End effects in optical fibres

Allington-Smith, J.; Dunlop, C.; Lemke, U.; Murray, G.

Abstract

The performance of highly multiplexed spectrographs is limited by focal ratio degradation (FRD) in the optical fibres. It has already been shown that this is caused mainly by processes concentrated around the mounting points at the ends of the fibres. We use the thickness of rings produced in the far-field when a fibre is illuminated by a collimated beam, to estimate the size of the region where the FRD is generated. This requires the development of a new model, using features of existing ray-tracing and wave-based models, which fits existing data very well. The results suggest that the amount of FRD is primarily determined by the length of fibre bonded into the supporting ferrule. We point out the implications for the production of future fibre systems.

Citation

Allington-Smith, J., Dunlop, C., Lemke, U., & Murray, G. (2013). End effects in optical fibres. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 436(4), 3492-3499. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt1842

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 25, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Oct 29, 2013
• Publication Date: Dec 21, 2013
• Deposit Date: Mar 22, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 22, 2016
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Royal Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 436
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 3492-3499
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt1842
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1385753
• Related Public URLs: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013MNRAS.436.3492A