interceptall the light arriving at the other fiber end.
The angular range of the focused light source must be larger
than the acceptance angle of the fiber and the power must be
=SnZO)sin8d8d@. distributed uniformly over this angular range. It is clear that
nif our derivation also describes this situation.
Integration over all directions of @ and over 8 from zero to its Measuring the near-field power distribution only gives the
maximum .angle Or d e f i e d by (1 1) thus yields with the help shape of the refractiveindexdistribution, the difference
674 PROCEEDINGS OF THEIEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 6 , JUNE 1980
7-
FIBER CORE
Fig. 15. Ray trajectories considered in analysis of refracted near-field

method. I
111- n z must be obtained by some other means. We can use

Snell’s law and (11) (with n(r) = n r ) to determine
sin e:, = n l sin e, = d m (23)
where OhU is the maximum angle in the radiation far field Fig. 16. Experimentalsetup for refractednear-fieldmethod.
at which light is emitted from the fiber end into air. Since
n 1 - n is small for practical fibers we can write approximately snellvslaw
n2 sin e’ = n(r) sin e (26)
which is now applied t o angles defined relative t o the normal
Twomeasurements, the near-field power distribution and directions. From (25) and (26) we obtain the following rela-
the maximum far-field angle of radiation from the fiber, allow tion between input and outputangles
us to determine the refractive index difference n ( r ) - nz . How-
ever, the near-field method has a problem. We derived (22) n2 sin e’ = dnqr)
- n; + n: e’‘ . (27)
under the assumption that only guided modes contribute t o
light propagation in the fibercore. But it was alreadymen- This relation shows that the exitangle measured relative to the
tioned that there are low-loss leaky modes that also make a fiber axis depends, among other variables, on the value of the
contribution which is not included in our derivation. For refractive index distribution of the fiber core at the entrance
small V-numbers (see (1)) leaky modes are no problem, but for position r of the ray.
fibers with large V ( V > 30) leaky modes contribute to light One possible implementation of this method [50]is shown
propagation. As V approaches infinity, in step-index fibers, in Fig. 16. A light beam is focused on a spot at a distance r
half the power is carried by leaky modes [481. Leaky mode from the fiber axis with a convergence angle that is larger than
corrections have been suggested [ 101, [491, but good results the angle that can be trapped by the fiber core. After entering
are often obtained from the near-field methods without cor- the fiber some of the light remains in the core, as was discussed
recting for leaky modes [471. In addition, one must be careful in the description of the near-field method. The light escaping
that the length of fiber used in the measurement is sufficiently fromthe core is partlycontributed by power leakage from
short so that mode coupling and differential mode attenuation leaky modes. This part of the radiated power is undesirable
effects do not distort the profile. It is just for short lengths, since it is not knownhowmuch of thisleaky mode power
however, that the leaky-mode contribution is greatest. reaches the detector and how much remains in the fiber core.
The leaky mode problem is avoided by the refracted near- For this reasona circular screen is provided that prevents
field method to be discussed next. light leaving below a minimum angle dAin from reaching the
detector. This minimum angle translates into a corresponding
D. Refracted Near-Field Method angle dAin intheinput beam according to (27). However,
The refracted near-field method due t o Stewart [ 11 ] , relies care must be taken that all the light with 8’ > t9Lin (all this
on the power escaping sideways from the core into thecladding light escapes from the core) reaches the detector. To assure
to determine the refractive index profile of the fiber. It is, this condition itis advisable to provide suitable input apertures
therefore,the complement t o the near-field method which to limit the convergence angle of the input beam t o a suitable
utilizes thetrapped light power. We consider thetrajectory 8‘ = The fiber
must be immersed in matching oil to
of the ray shown in Fig. 15 to explain this method. The ray prevent reflection at the outercladding boundary.
enters the fiber from matching oil, whose index equals that of It is now easy t o derive the relationship between the light
the cladding, through the fiber end face and leaves the core power P ( r ) reaching thedetector and the refractive index
through the core cladding boundary. Inside the fiber and in distribution. Since all light at angles 8‘ > dAin is collected by
the cladding we have [ 301 thedetector we obtain, with the assumption of auniform
angular input light intensity S ,
n(r) cos e = n 2 cos e’’ (25)
which is Snell’s law applied t o angles measured relative to the
direction parallel to theinterface rather thant o angles measured
relative t o the normaldirections. The relationbetween the
angle 8’ and the angle e inside the fiber core is again given by
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEX PROFILE MEASUREMENTSFOR FIBERS 675
-7
t /- t
Fig. 17. Schematic view of slab cut out of fiber for use as sample in
the interferometric slab method.
Using (27) we can express the minimum angle Okin in terms of

the minimum angle as d e f i e d by thescreen,whichlimits
the beam reaching the detector,
Fig. 18. F'rinciple of operation of dual-beamsingle-passinterference
microscope.
this section, is conceptually the simpler and more accurate of

Using the fact that n ( r ) - nz is small allows us to approximate the two, but it is destructive to the fiber under test, and it
requires precise and time consuming fiber sample preparation
(131, ! M I , 1511.
Fig. 17 is the schematic view of a slab that is cut out of the
The refracted near-field method provides maximum detected fiber. Theend faces of the slabmustbe parallel to a high
power when the input light is focused into the cladding. Be- degree so that the thickness is constant over the entire slab
cause the cladding begins at r = a we indicate this detected area to withinafraction of the wavelength of light. Such
powerby P ( a ) . We may nowexpress theunknownsource parallelism can be achieved if the fiber piece is cemented into
intensity S by P ( a ) and obtain finally a bundle of similar fibers which are cut and carefully polished
together. This makes it possible to handle a slab with much
larger diameter and avoid edgerounding of the individual fibers.
Composition dependent thickness variations which can occur
in soft-lap polishing are avoided byadditional polishing of
(31) the sample for several minutes on a hard lap such as tin [ 521.
The refractive index of the fiber core can be determined after The fibers need not be removed from the bundle but can be
the followingquantities havebeen measured: the refractive measured individually as part of the bigger slab.
index of the cladding, the minimum angle 6Ain defined by the Lightpassing through the slab parallel to its axis suffers a
circular screen placed in front of the detector and the maxi- phase retardation whose amount depends ontheoptical
mum angle e;, of the incident cone of light defined either pathlength L which is the product of the slabthickness d
by the focusing arrangement or by additional apertures in the times the refractive indexn(r), L = n(r)d. The phase retardation
input beam. The light power P ( r ) must be measured as a func- $J of the light wave is k = 2n/h times the optical path length,
tion of the position of the input beam, P ( a ) is obtained from $J = n ( r ) k d . (32)
the P ( r ) curve as the lightpowerdetected when theinput
beam is focused into the cladding. The fiber slab is placed in one arm of an interference micro-
In one report of practical implementation [50] fluctuations scope and a homogeneous reference slab, with refractive index
of the incident laser light power limited the minimum detect- nz , is placed in the reference arm of the microscope as shown
able change in index to 1 part in 104. schematically in Fig. 18. The two branches of the microscope
formaninterferometer. If the fiber slabandreferenceslab
E. The Interferometric Slab Method were identical, the light paths through thetwo branches of the
Interferometry is potentiallya very accuratemethodfor interferometer would have identical optical path lengths and,
making measurements, thus it is natural to use it for measuring after recombining, would interfere uniformly over the width
refractiveindexdistributions. We shall discuss twodifferent of the light beam, either reinforcing or partially canceling each
interferometric methods, the slab method and the transverse other. It would be hard to make measurements with such a
interferometric method. The slab method, to be discussed in perfectlyadjustedmicroscope. For this reason, the mirrors
VIDICON
CAMERA
1 . 1
- DISUY
MONl TOR
Fig. 2 0 Automatic video analysis system for refractive-index profiling

of fiber samples.
A. X=O.Sum lC
@)
Fig. 19. Field of view of interference microscope (a) without and (b)
with graded-index slab sample.
are tilted very slightly so that the phase fronts in the twoa r m s
are tilted relative to each other, forming parallel bands of inter-
ference fringes. This fringe pattern is shown in Fig. 19(a).
The dark bands are regions where the two tilted phase fronts
interfere destructively. When the balance of the interference
microscope is upset by replacing one of the homogenous slabs
with the fiber slab sample,distortions of the fringe pattern 8 D
appear as shown in Fig. 19(b). The shift S of a fringe depends Fig. 21. Monitor display of graded-index slab sample observed at a
on its position in the fiber core S = S(r). For simplicity, we wavelength of 0.9 pm.
neglect the slight deflectionwhich the lightrayssuffer in
passing through the slab. This deflection depends on the maxi- ference microscope directly. The video camera looks into the
mum index difference between the cladding and the core and interference microscope, its electrical output signal is sent to a
on the radius of the core [ 531. In practice the sample is made digitizer, which functions as an analog-to-digital converter of
so thin that thiseffect is negligible [ 541. From the fringe shift 8 bit accuracy after addressing specific, preselected points in
S ( r ) and the fringe spacing D we can calculate the refractive the video field. The selection of these points is controlled by
index. This calculation is based on the fact that the distance the computer. The equipment shown in Fig. 20 also includes
D between adjacent straight fringes corresponds to a relative a video monitor which allows viewing of the picture as seen by
phase shift 2n between the two light beams of the interfer- the video camera and a plotter for recording of the processed
ometer. The fringe shift S(r), on the other hand, corresponds information-the refractive index profile. The microscope
to the relative phase difference J/ = k [ n ( r ) - n2] d between picture, thatis displayed on the monitor,is shown in Fig. 21.
the phase retardations in the fiber slab and the reference slab.
Data acquisition proceeds as follows. The computer directs
We can thus formulate thefollowing equation the digitizer to collect light-intensity information on successive
vidicon scan lines such that the sample points fall on a vertical
(33) line. The monitor photograph, shown in Fig. 21, shows a ver-
tical line near the center of the core along which the digitizer
samples the light-intensity information. On the rightside of
Using k = 2n/h we can express the difference between the re- the picture we see a wavy line bracketed by two straight verti-
fractive indices of coreand cladding in terms of the fringe cal lines. This wavy line is the light intensity sampled along
shift S ( r ) , the fringe spacing D,the vacuum wavelength of light the central sample line. The computer determines the fringe
h and the slab thickness d positions by searching for the minimum light level whose
location it pinpoints by least mean square fittingof a parabola
using a number of points in the vicinity of the minimum.
(34) The computer directs the vertical sample line t o collect infor-
mation on either side of the core which is then used to deter-
The evaluation of the fringe shift information can be done in mine the fringe spacing and to compensate for a tilt of the en-
manydifferent ways. The fringe shift can, for example, be tire fringe pattern. After that is accomplished it advances the
measured with a reticle in the eye piece of the microscope and sample line in small increments, moving it through the core
theindexcomputedfrom(34),orthe fringe shift can be region, measuring the displacement of the fringe which goes
measured on a photograph of the microscopic image [ 131, through the core center. The fringe displacement is recorded
[ 51 1. We describe here briefly an automated setup [ 141 which as a function of the radial coordinate r measured from the core
uses a video camera, a digitizer, and desk computer as shown center, the resulting function S ( r ) is used to compute n ( r ) - n2
schematically in Fig. 20, to process the output of the inter- according to (34). The index distribution is finally sent to the
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEXPROFILEMEASUREMENTSFORFIBERS 677
An m.02247
-30 -20 -10 0 +O 20 30

CORE RAOIUS(pm)
Fig. 22. Refractive-indexprofde of graded index fiberandbest fit g

curve. Similar profdes can be obtained as a function of wavelength or
sample orientation.
plotter. A typical refractive index plot is reproduced in Fig.

22 as the solid curve. The dotted curve in Fig. 22 is a best fit
power law profile which is defined by the equation
n(r) - n2 = n l [ 1 - A ( r / ~ ) ~ l . (35)
Fig. 23. Details of fiber immersed in matching oil for transverse inter-
The parameter g is the exponent of the power law, n l is the ferometric method.
on-axis value of the refractive index and A is the relative in-
dex difference, A = ( n l - n 2 ) / n l . The power-law index dis-
tribution (35) is used for comparisonwithmeasured index returns to the objective. The reference leg of the microscope
profiles because of itstheoreticalimportance.Multimode contains a matched objective and a plane mirror located at
fibers achieve low intermodal dispersion if their index profiles the objective focal plane.
correspond to apower lawwhose optimum exponent value In a different and simpler approach 1571, which utilizes a
depends on material dispersion, but which is usually near 2, conventional reflected light microscope, the sample is placed
as described previously. betweentwoflat glass plateswithapartiallytransmitting
Fig. 22 shows a slight dip in the center of the index profce. mirror coating on one face of each plate. When this structure
Actually, this dipis very much deeper than shown in thisfigure is viewed in monochromatic light and a tilt added to the top
[35I . The true depth of the dip is hard to measure with the mirror, fringes are formed by reflection from the bottom sur-
slab method on fibersamples because thedip is so sharply face of the top mirrorand the top surface of thebottom
localized. It will be shown later thatbased on preform measure- mirror. The resultant interference pattern is that of a wedge,
ments the dip actually goes all the way down to the cladding modified by the refractive index variation of the fiber. Sample
index level. The index depression is caused by evaporation of preparation is even more difficult in this technique, however,
dopant material from the center of the preform tube while it since the effective thickness of the sample is twice as great as
is being collapsed.According to its depth, the dip tends to for the Mach-Zehnder transmission method, requiring much
give a large fringe displacement,but because of itsnarrow thinner slabs to reduce difficulties due to ray bending. Typical
width the fringe moves away from the core center and out of thickness values are 10-30 pm depending on the sample.
reach of the dipbefore its fullshift can bedisplayed.The
transverse interferometric method gives better pictures of the F. Transverse Interferornelnc Method
full depth of the centraldip. Aside fromdifficultieswith The slab method has the advantage of being highly accurate
respresentingsharplylocalizedfeatures in the index profile, (except for displaying small features) and of being simple in
the slab method is highly aceurate. In practice its accuracy is concept. Its biggestdisadvantage is the need for cutting the
usually limited by the accuracy with which the slab thickness fiber and preparing a polished sample. By using light illumina-
can bemeasured. Accuracies betterthan 1 partin lo4 are tion at right angles, transverse to the fiber axis nondestructive
realizable, and special electronic fringe countingtechniques profile measurements becomepossible [ 151 , [ 161 , [ 581 - [ 601 .
have gone even further [55]. This high accuracymakes it In transverse illumination the light is refracted primarily by
possible to use this method for studying profile changes as a the outer cladding boundary, the additional phase shift and
function ofwavelength-profile dispersion-from which opti- refractive contribution of the core act only as a small perturba-
mal index distributions can be deduced for a given operating tion [ 6 1I . This makes it difficult to achieve accurate core
wavelength [ 401 . profiles and indicates the necessity for removing the influence
In another embodiment of the interferometric slab method of theouter claddingboundarybyimmersing the fiber in
one side of the sample is aluminized to act as a mirror in a matchingoilwith the same refractive index n2 as the fiber
micro-Michelson-interferometric opticalconfiguration [ 56 1 . cladding. In the slab method, neglecting the slight deflection
Lightfrom the sampleobjective of the microscope passes suffered by the light ray as it passes through the slab of Fig. 17,
through the slab, is reflected by the aluminum surfaces, and each light ray moves through a region of constant refractive
r24 15F309B
Fig. 24. Output field of interferencemicroscopeobservingfiber by

transverse interferometric method.
index. In the transverse method the situation is more compli-

cated. Each light ray passes through regions of varying refrac- CORE RADIUS pm
tive index and the total optical path length must be expressed
Fig. 25. Comparison of refractive-index profdes obtained by transverse
as an integral interferometric method (dashed curve) and slab method(solid curve).
L= 1;’ n(s) ds. (36)

The refractiveindexdistribution of the fibercan thus be
computed from fringe shift observations in transverse illumina-
The integration variable s is the path length measured along tionobtainedwiththeinterferencemicroscope. Processing
the light ray and the integration starts at a plane outside the of the “raw data,” the fringe shift information, requires that a
core and proceeds to a second plane on the other side of the numericaldifferentiation is performed first followedby the
core as shown in Fig. 23. The fiber, after being stripped of numerical integration indicated by (40). The upper limits of
any jacket, is again placed in one arm of an interference micro- the integrals in (38) and (40) were extended to infinity to
scope replacing the slab in Fig. 18. The fiber is covered with a facilitate the analytical solution of the integral equation. The
drop of matching oil into which the microscope objective is integrals themselves extend, of course,only over thefinite
dipped. The reference branch contains only a drop of matching range where the integrands differ from zero. The integrand of
OX. By the same argument, advanced for the slab method, we (40) becomes infinite at the lower integration limit. The in-
now obtain instead of (33) the equation tegral itself exists, but its numericalintegration involves an
analytical approximation of the contribution from the vicinity
of the pole. The pole contribution becomes increasingly larger
(37) and more important as r approaches zero. This has the con-
sequence that the error inherent in the measurement process
We have neglected the slight deflection of the ray trajectory in becomes large at r = 0, so that the refractive index value is
the core, which is a second-order effect [61]. The coordinate known with least accuracy at and near the fiber axis. Mathe-
r is the distance of closest approach of the light ray to the fiber matically, the error is infinite at r = O! This large on-axis error
axis. It is clear that we must solve an integral equation to ob- is themost serious disadvantage of the transverse interfero-
tain the desired function n(r) - n 2 from the function S ( r ) that metricmethodandlimitsitsapplicationin p r o f i i g single-
is provided by the fringe shift measurement. The fringe shift, mode fibers to relatively high An’s. However, in spite of this
as seenthrough t h e interferencemicroscope, is depict&in problem. the method is veryvaluable formultimode fibers
Fig. 24. because it is nondestructive and it resolves detail in the fiber
Because the refractive index distribution is a function of the structure with much higher resolution than the slab method.
The most serious rival of the transverse interferometric method
radialcoordinate p (rotationalsymmetry is assumed) it is
necessary to change variables from s to p according to the is the focusing method, to be discussed later, which does not
simple geometry shown inFig. 23 suffer from the error “blow-up” problem.
The dotted curve in Fig. 25 shows the refractive index pro-
file of a fiber as obtained with the transverse interferometric
method. The solid curve is the index profile of the same fiber
(but not at the same point on the fiber) as measured with the
slab method. The most noticeable feature of the dotted curve
Equation (37) thus assumes the form
is the deep index dip on thefiber axis and the structure visible
near the center of the fiber. These features are indeed real and
are not caused by the errorblow-up problem even though their
exact detail may be somewhat distorted. However, the deep
central dip and the structure near the axis can be observed by
This integral equationcan be solvedanalytically withthe result
othermethods(the focusing methodforexample)andare
most easily observed in fiber preforms. The left branches of
the two index curves agree very well. The slight disagreement
on the right is caused by the lack of perfect circular symmetry
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEX PROFILEMEASUREMENTSFORFIBERS 679
Y
of thefiber cross section.Thedotted curveis symmetrical
around r = 0 since it was just folded over; circular symmetry is t
a crucial assumption entering the mathematical evaluation of
the refractiveindexprofileaccording to (40). Theindex
evaluation of the slab method is not based on any Q priori
assumptions of symmetry, it mayresult inanasymmetric
refractive index profile if the fiber lacks symmetry. A further
source of discrepancy may be the fact that the slab was cut
from a different section of fiber than the one used for index
profiling with transverse illumination. The reproducibility of
the transverse profile method is about 1 percent andwhen auto-
matedwiththe use of acomputer-controlled video-analysis
system the complete index distributioncan be obtained within
minutes of fiber fabrication [ 151, [ 161 . Rg. 26. Geometry of focusing method for refractive-index profiling o f
optical fibers and preforms.
G. The Focusing Method

In the last section, we described a nondestructive method for inside the fiber core. The ray slope now assummthe form
measuring refractiveindex profilesof fibers using transverse
illumination. We now turn to a method which also uses trans-
verse illumination but does not require an interference micro-
scopeor rely inany way oninterferometry. Moreover, the
focusing method is readilyapplicablewithhighaccuracy to At the observation plane shown in Fig. 26 the ray has the y
fiberpreforms [19]-[21]. position
The focusing method uses incoherent filtered light in trans-
verse illumination; it also requires immersion of the fiber or
preform in index matching fluid to avoid the overriding, dele-
terious influence of the outer cladding boundary. As suggested
By combining (45) and (46) we obtain the following integral
by its name, its principle of operation uses the fact that the
equation for the unknown functionn(r)
core focuses transversely incident light, acting as a cylindrical
lens. Fig. 26illustratesthisoperatingprinciple. The core is
illuminated with a collimatedbeam oflight of uniform intensity
at right angles to its axis. One light ray is singled out for de-
tailed discussion of its trajectory. The ray enters the fiber (or
Ifwe knew the function y ( t ) - t we could compute the re-
preform) core at a distance t from the opticalaxis of the struc-
fractiveindexdistributionfrom the solution of the integral
ture, itsuffers refraction andleaves the core witha slightly dif-
equation (47):
ferent slope. At the observation plane the ray is at a distance
y from the optical axis whose value depends on the entrance
position t , y = y ( t ) . We can quantify the relationship between
the refractive index profile and y ( t ) by using the paraxial ray
theory. The paraxial ray equation is [ 301
Instead of trying to measure the actual functiony ( t ) we ob-
serve the light power density distribution P ( y ) in the observa-
tion plane. Conservation of energy carried by the light beam
requires that the amount of power P ( y ) d y , that is carried
The slope d y / d x of the ray, after leaving the core, cam tje ob- through each element of length dy , is independent of x; thus
tained from (41)by an integration we have P ( t ) d t = P( y ) d y . P ( t ) is the power density at the
input before the light enters the fiber and P(y) is the density
at the observationplane. Normalizing the powerdensity so
that P ( t ) = 1 resultsin d t =P(y ) d or, y after integration,
Because the refractive-index distribution is a function of the Y

radial coordinate r , it is necessary to change the integration r( y ) = P(d y ' .) (49)
variable from x to r using the relations
X =@=7 We thus have the inverse function t ( y ) from which y ( t ) can
easily be obtained.
The position of the observation plane is arbitrary to some
extent. In an actual experiment the observation plane is de-
fined by the object plane on which the camera (for preforms)
and
or microscope(forfibers) is focused.Equation (48) applies
_
an - _
an _
ar -- _
an _
y - an
__
5
t
(44)
to the case that the camera or microscope lens viewing the
observationplaneare also immersed inindex matching oil.
ay ar ay ar r arr '
If the lenses arein air, lightrefractionaccording to Snell's
In the last step, we ignored the slight departure of y from t lawmust be takenintoaccount as the light beams enter
LIGHT INTENSITY
WAVEFORM 7
10.020
Fig. 27.
SAMPLE LINE
Monitordisplay
’1 BLACK REF
DIGITIZED 255
DIGITIZED 0
of fiber as observed by focusing method

REF
showing digitization scheme.
Fig. 29. Comparison of the refractive-index profde of a fiber obtained

bythe focusingmethod(solid curve) andtheinterferometric slab
method (broken curve).
~0.025
1
I 4
10 20 30 40 50
CORE RADIUS ( r m )
Fig. 28. Normalizedlightintensity pcV) andintermediatefunctions
+)/y and [+)-y]/y, obtained in focusing analysis.
from the matching oil into air. In this case the formula (48)
is replaced by
The observation plane must not be inside the fiber core (except
J!;
-30
I
-20
;
-10
1
0
0.005
10
CORE RADIUS ( p m )
; ; ‘ a ;
20 30
in special cases to be discussed later) and it must not be placed Fig. 30. Profde obtained from the focusing method by placing the ob-
so far away that rays have already crossed over after leaving servation plane within the core radius t o bring out more of the fine
the core. Ray crossover destroys the uniquecorrespondence structure. Thebrokencurve was obtainedbytheinterferometric
whole fiber method.
between y and t expressed by (49). We have found that good
results are obtained when the observation plane is placed just
outside of the core L = Q. From our derivation it may appear while differentiation aggravates a noisy signal. Secondly, even
as though the analysis breaks down in this limit. But it can be though the integrand of (48) does have apole at t = r , its
shown that the crossover point, that results when the input contribution to the error does not blow up at r = 0 because
and- exit directions of the ray are extended linearly back into t - y ( t ) also goes to zero atthispoint.Theerror of the
the core, is located very near x = 0 (see Fig. 26). The distance focusing method is also largest on the fiber axis but it remains
of the crossover point fromx = 0 is on the orderof (nl - n z ) a . finite.
It is thus permissible to letL = a without violating the assump- The computer controlled measuring set, with video camera
tions made in deriving (48) or (50). and digitizer described in the section on the slab method [ 141,
The integral (SO), used t o compute the index distribution can be used almostunchanged for measuring index profiles
n(r), looks similar t o the integral (40) for the transverse inter- with the focusing method. Instead of the interference micro-
ferometric method. But there are two important differences. scope, only an ordinary microscope is now required. Fig. 27
In the focusing method the raw data (the light power density shows a picture of the microscopic image of a fiber picked up
P( y )) is being integrated according to (49)-not differentiated. by the video camera and displayed on the video monitor. The
This is a very considerable advantage since integration tends to microscope is focused such that the observation plane distance
smooth random fluctuations caused by instrumentation noise is equal t o the radius L = a . On the right of the figure we see
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEX PROFILEMEASUREMENTSFORFIBERS 681
D(spLAY MoNrroR
PLOmR
Rg. 31. Automaticvideoanalysissystemapplied t o preform prof&

measurements.
PREFORM
CORE \
LIGHT INTENSITY
WAVEFORM
I 2.500 i
ZOO0 NORYC+IZED LIGHT
1.500
BUCKGEF. WH& REF.

'DIGfT,.?ED
'IMPLE 255 OMTIZED 0
1.OO0
Fig. 32. Reform as observed in display monitor by focusing method.
The horizontal lines are the deposition layers of the MCVD process.
0.500
/[W - Y]/Y
the light intensity distribution collected along the sample line .:. .:!$:...._._.
,,__,,,(_...........(._..~
:$ ........,.,.
also shown in the figure. The solid line in Fig. 28 shows the . . ,
-2.40 -160 -0.80 0.- 0.80 160 2.40

lightpowerdensitydistribution of a typicalfiber (notthe
same as in Fig. 271, also shown are the function t ( y ) / y and
[ t ( y )- y l / y as dotted lines. A typical fiber index profile is i.'
shown as the solid line in Fig. 29. The dotted line shows the Fig. 33. Power density distribution and intermediate function used t o
CORE RADIUS ( m m )
index profile of the same fiber obtained by the interferometric compute proffie of preform in focusing method.
slab method.
Comparison of Figs. 25 and 29 shows that the central dip is The mainadvantage of thefocusingmethod is itsready
not well resolved by the focusing method if the observation applicability to preforms [ 21 I . Some othermethodsthat
plane distance is L = u. This loss of resolution is caused by have been used to obtain index profiles of preforms are the
the fact that the central dip represents a tiny but strong lens. interferometric slab technique utilizing samples from the tip
Rays passing through the dip have already crossed over before of the preform 1251, a shearinginterferometric approach[621,
reaching the observation plane. The solid line shown in Fig. and ray tracing of an incident narrow laser beam either in the
30 was also obtained by the focusing method, but in this case forward or backward scattering geometries [ 631, [ 641. These
the observation plane was located at L = 16 pm, well inside and additional preform diagnostic techniques wiU be discussed
the core of radius u = 28 pm. The solid curve in Fig. 30 shows in a forthcoming review paper devoted to that subject.
that the central dip is beginning to develop as the observation Fig 31 showstheautomatic measuring setupappliedto
plane is moved inside the core. However, the index profile is preformprofilemeasurements.The preform is immersedin
now no longer faithfully reproduced. In particular, its level is matching oil and is directly observed with the video camera
depressed. We compensated for this reduction in index level whose lens must have an aperture that is large enough to admit
by multiplyingthewholecurvewithaconstantcorrection all the light that has passed through the preform. The picture
factor to bring it upto the level of the dotted curve which was seen by the camera is shown in Fig. 32. The figure shows only
obtainedwiththetransverseinterferometricmethod.The part of the preform since it suffices if the light intensity is
shape of the curve is s t i l l fairly well preserved, but the observa- scanned from outside of the core to its center. As always, the
tion plane is not yet deep inside the core and the dip is not observationplane is placed at L = u. Theprominent dark
yet fully developed. Fig. 30 was intended to show a trend and horizontal line in Fig. 32 is the central dip which, as a strong
to point out that it is possible to resolve .particular, sharply negative lens, disperses light and causes depletion of the light-
localized features with the focusing method if the observation powerdensityattheobservationplane.The succession of
plane is placed near them, albeit at the expenseof losing other darkandbright lines, observable throughoutthepreform
information. core, butmoststronglynearitscenter,arethedeposition
682 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 6 8 , NO. 6 , JUNE 1980
0.025
-2.40 -L60 0.80 6 0.80 l.60 2.40
I
CORE RADIUS lmm)
Fig. 34. Comparison of preformrefractiveindexprofileobtainedby

focusing
method
(solid
curve)
andinterferometric
slab
method
(dotted curve).
layers of the MCVD process that was used for its production.
Also shown in Fig 32 is the vertical sample h e and, on the
right of the figure, a trace of the light intensity as it appears
alongthesampleline. Fig. 33 shows the powerdensity dis-
tribution, from a similar preform, as the jagged solid line. The
symmetry of the plot around r = 0 is an artifact, the plot from
r = 0 to a radial coordinate beyond the core radius was simply
folded over into the negative radial range. The dashed line is
the function r ( y ) / y [see (49)l and the dotted lineis the func- Fig. 35. Comparbon of preformobservations by(a) interferometric
tion [ t ( y )- y l / y that is necessary for computing the index slab technique and (b) focusing method.
distributionfrom (50). The jagged lightpowerdensity dis-
tribution looks formidable. However, observe how much this
function is smoothed by integration as seeninthe curves the preform.Onedistinction to keep in mind,however, is
tCv)/y and [ r ( y )- y l / y . The area under the wild oscillations that the preform profile, if measured yith sufficient resolu-
is, fortunately, very small. tion, will display the individual layer structure throughout the
The refractive index distribution that is computed from a core whereas in the fiber this structure will be washed out as
power density distribution of this type is shown in Fig. 34 as its size approaches the wavelengthof the measuring light.
the solid line. The central dip is almost fully developed. It is
remarkable what a smooth refractive index distribution is ob-
m.
MISCELLANEOUSPROFILE MWREMENT hkTHODS
tained from the jagged power density curve. The power den- There are several additional methods which, while notgiving
sity is very sensitive to theslightest refractive index fluctuations.detailed information about the entire profie,do give sufficient
The dotted curvein Fig 34 was obtained with the inter- quantitative information about the maximum index difference;
ferometric slab method applied not to the preform itself but the concentration of specific dopants or qualitative informa
to a slab h a t was cut out of the preform tip. When the fiber is tion about the layer structure, to be useful in their own right
drawn, the preform tapers down fromits full width of perhaps and some mention of them will therefore be made.
1- to 2cm diameter to the 0.1-mm diameter of the outer di-
mensions of the fiber. We used a portion of the preform tip, A. Immersion Method
which is s t i l l much larger than the fiber but muchsmaller than The technique is based on the fact that the contrast of the
the preform, t o prepare a slab sample whose interferogram is edgesof a microscopic picture of a fiber disappears if it is
shown in Fig. 35(a). The corresponding view of the preform, dipped in oil whose index matches that of the fiber. In one
as seen by the focusing method, is shown in Fig 35(b). The embodiment for unclad fibers[ 6 5 ] ,the sample is mounted in a
agreement between these very different methods is gratifying hot stage refractometer and the temperature of the liquid is
It was, of course, necessary to transform the radial scale ofthe read by means of a thermocouple. From the known tempera-
slab index profile to the larger dimension of the preform, but ture coefficient of the liquid, the refractive index is determined
thevertical scale remainedunchanged.Note, in passing, a by reading the temperatureat which the fiber disappears.
pointmentioned earlier, thattheindexexhibitsavariation In the case of stepindex fibers [66],the index of the match-
witbin each deposition layer. This is manifested by the modu- ing liquid is gradually increased until the boundary between
lation of the fringes seen inFig 35(a). the core and the cladding, as observed in a microscope with
The index profiie of the preform maintains its shape, except transverseillumination, is no longer visible. This happens
for the radial scale transformation, as the fiber is drawn. It is when the oil has a refractive index, intermediate between the
thus possible to obtain a faithful picture of the refractive in- coreandcladding values, whichdepends also onthefiber
dex distribution of the fiber by measuring the index profile of geometry. Then, knowing the refractive index of the cladding
MARCUSE AND PRESBY: INDEX PROFILE
FIBERS
MEASUREMENTS
FOR 683
glass and the radii of the core and the cladding, the refractive other elements present. Profiles obtained in this manner are in
index of the core can be calculated [ 661. An accuracy greater reasonably good agreement with those measured by interfer-
than one part in lo4 is reported. Application to graded-index ence microscopy [ 781.
fibers has also been reported [671 by combining this method
with interferometric observations. E. Single-Mode Fiber Measurements
While the bulk of this paper has been devoted to profile mea-
B. Far-Field Radiation Pattern Measurements
surements in multimode opticalfibers, the increased interest in
Measurements of the far-field radiation pattern of an optical single-mode waveguides warrentssome mention of profiling
fiber is useful in determining the fibersnumericalaperture. techniquesapplicable to them.Due to their small core size
The experimental arrangement is similar to the near field setup and low indexdifference singlemode fibers are challenging
(Fig. 13) except for the omission of the imagefocusing ob- objects forindex profiling.
jectives, and the use of very long fiber lengths. The numerical Some of the previously described techniques have been uti-
aperture is obtained from a measurement of the distance from lized to provide limited information on the profile, Le., the
the flat fiber end to the detector and the extent of the radia- value of the maximum index difference An, between the core
tionpattern. This techniquehasbeenrefined to the point and the cladding and the value of the core radius a . One of
where it is capable of determining the dispersive material con- these [79] is based on observations of the far-field radiation
stants of a fiber by measuring the numerical aperture as a func- pattern of the HEll mode. From measurements of the half-
tion of wavelength 1681, [69]. power width of the main lobe of the pattern and the width of
the f i i t minimum,the core radius and a meanvalue of An can
C. Scattering Methods be calculated.
Therefractive-indexprofile of an optical fiber can be d e The forward-scatteringpattern method has been utilized to
termined from an analysis of the scatteringpattern generated measureindexprofiles of single-modefiberswith a resolu-
when a laser beam is incident at right angle t o the fiber axis tion of0.2 pm [ 801. As inthemultimode fiber case, the
1171, [181. sampleisimmersedinmatching oil and 1500 points in the
In one approach [ 701 , the fiber is immersed in matching oil scattered light distribution are sampled andcomputer analyzed.
and the forwardfar-fieldscattering pattern is detectedasa The resulting profile, however, is not in complete agreement
function of thescattering angle.The method islimited to with that measured from the corresponding preform rod.
cases where the product of core radius and maximum index The reflection method can be used for profiling the single
difference is relatively small. A 5-percent error is introduced mode geometry [ 81 1, however, the reflected power distribu-
if this product is about 0.04 pm. The method is also difficult tion does not indicate the refractiveindexcorrectly, which
to implement in that large
a number of points must be sampled must be calculated using a correction factor for finite beam
(typically 1000) andconsiderable computer analysismust size.
follow. The profile can be measured accurately with single-pass in-
Inanotherapproachthe backscatteredfringe pattern has terference microscopy on slab samples [ 821 but this requires,
been used [ 7 1I . This pattern is localized in a rangeof angular again, time-consuming
a and difficultsamplepreparation
deviation onthe order of+25’ from theincident direction procedure.
and the sharp cutoff of the pattern, for unclad fibers, depends Transverse interferrometry on wholefiber samples is limited
only on the index of refraction and not the diameter of the in applicability to relatively high An’s, due to the large error
fiber. The method has been used to determine the variations on axis. Values of An around 0.01 can be measured [ 831.
of refractive index with wavelength [72] and its applicability A very successful technique for profiling both single-mode
demonstrated for measuring index distributions of stepindex fibersandpreforms is thefocusing method [831. As in the
[ 731 and graded-index profiles [ 741, [ 751. multimode case, the fiber or preform is immersed in matching
oil and collimated light is passed transversely through it. The
D. Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray intensity distribution of the transmitted light is detect$.with
Microprobe Techniques a video camera and processed as previously described-with, a
Thescanningelectronmicroscope,due to its high spatial computer-controlled video-analysis system.Theprofile, mea-
resolution and great depth of fieldcanprovidedetailed in- sured with a repeatability of better than 1% and with a resolu-
formation on the structural features of optical fibers. Profile tion of better than 1 pm, is obtained within a few minutes.
information could in principle be obtained by etching the end This technique was used successfully to measure index profiles
face of a fiber and making use of the fact that the etch rate is of boron-dopedandgermanium-dopedfibers and preforms
dependentonthelocalcomposition of the glass. Sucha with maximum An’s varying from 0.0006 to 0.012 and core
sample is shown in Fig. 6. Deducing the profie is complicated radii as small as 3 pm. The profiles obtained are in good agree
by the fact that the etch rate may not be a linear function of ment with those measured on the corresponding slab samples.
concentration and by the various dopants that may exist, each Fig. 36(a) depicts a germanium-doped fiber as observed by the
having a different etch rate. focusing method. The power distribution and resulting index
If the scanningelectronmicroscope is equippedwith an profile are shown in b and c of the same figure. The fluctua-
energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, quantitative information tions of the profile curve just outside the core give an indica-
vs compositionvariationscan be obtained [76], [ 771. By tion of the measurement accuracy which is on the order of a
comparing the characteristic X-ray intensities of thefiber few parts in lo5.
againstthose of astandardsample,thecomposition of the
fiber can be determined. This techniquecannotdetect ele F. Computation of Bandwidth from Index Profiles
ments lighter than Be, so, for example, boron concentrations We now turn to the question: what can be learned from the
cannot be measured except by differentiating from data on all measured refractive index profiles of fibers. The fiber is fully
Multimode fibers suffer from modal dispersion because the

guided modes have different group velocities [ 51, [6]. If an
impulse (pulse of zero length) is launched into the fiber, many
(orperhaps all) modesareexcited.Each mode requiresa
slightly different time t o reach the far end of the fiber so that
the impulse spreads out over a time interval equal to the time
difference between the arrival of the fastest and the slowest
mode. As discussed previously, this modaldispersioneffect
increases the length of pulses traveling in multimode fibers.
The amount of dispersion limits the maximum rate at which
pulse-modulated signals can be transmitted. Likewise, if we
consider a CW light signal that is sinusoidally modulated, the
I
amplitude of the modulation is reduced if modal dispersion
-9 -6 -3 0 3 6 9
CORE RADIUS (pm) exists.Theshape of thefunction of modulationamplitude
v e m frequency, measured at the fiber output end, determines
(a )
thefiberbandwidth.Thesameamplitude versus frequency
0.0016 curve can also be obtained as the Fourier transform of the im-
pulse response, in fact, this is the approach that we shall take
in this paper. The key to impulse response or bandwidth com-
putations is knowledge of the group velocities of the various
modes. Theimpulseresponsecan be computed bycounting
the number of modes arriving in a large number of adjacent
timeslots [89]. This countingproceduremay have to be
weighted by the power camed by each arriving mode relative
to the average powerper mode.The groupvelocity is the
derivative of the radian frequency with respect to the propaga-
tion constant. The time delay of each mode is, therefore,
CORE RADIUS ( p m )
(b)
Fig. 36. Refractive index profmg of single-mode fiber by the focusing
method. Note the low value of An, the small core radius of the fiber Before we can compute the impulse response and bandwidth
and the high sensitivity of the technique.
we must know the propagation constant for each mode.
There are no exact solutions for the guided modes of fibers
defined if its refractive index profile is known as a function of witharbitraryrefractiveindexdistributions. A convenient
the following variables, the transverse coordinates r and 6, the and widely used approximation is provided by the Wentzel-
longitudinalcoordinate z and,finally, the wavelength X. In Kramer-Brillouin (WKB) method [ 51. In the WKB approxima-
the absence of length and wavelength dependence, index pro- tion the propagationconstants Pvr of the b i d e modesare
file measurements of the type discussed in this paper would expressed as solutions of the following equation:
determine the fiber bandwidth. However, the refractive index
distribution is, of course, also a function of the z coordinate
and of the wavelength. It is very much harder to measure the
zdependence of the index profie. In fact, after drawing addi-
tionaldeformations,dependent on z, areintroduced. De- The limits rl and r2 of the integration range are the turning
points which are defined as the radii at which the square-root
formations of thefiberaxis,whichareintroducedbythe
expression under the integration sign vanishes. The integers v
plastic jacket (that is coated on the fiber) and by cabling, can
and p are the azimuthaland radial mode numbers, respectively.
be regarded as z-dependent refractive index deformations, be-
By differentiation of (52) we obtain from (51)
cause the very existence of the fiber in space is describable as
three-dimensional
a refractive
index
distribution.
The z-
dependent variation of the index distribution is responsible for
coupling among guided modes of a multimode fiber and for
radiation losses of multimode aswellas single-mode fibers. -
The wavelength dependence of the refractive index causes dis-
tortions of pulses carried by the guided modes. In some cases J,
this dependence can actually be utilized to design fibers with with
multipledopants[841 or multiple a profiles 1851 to com-
pensate for this effect. F = d n 2 ( r ) k2 - - v2/r2. (54)
We limit the following discussion to phenomena that depend To be able to handle the derivative of the refractive index
predominantly on the transverse shape of the refractive index prose with respect to the free-space propagation constant k,
distribution.The wavelength dependencecan be takeninto d n ( r ) / d k , we assume that the index profile is expressible in
account to some extent by the use of dispersion coefficients the form [61
without having to know the wavelength dependence of the en-
tire index distribution. n 2 ( r ) = n t [ 1 - 2f ( r ) A] (55)
n T g.1.5
It I
"l
i
-9xlo-3 -3xio-3 0 3xIO-3 9xIO-3
1'
-4x,d
I
-2~0-4
O.*
o
I I
~ X I O - ~4x400'4
TIME DELAY 1MICR.SECIKM) TIME DELAY 1MICR.SECIKM)
Fig. 37. Impulse response of fiber having a g value of 1.S. The time Fig. 39. Same as Fig. 37 but for g = 2.
origin was chosen t o coincide with the arrival of the mode of lowest
order.
- 4.0
1'1.958
g-2.5 '" T n
-- 0.8
W
In
-- 0.6 $
Y
+l
w
-- 0.4 Y 9
n
- 0.2
-- 0.2
I n 1 I - 8 ~ 1 0 - 3 4x10-3 o 4x40-3 8x10-3

-2~10-4-1~10-4 o 1x10-4 ZX~O-4 TIME DELAY 1MICR.SECIKYl
TIME DELAY lMICR.SEC/KY)
Flg. 40. Same as Fig. 37 but for g = 2.5.
Fig. 38. Same as Fig. 37 but for g = 1.968, the optimum value. Note
the different scale.
pearance of theimpulseresponse curves is caused by the
coarseness of the 15 time slots used forcollecting the different
with f(r) being independent of wavelength. This assumption modes. The total number of modes depends, of course, on the
allows us to write [81 g-value but for g = 2 and a wavelength of X = 1 pm approxi-
mately 520 modes can propagate. However, because of a four-
fold degeneracy only 130 different modes need to be calcu-
lated. The time origin was chosen to coincide with the arrival
of themode of lowestorder. It is apparentthatfor fibers
with the dispersion coefficients D l and D 2 defined by
with g < 2 all modes arrive earlier than the lowest order mode,
X -dnl
- - - X dA for g > 2 all modes arrive later. The width of the pulses can
Dt = - - be gleaned by lookingat thedifferent time scales of the figure,
n t dX 2A dX
but a much better impression is conveyed by Fig. 41 which
shows the rms pulsewidth(multipliedby c/L to render it
dimensionless) as afunction of the power-law exponent g.
The dotted curve was computed numerically using (53) with
By assuming that f(r) in (55) is independent of wavelength we D X= 0 and D 2 = 0. The solid curve represents the result of an
need to know only thewavelength dependence of n l and A. analytical evaluation that is applicable for power law profiles
Beforeproceeding tobandwidth calculations fromactual [61. The dash dotted curve in Fig. 41 represents a titanium-
measuredrefractiveindexprofiles we showsomeresultsfor doped fiber and takes material dispersion into account, it is
the idealized power law index profile shown only to demonstrate that material dispersion cannot be
neglected [ 6I .
The fiber bandwidth is obtained as the frequency at which
theFouriertransform of the impulseresponse decreases to
This profile is of great practical interest because maximum (or one half of its maximum amplitude. Fig. 42 shows the band-
near maximum) bandwidth can be obtained with profiles of width as a function of the power law exponent g. If the fiber
this general form with exponent values g near 2. Figs. 37 materials were not dispersive the maximum bandwidth would
through 40 show the shape of the impulse response for several beindependent of wavelength. For actual, dispersive fiber
different g-values. In all cases it was assumed that n 2 = 1.457 materials thebandwidth becomesafunction of wavelength
and n l - 112 = 0.02 and that the core radius is u = 30 pm (see and we may speak of a bandwidth spectrum 1861. The curve
Fig 10 for plots of some g profiles). The peculiar, jagged a p labeled A = 0 in Fig. 43 shows such a bandwidth spectrum for
Ge02 -doped
4- ArF0.02
g=1.9071
Zr N=10
c= 3 -
2 -
2
---
-THEORY
PROGRAM
-
s
IOh i.4 36
i8 20 2.2 2.4 26
e
A km)
Fig. 41. r m s pulsewidthtimesvelocity of light as a functionof the
power law exponent g. The dash-dot curve takes profile dispersion Fig. 43. Bandwidth spectrum of GeO,-doped fiberwith g = 1.9071
into account for a TiO, dopant. and effects of sinusoidal perturbation.
500
114968
A = 0.0435
I
x
id
8 :
c I
6 -
;
E
I
;-
-
m 2 -
6 -
:
0
4- i 5 IO 15
3-
U
2 -
Fig. 44. Bandwidth as a function of the number of periods of a sinu-
soidal perturbation addedt o an ideal index profde..
io2
1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.4
2.2 2.6
a
Fig. 42. Bandwidth of fiber as a function ofg, with no profile dispersion.
E
a germanium-doped fiber with a pure power-law profile whose f 800
exponent is g = 1.9071. Phosphorus-doped fibers have band- E
width spectra that aremorethantwice as wide, but highly z5
1600
doped phosphorus fibers are much harder to produce and are 2400
therefore not popular at the moment. s 200
We have seen that slight departures from the optimum index
profilelead toadramatic decrease of thefiberbandwidth. 0
1 2 3 4 5 6
This is true not only for departures of the optimum exponent
GERMANIUM-DOPED FIBERS
value of a pure power law profile, but it happens whenever the
Fig. 45. Comparison of predicted (shaded bars) and measured (solid
idealprofile is distorted in any way [43]. Sinusoidal per- bars) impulse responses of GeO, -dopedfiber.
turbations of the ideal power law profile as mentioned earlier,
forexample,causeasubstantialdecrease of thebandwidth
[ 81, [43]. This effect is shown in Fig. 44 where bandwidth is predict the performance of a fiber before it is put into acable
plotted as a function of the number of periods N of a sinu- or, if the prediction is based on the preform, even before the
soidal perturbation of the ideal index profile, up to N = 10. fiber is drawn. Fig. 45 demonstratesthatmeaningfulband-
The amplitude of the sinusoidal distortion is 1 percent of the width predictions of real fibers are possible. The blackbars
difference between the maximum core index and the cladding represent the results of direct bandwidth measurements [ 9 ] .
value. The effect on the ideal bandwidth spectrumof a N = 10 [87], [88]. The shaded bars are calculated using index pro-
perturbation for two different amplitudes is shown in Fig 43. files obtainedfromeitherend of thefiberbythe focusing
The main value of a computer program capableof computing method.Thefibersusedfor this comparisondidnot have
fiber bandwidth from refractiveindex profiles is its ability to plastic jackets. This is important since jackets tendto increase
fiber bandwidths by introducing microscopically small bends AppL Opt.,vol. 18,pp. 671-677,Mar. 1,1979.
(microbends) that couple-guided modes and thus improve the [22] P. L. Chu, “Nondestructive measurement of index profile of an
optical-fibrepreform,”Electron.Lett., vol. 13, pp. 736-738,
impulseresponse of the fibers. This improvedimpulseper- Nov. 24,1977.
formancedue to microbending of thefiber is one of the I231 C.A. Burrus and R.D. Standley, “Viewing refractive-index pro-
files and small-scale inhomogeneities in glass optical fibers: Some
reasons why bandwidthpredictions based on indexprofile techniques,”AppL Opt.,vol. 13,p. 2365, 1974.
measurements tend to come out low. Bandwidth calculations [24] T. D. McKinley, K. F. J. Heimich,and D. B. Wittry, Eds, The
from index profiles may thus be regarded as estimates of the [25] Electron Microprobe. New York: Wiley, 1966.
H. M. Presby, R. D. Standley, J. B. MacChesney, and P. B.
lowerlimit of expected fiber bandwidth, actual bandwidths O’Connor, “Material structure of germanium-doped optical fibers
are almost always higher. In addition to bandwidth improve- and preforms,”BenSyst Tech. J.,vol. 54,p. 1681,1975.
[26] M. D. Rigterink, “Materials systemsand fiber fabricationprocesses
ments due to microbending of the fiber, delay compensations in the USA,” in Tech. Dig. , Topical Meet. Optical Fiber Trans-
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J. B. MacChesney, P.B. O’Connor,and H. M. Presby,“Anew
of the fiber. Such gradual changes do not cause mode coupling [27] technique for the preparation of low-loss and graded-index opti-
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[29] W.G. French, A. D. Pearson, G.W. Tasker,and J. B. MacChesney,
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666 PROCEEDINGS

IEEE, OF THE VOL. 68, NO. 6 , JUNE 1980

Index Profile Measurements of Fibers and

A h m c t - l h e refractive index distriiution in the core of amulthnode I. INTRODUCTION

can bemade even longerand-insomefibertypes-become PLASTIC JACKET

Rg. 3. Schematic diagram of modified

rotated while reactants, usuallySiCl4, and dopant reactants

In addition, as will be seen, the refractive index is not uni-

2 as a superposition of locally plane waves whose propagation

g 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

tween the refractive index distribution n ( r ) of the coreand z

Fig. 14. Alternate arrangement for near-field method.

Ifwedesignate the volumeelementbysubscripts1and2, of(l1)

Fig. 15. Ray trajectories considered in analysis of refracted near-field

111- n z must be obtained by some other means. We can use

Using (27) we can express the minimum angle Okin in terms of

this section, is conceptually the simpler and more accurate of

Fig. 2 0 Automatic video analysis system for refractive-index profiling

-30 -20 -10 0 +O 20 30

Fig. 22. Refractive-indexprofde of graded index fiberandbest fit g

plotter. A typical refractive index plot is reproduced in Fig.

Fig. 24. Output field of interferencemicroscopeobservingfiber by

index. In the transverse method the situation is more compli-

L= 1;’ n(s) ds. (36)

G. The Focusing Method

Because the refractive-index distribution is a function of the Y

of fiber as observed by focusing method

showing digitization scheme.

Fig. 29. Comparison of the refractive-index profde of a fiber obtained

Rg. 31. Automaticvideoanalysissystemapplied t o preform prof&

BUCKGEF. WH& REF.

-2.40 -160 -0.80 0.- 0.80 160 2.40

-2.40 -L60 0.80 6 0.80 l.60 2.40

Fig. 34. Comparison of preformrefractiveindexprofileobtainedby

Multimode fibers suffer from modal dispersion because the

TIME DELAY 1MICR.SECIKM) TIME DELAY 1MICR.SECIKM)

I n 1 I - 8 ~ 1 0 - 3 4x10-3 o 4x40-3 8x10-3

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