Two-dimensional scanning focused refractive-index microscopy and applications to refractive-index profiling of optical fibers

Xiaowan Wang; Qing Ye; Tengqian Sun; Jin Wang; Zhichao Deng; Jianchun Mei; Wenyuan Zhou; Chunping Zhang; Jianguo Tian

doi:10.1063/1.4905179

Two-dimensional scanning focused refractive-index microscopy and applications to refractive-index profiling of optical fibers

Rev Sci Instrum. 2015 Jan;86(1):013702. doi: 10.1063/1.4905179.

Authors

Xiaowan Wang¹, Qing Ye¹, Tengqian Sun¹, Jin Wang¹, Zhichao Deng¹, Jianchun Mei², Wenyuan Zhou¹, Chunping Zhang¹, Jianguo Tian¹

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory of Weak-Light Nonlinear Photonics, Ministry of Education, School of Physics and TEDA Applied Physics School, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
² Advanced Technology Institute, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.

PMID: 25638085
DOI: 10.1063/1.4905179

Abstract

The refractive-index profile (RIP) of optical fibers is of fundamental significance in determining critical fiber properties. Here, we present the application of a two-dimensional (2-D) scanning focused refractive-index microscopy (SFRIM) to accurately obtain the 2-D RIP of a graded-index optical fiber. Some modifications are made to SFRIM for better 2-D measurement. Quantitative RIP of the fiber is obtained with derivative total reflection method. The refractive-index accuracy is 0.002. The measured result is in good agreement with theoretical expectation. This method is straightforward, simple, repeatable, and free from signal distortion. This technique is suitable for symmetric and asymmetric optical fibers. The results indicate that this technique can be applied to obtain the RIPs of a wide range of materials and has broad application prospect in many fields.