3.1.

1 Step index fibres

Step

index

fibres

are

the

most

used

fibres

in

fields

other

than

telecommunications. They are relatively cheap and they have the widest range of
core diameters: basically from 50 m up to 2 mm. The material may be plastic,
liquid

or

glass.

Plastic fibres are not wide used nowadays; their optical transmission is poor and
the core relatively big (0.5 to 2 mm). The most efficient fibres are made in acrylic
and they are mainly used for short length telecommunication networks. In spite
of their limited performances, new developments in plastic fibres might open
applications in the field of high speed home networks (Gigabit/s). New polymers
are being proposed with attenuations approaching the silica fibres.
Most common step index fibres are made in silica glass (core and cladding)
because of its high optical transmission in a very broad spectral range. However
during the manufacturing of fibres some contaminants remain in the glass which
alters its transmission. The most difficult to remove are OH radicals. A large
amount of these radicals generate absorption bands in the near IR range (726nm,
880nm, 950nm, 1136nm mainly) but fortunately leave a high transmission in the
near UV region that is close to the theoretical limit (Rayleigh dispersion). High
purity silica fibres with low amounts of OH contaminants greatly reduce these
absorption peaks in the near IR. However, crystalline structures appear while
manufacturing preventing a good transmission in the UV range.
Fibre manufactures like Polymicro offer new fibres with high transmission in a
very broad spectral range. Curve FVP in Figure 1 shows the typical internal
transmission of all silica fibre with high contents of OH radicals. Most all-silica
fibres show this transmission since the preform or the bulk of silica where the
fibre is pulled come from the same manufacturer (Heraeus mainly). During the

manufacturing process, the new FBP fibre is treated in order to substantially

reduce the absorption bands in the near IR.

Figure 1. Internal transmission of FVP and FBP fibres. Length = 20 m.

Silica fibres transmit up to around = 2 m while fibres made with fluoride

glasses may extend this limit up to 4 m for few meters. These fluoride fibres are
used basically in astronomical interferometers but they are very expensive and
fragile. They might be useful in IR amateur spectroscopy in the future.
3.1.2 Gradient index
Gradient fibres are widely used in telecommunications, they are inexpensive and
easy to procure. However, as far as we know, never for astronomical
instrumentation. There is a common belief among instrumentalists that gradient
fibres show low transmission in the blue region. This argument is supported by
the fact that these fibres need to be doped to create the axial gradient index, but

we have never seen published a transmission curve in a wide spectral range. Most
manufactures just announce the attenuation for few wavelengths in the near IR.
We have measured the internal transmission in one of these fibres and found
acceptable

results for amateur

purposes. Figure

2 shows the internal

transmission in a standard gradient index fibre of 10 m. If we compare to the step

index fibres (Figure 1), the transmission is not very different and in any case
totally suitable for amateur applications.

Figure 2. Internal trasnmission of a graded index fibre

Another argument against gradient index fibres is that most of them are made in
only two standard diameters (50 and 65.2 m). This range of diameters is best
suitable for medium size telescopes (2 3 m). Therefore the designing
capabilities to link other telescopes to spectrographs are limited. In the field of
small telescopes these fibres are huge but still they can be used for low resolution
spectrographs and/or for bad seeing conditions.
It is also important to point out that the photometric distribution on the fibre
output end is very sensitive to any variation of the spot position on the input end

and F/# of the incoming beam. Figure 3 shows the output fibre end for different
input illumination conditions. We see that his kind of fibre is not a good
photometrical scrambler. However, for amateur purposes this feature is not
relevant.

Figure 3. Images of the output end of a gradient index fibre. The injection illumination conditions
are different

About the focal ratio degradation (FRD, see Section 4.4), the refraction index
variation in the fibre core practically destroys the information of the input
aperture (F/#). Figure 3 a shows the FRD measurements in a 3 m gradient
index fibre. If an F/2.3 beam is injected into the fibre, 80% of the flux (relative to
the total flux emerging from the fibre) will be collected inside an F/2.3 output
beam. For an input-output F/5 beam, the relative efficiency is only 38% !
Therefore this type of fibre is only useful for very fast apertures ! (< F/4 ). In
order to couple it to a telescope with apertures lower than F/4, a focal reducer
lens is mandatory.

Figure 3a. FRD in a gradient index fibre

Our advice for amateur applications is to use the graded index fibres for testing
purposes or temporary solutions.