JAIPUR ENGINEERING COLLEGE & RESEARCH CENTER

EXPERIMENT

4
FOBJECT

To measure the numerical aperture of an optical fiber.

FAPPARATUS
Optical fiber, Circuit board or a Bread board containing fiber optic
analogue transmitters and fiber optic analogue receiver circuits and IC regulated
D.C. power supply
FTHEORY AND FORMULA
If a light ray is incident an one of the fiber at an angle of a with the normal.
Then it follows from the snell's law

n 0 sin a = n1 sin b .....(4.1)

Where h0 is the refractive index of the medium outside (air). The optical
fiber if n1 andn 2 are the refractive indices of the material of the core and the
cladding then for angle of incidence g at the cladding layer
æn ö
g ³ i c = sin -1 ç 2 ÷ .....(4.2)
çn ÷
è 1ø
n2
as sin i c = , .....(4.3)
n1

at angle of critical incidence– i c

And numerical aperture (NA) of the fiber is given by
2 2
NA = n1 – n 2 .....(4.4)

n1 – n 2
@ n1 2( ) .....(4.5)
n1
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One can explore that for all practical purposes the numerical aperture is
equivalent to the expression :
W
NA = ....(4.6)
( 4L +W 2 )1/ 2
2

Where L is the distance on the JIG* where light emergent from the optical
fiber. And W is the spread of the light spot observed on the screen. See Figure (4.3)
depicting L and W.
FFIGURES

Figure 4.1 : Cross-section of Figure 4.2 : Construction of an optical

an optical fiber. fiber.

Figure 4.3 : Schematic diagram of optical fiber testing circuit.

*A platform on which observations could be made at different positions.

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Figure: 4.4 (a) Communication by total internal reflection.

Figure:4.4 (b) Transmission through optical fiber.

Figure 4.5 (a) : Fiber optic analogue transmiter circuit.

Figure 4.5 (b) : Fiber optic analogue receiver circuit.

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FPROCEDURE
(1) Connect one end of the optical cable to LED part of the circuit board
(or it could be circuit on a bread board) and the other end to the N.A.
JIG (see Figure. (4.3).
(2) Turn the wavelengths selector switch to 660 nm /850 nm position.
(3) Plug the circuit (board) to AC mains and switch it on. The light should
appear at the other end of the optical fiber on the NA JIG. Adjust the
LED current to the maximum.
(4) Put a white screen with concentric circles C a white screen can be pre-
pared on a plastic/ metal sheet with concentric circles drawn on it)
with diameter 10, 15, 20, 30 mm.
(5) The position of the light spot coincides with one of the circles.
(6) Record L, the distance on the JIG (between fiber end point and the screen)
and the diameter (W) of spot.
(7) Compute Numerical Aperture (NA) from the formula :
W
NA = sin q max =
( 4L +W 2 )1/ 2
2

(8) Repeat this procedure and write your observations in the table.
FOBSERVATIONS
Table: 4.1
S. No. L(mm) W (mm) NA q (degrees)
1.

2.

3.

FCALCULATIONS
(A) Compute NA from the formula :
W
Numerical Aperture =
(4L + W 2 )½
2
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FRESULT
The numerical aperture of the given optical fiber (at 660 nm light) = -------
Note : The numerical aperture (at 660 nm) of a typical optical fiber should
be ~ 0.5 (i.e.<<1).

FPRECAUTIONS
1. Attach the fiber optical cord properly.
2. Distinguish the outer and inner pink light spots and thus make
measurement of 'W'.
3. Make sure that the wave-length selected is 660 nm. As the wave-length
850 nm corresponds to IR rays and detection mechanism for which is
altogether different.

FPRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Optical fibers are the means of communication at the speed of light. Not only
the communication (audio/video) takes place at the speed of light, but also an
excellent band-width is available for communication and electronic data
transmission–
1. Applications in Communication:–Optical fibers have a capacity of
transmitting ~3500 channels at a time to a distant place.
2. In Medical Science:– There are various applications of optical fibers
in Medical Science:
(a) Instrument attached with optical fibers is used to diagnose ulcer
in the stomach of a patient. It is known as Fibroscope.
Fibroscopes are extensively used in endoscopic diagnostics.
(b) LASER beam guided by the fibers is used in the retinal surgery of
eyes.
(c) In Cardiology, LASER angioplasty is being developed as substitue
of balloon angioplasty and by-pass surgery.
3. Optical Fiber Sensors:– Optical fibers are also used in smoke detectors
and pollution detectors.
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FCRITICISM
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FVIVA-VOCE
1. What is optical fiber?
Ans. Optical fiber is a medium made of ultra pure cylindrical fiber glass/plastic
through which optical signal is transmitted.
2. On what principle it is based?
Ans. It is based on the phenomenon-total internal reflection.
3. What are the various sections/parts of optical fiber?
Ans. Physically, an optical fiber is a very thin and flexible medium having a
cylindrical shape, consisting of three sections (Figure (4.1) core, cladding
and protective jacket.
(a) Core: The core is the innermost section having diameter
approximately 5µm-100µm. The fibers are generally silica (SiO2)
based.
(b) The Cladding: The core is surrounded by cladding of slightly lower
refracted index. Diameter is usually 125 µm.
(c) The Protective Jacket: The outermost section is called the jacket
consisting of primary coating followed by another layer i.e.
secondary coating. These are made of plastic or polymer and is
provided for protection against moisture, abberastion , crushing
and other environmental damages.
4. Why ultra pure glass is required in the fiber optic cable?
Ans. Because a tiny impurity in the fiber optic cable could cause the light pulse
to lose some of the information that it is carrying.
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5. What are the differences between optical fiber cable and copper cable.
Ans. Traditional copper cable transmits information by means of electrons.
Whereas in fiber optic cable the information is transmitted in the form of
light signals.
6. What are the advantages of optical fiber cable over traditional copper
cable ?
Ans. Fiber optic technology works by using long strands of generated light im-
pulses that contain information signals. Optical fiber can do more than what
copper wire or radio waves can do because.
– They have large band width
– They are smaller and lighter for the same information carrying capacity.
– They have improved security.
– In addition, with a device called an optical coupler, a single fiber can
transmit at the same time in both directions.
7. What type of information can be sent through fiber optic cable?
Ans. Through fiber optic cables video, audio, speech, text material and computer
data can be transmitted.
8. What is the purpose of cladding ?
Ans. The purpose of cladding is to make the light to be confined to the core, so
the refractive index of cladding is always lower than that of the core n
cladding core.
9. What is acceptance angle ?
Ans. The maximum angle that a light ray can have relative to the or is of the fiber
and propagate down the fiber. This angle is a measure of the light gathering
power of the fiber.
i max = sin -1æç n 2core - n clad
2 ö÷
è ø
10. What is the acceptance of core ?
Ans. The light rays contained with the cone having full angle limits are accepted
and transmitted along the fiber. The large the diameter of the core, the large
the acceptance angle.
11. What is Numerical aperture ?
Ans. It is measure of amount of light that can be accepted ( and transmitted) by a
fiber. Alternatively:
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NA could be defined as the effective physical area that light must enter
in order to propagate through the fiber.
12. On what factors it depends ?
Ans. It depends only on the refractive indices of core & cladding materials.
13. What is the fractional refractive index change (D) ?
Ans. It is the ratio of difference between the refractive indices of the core and
cladding to the refractive index of core. It is expressed as
n - n clad
D = core
n core
14. What is the relation between (D) and N.A. ?
Ans. N.A. = n core 2D
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