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Influence of Numerical Aperture on Mode

Coupling in Step-Index Plastic Optical Fibers

Article in Applied Optics November 2004

DOI: 10.1364/AO.43.005542 Source: PubMed

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Influence of numerical aperture on mode coupling
in step-index plastic optical fibers

Svetislav Savovic and Alexandar Djordjevich

Using the power-flow equation, we have examined the state of mode coupling in step-index plastic optical
fibers with different numerical apertures. Our results confirm that the coupling rates vary with the
coupling coefficient of the fibers as the dominant parameter, especially in the early stage of coupling near
the input fiber end. However, we show that the fibers numerical aperture has a significant influence on
later stages of this process. Consequently, equilibrium mode distribution and steady-state distribution
are achieved at overall fiber lengths that depend on both of these factors. As one of our examples
demonstrates, it is possible for the coupling length of a high-aperture fiber to be similar to that of a
low-aperture fiber despite the three-times-larger coupling coefficient of the former. 2004 Optical
Society of America
OCIS codes: 060.2310, 060.2400.

1. Introduction the core cladding boundary, and fluctuations in

Plastic optical fibers POFs, especially polymethyl
methacrylate-core POFs, are often considered for use
as high-performance fiber links at very short dis-
tances with maxima of approximately 100 m. They
possess important advantages over their glass coun-
terparts. Specifically, POFs may be manufactured
with large core diameters 0.51 mm or larger, al-
lowing for interconnections with low-precision plastic
components and reducing the overall cost of the sys-
tem. POFs have excellent flexibility and are more
easily handled than glass fibers. They impose less-
stringent constraints on the light source, and even
luminescent diodes are suitable sources for multi-
mode fibers. Hence a variety of POF applications,
from simple light-transmission guides in displays to
sensors and short-haul communication links, have
been developed and commercialized.
Transmission characteristics of step-index SI
POFs depend strongly on the rate of mode coupling
power transfer from lower- to higher-order modes
caused by intrinsic perturbation effects which are
due primarily to microscopic bends, irregularity of
The authors are with the City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat
Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. A. Djordjevichs
e-mail address is mealex@cityu.edu.hk.
Received 20 November 2003; revised manuscript received 19
June 2004; accepted 9 July 2004.
0003-693504295542-05$15.000
2004 Optical Society of America
refractive-index distribution. Light launched at a
specific angle with respect to the fiber axis will form
a sharply defined ring radiation pattern at the output
end of only a short fiber. Because of mode coupling,
the boundary edges of such a ring becomes fuzzy at
the end of a longer fiber. Up to a coupling length Lc
from the input fiber end, the extent of this fuzziness
increases further with fiber length, and the ring pat-
tern evolves gradually into a disk extending across
the entire fiber cross section. An equilibrium mode
distribution EMD exists beyond coupling length Lc
of the fiber. It is characterized by the absence of
rings even though the disk pattern may have a dif-
ferent light distribution across the fiber section, de-
pending on the launch condition. An EMD indicates
substantially complete mode coupling for most prac-
tical purposes for example, a unique coefficient of
transmission loss may then be assigned1. At dis-
tance zs zs Lc from the input fiber end, all indi-
vidual disk patterns that correspond to different
launch angles take the same light distribution across
the fiber section, and steady-state distribution SSD
is achieved. SSD indicates the completion of mode
coupling.
Mode coupling reduces modal dispersion, allowing
for increased bandwidths of local area networks.2 It
increases the amount of power radiated in fiber
curves or bends,3 however, significantly changing the
output fields properties and degrading beam quality.
These consequences are difficult to predict intuitively
and have a particular importance for power delivery

5542 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 43, No. 29 10 October 2004

and sensory systems. The situation is perhaps most employed in our earlier research.9 To start the cal-
dramatic when one is measuring the deformation culations we used a Gaussian launch-beam distribu-
curvatures of structures under mechanical loading,4 tion of the form
because the mechanism of mode coupling interferes

with signal modulation. This is but one example of
the need for an effective means of calculating the rate
of mode coupling, such as we present in this paper.
Use of geometric optics ray approximation to in-
vestigate mode coupling and to predict output-field
patterns has been reported.5 Employing the power-
flow equation6 11 as well as the FokkerPlanck equa-
tion and the Langevin equation12 has yielded
predictions of these patterns as a function of launch
conditions and fiber length. Coupling length Lc for
achieving the EMD, the transition states along Lc, as
well as length zs for achieving the SSD are deter-
mined here by solution of the power-flow equation for
SI POFs with various numerical apertures investi-
gated earlier by Losada et al.3
2. Power-Flow Equation
Gloges power-flow equation is6
0
P, z exp , (4)
2 2
with 0 c, where 0 is the mean value of the
incidence angle distribution, with a FWHM of
22 ln 2 2.355 is the standard deviation.
This distribution is suitable for both LED and laser
beams.
3. Numerical Solution
In this paper we analyze mode coupling in three SI
POFs with different numerical apertures NAs used
in the experiment reported above.3 Each of the
three SI POFs had a 1-mm-diameter polymethyl-
methacrylate core. The standard high-NA S-HNA
fiber, HFBR-RUS500 from Hewlett-Packard, has a

NA of 0.47 with an attenuation of 0.22 dBm. PGU-
P, z D P, z CD1001-22E fiber from Toray has a similarly high
P, z , (1) NA, 0.5. It is an upper-grade high-NA U-HNA fi-
z
ber with a lower attenuation of 0.18 dBm. PMU-
where P, z is the angular power distribution; z is CD1002-22-E fiber, also from Toray and with an
the distance from the input end of the fiber; is the improved bandwidth, has a low NA LNA of 0.32 and
propagation angle with respect to the core axis; D is an attenuation of 0.20 dBm. In all cases the refrac-
the coupling coefficient, assumed constant7,8; and tive index of the core is n1 1.492. The number of
is the modal attenuation. The boundary conditions modes at 665 nm is3 N 22a2NA22 2.8,
are Pc, z 0, where c is the critical angle of the 2.5, 1.1 106 for the U-HNA, S-HNA, and LNA
fiber, and DP 0 at 0. Condition Pc, z fibers, respectively. These large numbers of modes
0 implies that modes with infinitely high loss do may be represented by a continuum, as required for
not carry power. Condition DP 0 at 0 application of Eq. 2. Coupling coefficient D is re-
indicates that the coupling is limited to the modes quired in that equation. We found that D 8.7,
propagating with 0. 3.3, 2.8 104 rad2m for the S-HNA, U-HNA, and
Except near cutoff, the attenuation remains uni- LNA fibers, respectively,3 values that we have
form at 0 throughout the region of guided adopted in this study.
modes, 0 c Ref. 8; it appears in the solution as Figures 13 illustrate our numerical solution of the
multiplication factor exp0 z, which also does not power-flow equation by showing the evolution of the
depend on . Therefore need not be accounted normalized output power distribution with fiber
for when one is solving Eq. 1 for mode coupling, and length. We show results for four input angles 0
that equation reduces to8,9 0, 5, 10, 15 for the S-HNA and U-HNA fibers and
for three input angles 0 0, 5, 10 for the LNA
P, z D P, z 2P, z fiber measured inside the fiber. Input angles near
D . (2) critical values of c 19.5, 18.4, and 12.4 for the
z 2
U-HNA, S-HNA, and LNA fibers, respectively, have
The solution of Eq. 2 for the steady-state power not been included because attenuation constant
distribution is given by8 cannot be neglected near the critical angles13 when

the original power-flow equation 1 has to be solved.
We selected a Gaussian launch-beam distribution
P, z J 0 2.405 exp 0 z, (3) with a FWHM of 2.5 by setting 1.06 in Eq. 4.
c
Fiber length z was incremented from zero until the
where J0 is a Bessel function of the first kind and zero SSD was achieved. A new curve or graph of the type
order and where 0 m1 2.4052Dc2 is the atten- shown in Fig. 1 was obtained for every increment in
uation coefficient. We used this solution to test our variable z. The peak of the intensity distribution
numerical results for a fiber length at which the decreased and its width increased with each step.
power distribution becomes independent of the To facilitate easier comparisons, we normalized every
launch conditions. peak before each new step. We used step lengths
To obtain a numerical solution of power-flow equa- 0.05 and z 0.0002 m to achieve stability of
tion 2 we used the explicit finite-difference method our finite-difference scheme.9,14

10 October 2004 Vol. 43, No. 29 APPLIED OPTICS 5543

Fig. 1. Normalized output angular power distribution at several Fig. 3. Normalized output angular power distribution at several
locations along the S-HNA fiber calculated for four Gaussian input locations along the U-HNA fiber calculated for four Gaussian input
angles 0: 0 solid curves, 5 dashed curves, 10 dotted angles 0: 0 solid curves, 5 dashed curves, 10 dotted
curves, and 15 dashed dotted curves with a FWHM of 2.5 for curves, and 15 dashed dotted curves with a FWHM of 2.5 for
z 4, 10, 15, 45 m squares represent the analytical steady-state z 4, 15, 35, 100 m squares represent the analytical steady-state
solution. solution.

4. Results
The radiation patterns for three different fibers are
shown in Figs. 13. It is not until the fiber coupling
lengths Lc as shown in Figs. 1c, 2c, and 3c are
achieved that all the mode distributions shift their
midpoints to 0 from the initial value of 0 at the
input fiber end, producing the EMD at Lc 15, 18,
35 m for the S-HNA, LNA, and U-HNA fibers, respec-
tively. The coupling continues further along the fi-
ber beyond the Lc mark until all distributions widths
equalize and the SSD is reached at length zs in Figs.
Fig. 2. Normalized output angular power distribution at several
locations along the LNA fiber calculated for three Gaussian input
angles 0: 0 solid curves, 5 dashed curves, and 10 dotted
curves with a FWHM of 2.5 for z 4, 10, 18, 50 m squares
represent the analytical steady-state solution.
1d, 2d, and 3d: zs 45, 50, 100 m for the
S-HNA, LNA, and U-HNA fibers, respectively.
For the S-HNA, LNA, and U-HNA fibers, respec-
tively, Figs. 1d, 2d, and 3d show normalized
curves of the output angular distribution obtained by
the power-flow equation by the explicit finite-
difference method solid curves as well as the steady-
state analytical solution of Eq. 2 squares, where
0 0.01567, 0.00748, 0.00561 m1. The two solu-
tions are in good agreement, with the relative error
below 0.2%. As shown in our earlier research,9
these reasonably small relative errors for the largest
fiber lengths analyzed demonstrate further that the
explicit finite-difference method used is a sufficiently
accurate and effective method for solving the power-
flow equation.
Based on Figs. 13, the rate of mode coupling is
highest for the short S-HNA fiber in Fig. 1a as had
been determined previously in experiments with
power loss in 4-m long fibers3. This fiber also had
the highest coupling coefficient, D 8.7 104
rad2m. The LNA and U-HNA fibers exhibited vir-
tually identical but lower initial coupling rates be-
cause they have mutually similar but lower coupling
coefficients: D 2.8 104, 3.3 104 rad2m,
respectively. Whereas it was expected that the
higher coupling coefficient would lead to higher cou-
pling rates, such is not necessarily true for longer
fiber lengths, as we demonstrate next.
Despite the similar coupling coefficients of the LNA
and U-HNA fibers, these fibers have significantly dif-
ferent coupling lengths Lc for the EMD and zs for
the SSD: Lc 18 m and zs 50 m for LNA and
Lc 35 m and zs 100 m for U-HNA Figs. 2c and
2d and Figs. 3c and 3d, respectively. The rea-
son for this is that the fibers NAs differ substantially.

5544 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 43, No. 29 10 October 2004

Table 1. Coupling Length Lc and Length zs for Achieving Steady-State
Mode Distribution for Fibers with Several NAs and Mode Coupling
Coefficients D
Fiber Type NA D rad2m 104 Lc m zs m
S-HNA 0.47 8.7 15
HNAa 0.51 5.62 20
U-HNA 0.5 3.3 35
LNA 0.32 2.8 18
a
Refs. 9 and 15.
The greater the NA, the higher the participation rate
of higher-order modes, which require longer fiber
lengths for completion of the coupling process.
Conversely, for fibers with similar coupling coeffi-
cients, the lower the NA, the shorter the coupling
length.
Despite the significantly larger coupling coefficient
D for the S-HNA fiber 8.7 104 rad2m compared
with the LNA fiber 2.8 104 rad2m, however, the
respective coupling lengths Lc and zs differ relatively
little Lc, 15 compared with 18 m; zs, 45 compared
with 50 m, respectively, for the two fibers Figs. 1c
and 1d and Figs. 2c and 2d. Whereas S-HNA
fiber with its large coupling coefficient could be ex-
pected to have substantially shorter coupling lengths
than LNA fiber, this difference was offset by its sig-
nificantly larger NA 0.47 compared with 0.32 that
supports more higher-order modes, which do not cou-
ple so readily.
Finally, coupling length Lc and length zs for S-HNA
and LNA fibers are similar to the values of Lc 20 m
and zs 50 m obtained earlier9,15 for a 1-mm POF
with a NA of 0.51 and coupling coefficient D 5.62
104 rad2m. For that fiber and the three analyzed
in this paper, the relevant numerical values are sum-
marized in Table 1 to facilitate easier comparisons.
An ideal comparison of the influence of the NA
would require that this parameter be varied while
other relevant factors the coupling coefficient in par-
ticular remained constant. Given the impractical-
ity of this proposition for real fibers, we resorted to
computer experiments to isolate the influence of NA.
Figure 4 shows how the coupling length Lc of the
three fibers analyzed in this paper would vary with
NA for a fixed value of coupling coefficient D. Filled
Fig. 4. Variation of a fibers coupling length with its NA. Filled
markers represent the actual POFs. Lines are drawn for visual
aid.
markers on these curves represent the actual fibers.
In all cases, coupling length Lc increases with NA.
The rise is steeper for lower coupling coefficients.
It should be noted that the coupling lengths for all
SI POFs reported in this paper are much shorter than
45
those for plastic-clad silica fibers Lc 550 m, zs
50
100
1400 m.10,16 These coupling lengths are even
50 longer for all-glass optical fibers, extending typically
to a range of several kilometers.17 This result is a
consequence of weaker intrinsic perturbation effects
and hence of lower coupling coefficients in glass
fibers.
5. Conclusions
We have reported the solution of the power-flow equa-
tion employed to investigate the state of mode cou-
pling along a number of step-index plastic optical
fibers with different numerical apertures. For a
range of input conditions, results have been pre-
sented in a graphic form to show the evolution of the
fibers output angular distribution with fiber length.
These results have been verified against the analyt-
ical solution for the steady-state coupling condition.
They are also consistent with experimental observa-
tions reported in the literature.
We confirm that in the vicinity of the input fiber
end the mode-coupling process is governed by the
coupling coefficient as the dominant parameter.
However, we show that the coupling lengths lengths
at which the equilibrium or steady-state distribu-
tions are achieved depend also on the fibers NA.
We demonstrate that even with a three times-larger
coupling coefficient a high-aperture fiber may have a
coupling length similar to that of a low-aperture fiber.
Conversely, we show how fibers with similar values of
their coupling coefficients, depending on their NAs,
may have different coupling lengths. In general, the
higher the NA, the longer the fiber lengths that are
required for completing the coupling process. This
can be viewed as a consequence of the greater partic-
ipation rate of higher-order modes in higher-aperture
fibers, yet such modes do not couple so readily. Fea-
tures of three selected optical fibers have been ex-
trapolated to show the variation of their coupling
lengths with NA.
In short, we have shown how the NA of a fiber
influences the coupling lengths for achieving equilib-
rium and steady-state mode distributions. Such in-
formation is of interest for application of plastic
optical fibers in local area networks and in designing
fiber optic sensors.
The research described in this paper was fully sup-
ported by a grant from the Research Grants Council
of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,
China project 9040587 CityU 103301E.
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