Exploiting the image of the surface reflectivity to measure refractive index profiling for various optical fibers

Abstract

A direct image method of surface reflectivities on a cleaved fiber end with a filtered halogen lamp and a TE-cooled CCD with high dynamic range is proposed to measure the multi-wavelength refractive index profiling (RIP). A polished black glass is used to be a reference standard for measuring the absolute reflectivity of the fiber end. With the developed calibration procedures, both the spatially dependent sensitivity and spectral responsivity of the CCD pixels can be eliminated to achieve the high spatial accuracy. Tested fiber is connected with a fiber terminator to prevent errors from the backside return light. With the present method, the RIP can be precisely measured for not only multi-mode fibers but also single-mode fibers. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America