Transmission characteristics of graded-index fibers

The use of graded-index fibers for optical communication systems is now under consideration for numerous civil and military applications, and in these either LED or laser sources can be developed. The bandwidth of the system depends on the source linewidth, the dispersion of refractive index in the fiber, the strength of excitation of the modes by the source, and the extent of mode mixing caused, by example, by microbending. In fibers with refractive-index profiles that have a nearly parabolic dependence upon radius, pulse broadening is a slight, but small departures from an optimum profile can cause a dramatic decrease in bandwidth. It is of considerable importance to predict the bandwidth of fibers from a knowledge of the refractive-index profile and source geometry. The purpose of the first part of this paper is to compare two computational methods by which the propagation characteristics of a fiber, hence the impulse response and system bandwidth, may be determined. In the second part, we shall describe a computer program that determines the excitation of modes in an arbitrarily graded refractive index fiber for a model of laser source.