Experiment No.

Numerical aperture of optical fibre

Aim:
To find the numerical aperture of a given optic fibre.

Equipment Needed: Circuit board, milliammeter, power cords & fibre optic cable etc

Theory:

Optical fiber is one of the important elements in an optical fiber link. The performance of the
link depends upon the attenuation and dispersion properties of optical fiber, which in turn are
function of the input power carried by the cabled fiber. Considered propagation of light in an
optical fiber, the condition of total internal reflection at the core-cladding interface is
necessary. Therefore, for rays to be transmitted by total internal reflection within the fiber
core they must be incident on the fiber core within an acceptance cone defined by the conical
half angle (θ). Thus, θ is the maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter the fiber in
order to be propagated and is often referred to as the acceptance angle for the fiber. A more
generally used term, the numerical aperture relates the acceptance angle and refractive
indices of the three media involved (the core, cladding and air) and is a basic descriptive
characteristic of a specific optical fiber. It represents the size or degree of openness of the
input acceptance cone. Mathematically it is defined as the sine half angle of the acceptance
cone and is a very useful measure of light-collecting ability of a fiber. In straight fiber, ideally
a ray launched at angle a at the input end should come out at the same angle a from output
end. Therefore, the far field at the output end will also appear as a cone of semi angle θ
emanating from the fiber end.

Formula Used:

Numerical Aperture is defined as the Sine of half of the angle of fibre’s light acceptance
cone. i.e. NA= Sin θa where θa, is called acceptance cone angle.

Or Numerical aperture is defined as the sine of the acceptance angle.

NA = sin (acceptance angle)

W
NA =
√ 4 L2 +W 2
Where L is the distance between the fiber end and screen and w is the diameter of the laser
beam spot.

Diagram:

Procedure.

1. Connect one end of the cable one to the 660nm L.E.D. FO connector of Tx Unit and
other end to the NA jig as shown in the above figure.

2. Plug the AC mains Turn the Po knob to clockwise direction to set maximum P0. The
light intensity should increase at the end of the fiber on the NA Jig.

3. Hold the white scale-screen, provided in the Kit vertically at a distance of 15mm(L)
from the emitting fiber end and view the red spot on the screen (A dark room is
necessary to facilitate a good contrast). Now measure the maximum diameter(W) of
the spot.

4. Compute NA from the formula NA = W / (4L²+W²)½.

5. Repeat the experiment at 10mm, 20mm and 25mm distances and tabulate the readings
in the table.

Observation Table:
−1
NO. L(mm) W (mm) NA θ=sin NA

5
 6

Result:

Numerical aperture of the optic fiber is = ………………….

Precautions:

1. Mounting and coupling should be carefully done.

2. Glass optical fibers are thin, delicate and should be handled carefully.

3. Care should be taken so that laser light should not directly fall into the eye.

4. As far as possible, experiment should be conducted in dark room environment.

Aim: To study various types of losses that occur in optical fibre and measure losses in dB of
optical fibre patch chords.

Equipment Needed: Circuit board, milliammeter, power cords & fibre optic cable etc

Diagram:

Procedure.

1. Connect the one end of the FO cable to FO TX660nm and the other end to FO power
meter.
2. Set the digital multimeter to the 200mV. Turn the DMM on. The power meter is now
ready for use.
3. Plug the AC mains. Connect the optical fibre patch chord securely as shown. Relieve
all the twists and stain in the fibre cable (1m/3m/5m) ensure that it is as straight as
possible.
4. Adjust the output power knob such that DMM will read 140mV. Note this as A.
5. Wing one turn of the fiber on the mandel, hold it firmly and note the reading of the
optical power meter in table as B.
6. Now the loss due to bending is B-A.
7. Repeat the experiment for different Po values say 150dB, 160 dB respectively.
8. Similarly repeat the steps 1 to 10 for 3mtr & 4 mtr cable.

Observation Table: For Bending Loss

S.No. Output power Output power Bending loss

2 150
 3 160

For Transmission Loss

S.No. Output Output power Output power Loss in 1m Loss in 3m

Result:

1. Bending losses occurred in optical fibre studied and measured losses in dB of fibre optic
cable is found to be ………………….
2. Transmission losses occurred in optical fibre studied and measured losses in dB of fibre
optic cable of length 1m is found to be ………………….
3. Transmission losses occurred in optical fibre studied and measured losses in dB of fibre
optic cable of length 3m is found to be ………………….