Optics Communications 219 (2003) 215219

www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

Transmission characteristics of SMS ber optic

sensor structures
Arun Kumar, Ravi K. Varshney *, Siny Antony C., Pratha Sharma
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India
Received 25 October 2002; received in revised form 4 January 2003; accepted 7 February 2003

Abstract
We examine theoretically the transmission characteristics of the Single modeMultimodeSingle mode (SMS) ber
structures when the spot sizes of the fundamental modes of the single and multimode bers do not match. It is observed
that in such cases, the transmitted power becomes highly sensitive to the wavelength of operation and the length of the
multimode ber used. The study should be useful in the design of ecient ber optic microbend sensors and novel
wavelength lters using SMS structures.
2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fiber optic sensor; Microbend sensors; SMS structures

1. Introduction
Fiber optic sensors based on intensity modulation are the easiest to realize, and amongst these,
microbend sensors have been studied extensively
[14]. In the conventional microbend sensors, a
large number of modes are excited, and the microbend induced loss is a measure of the power
coupled to the radiation modes. As a result, the
performance of the conventional microbend sensors is highly dependent on the launching conditions at the input end of the ber.
Donlagic and Culshaw [5] have proposed a
novel microbend sensor structure consisting of two

Corresponding author. Fax: +91-11-659-1357.

E-mail address: ravi@physics.iitd.ernet.in (R.K. Varshney).

identical single mode (SM) bers axially spliced at

both ends of a multimode (MM) parabolic core
ber. This structure has been called as the SMS
(Single modeMultimodeSingle mode) ber
structure. It is reported that the typical power loss
for a given microbend structure and force is about
36 times larger in the SMS structure than in the
conventional microbend sensor structures. The
authors [5] have assumed that only the fundamental mode is coupled in (coupled out) at the
input (output) end of the multimode sensing ber
section. Such a condition would be satised only
when the spot sizes of the fundamental modes of
the single mode and multimode bers match exactly and also there is no axial misalignment at the
splices. If either of the above conditions is not
satised, the higher order modes of the multimode
ber would also be excited/coupled out at the

0030-4018/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0030-4018(03)01289-6

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A. Kumar et al. / Optics Communications 219 (2003) 215219

input/output end of the multimode ber. Further,

in a parabolic core ber, since the propagation
constants of the various modes are almost equally
spaced, the power coupled to the lead-out single
mode ber is expected to be extremely sensitive to
the phase dierence developed between various
modes at the output end of the multimode ber
section. Thus, the performance of the SMS ber
sensor structure should be highly dependent on the
wavelength of operation and also on the length of
the multimode ber.
In the present paper, we obtained the transmission characteristics of a SMS ber structure
assuming that the single and the multimode bers
are axially aligned at each splice but have dierent
spot sizes for the fundamental modes. It is shown
that in such cases, the transmitted power is extremely sensitive to the length of the multimode
ber section and wavelength of operation.

2. Analysis
We consider a SMS structure consisting of two
identical single mode bers spliced (axially
aligned) at both the ends of a multimode parabolic
core ber of length L (see Fig. 1). The transmitted
power through such a structure can be obtained as
follows. The power coupled from one ber to the
other at each splice can be obtained by calculating
the overlap integrals between the guided modes of
the two bers [68]. The fundamental mode-eld
(normalized with respect to the whole cross-section
of the ber) of the single mode ber can be approximated as [8]
r
2 1 r2 =w2
S ;
wS r
e
1
p wS
where wS represents the Gaussian spot size of the
mode, and in the case of step index bers, it can be
approximated by

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram for the SMS ber structure.

"
#
wS
1:619 2:879
0:65 3=2
;
aS
VS6
VS

0:8 6 VS 6 2:5;
2

where aS and VS represent the core radius and the

V-number, respectively, of the single mode ber.
The above approximation is known to be an accurate approximation (value of wS is within 1%
error) for the fundamental mode of a single mode
step index ber [8]. We would like to mention here
that one can also use a more rigorous description
of the fundamental mode in terms of a series of
Laguerre Gaussian functions as suggested by
Meunier and Hosain [7]. This, however, will make
the mathematics more involved and increase the
computational time.
The multimode ber in the SMS structure is
assumed to be a parabolic-core ber characterized
by the following refractive-index prole:
8 h
i1=2
>
r2
>
n
1

2D
; r 6 aM ;
0
M
>
a2M
<
3
nr
h
i1=2
>
>
1

2D
;
r
P
a
;
n
>
0
M
M
:
with
DM

n20  n2cl
;
2n20

where n0 and ncl are the core and cladding indices,

respectively. Further, aM and DM represent the
core radius and the relative core-cladding refractive index dierence of the multimode ber.
As mentioned above, we are assuming that the
axes of the single mode lead-in ber and the multimode ber are perfectly aligned. In such a case,
power in the single mode ber would be coupled
only to the rst few circularly symmetric modes of
the multimode ber. The modal eld patterns for
such modes (normalized with respect to the whole
cross-section of the ber) can very well be approximated by that of an innitely extended parabolic media and are given by [8]:
r
 2
2 1
2r
2
2
wm r
Lm
4
er =wM :
2
p wM
wM
In the above, Lm r represents the Laguerre polynomial of degree m and wM represents the Gaussian
spot size of the fundamental mode, and is given by

A. Kumar et al. / Optics Communications 219 (2003) 215219

2aM
p
wM
k0 n0 2DM

1=2

s
2
aM
;
VM

where VM represents the V-number of the multimode ber. Further, the propagation constants of
the mth symmetric mode is given by [8,9]

1=2
22m 1aM
bm k0 n0 1 
; m 0; 1; 2; . . . ;
k02 n20
6
where
aM

k0 n0 p
2DM VM =a2M 2=w2M :
aM

At the rst splice (i.e., input end (z 0) of the

multimode ber), the total eld wz 0 can be
expressed as
X
wz 0 wS
Am wm r:
8
The amplitude Am of the mth mode of the multimode ber can easily be obtained by the overlap
integral between the elds wS r and wm r which
corresponding to the unit power launched in the
single mode ber is given by,
R1

m
w w r dr
2l
1  l2
Am R01 S m2

;
9
jwm j r dr 1 l2 1 l2
0
where l wS =wM . Since dierent guided modes
travel with dierent propagation constants, the
total eld w at the output end of the multimode
ber of length L can be written as
X
wz L
Am wm eibm L :
10
At the second splice, now the power would couple
from various modes of the multimode ber to the
lead-out single mode ber. The power (PSM ) coupled to the lead-out ber would then be given by
Z 1
2


w S wz Lr dr
PSM 
0

2

A2 A2 eib0 b1 L A2 eib0 b2 L     :
0

11

The output power PSM is expected to vary with

wavelength k and the ber length L as discussed in
the following.
Case 1: l 1. In such a case, Ai i P 1 is equal
to zero, and all the input power is coupled into the
fundamental mode of the multimode ber and

217

subsequently coupled out in the lead out ber for

all values of L.
Case 2: l 6 1. In this case, higher order modes
of the MM ber are also excited, and PSM will
depend on the amplitudes and relative phase of
various modes of the MM ber at its output end.
The variation of PSM with wavelength can be understood by calculating the phase dierence developed between the successive modes in length L.
This can be calculated quite accurately by retaining only the rst three terms in the binomial expansion of the right-hand side of Eq. (6), giving
p
2m 1 2DM 2m 12 DM
bm k0 n0 

: 12
aM
a2M k0 n0
Using above expression the phase dierence (DU)
developed between the successive modes in length
L is given by


DU bm  bm1 L
p
2 2DM
4m 1DM

L
Lk:
13
aM
pa2M n0
The above equation shows that DU changes linearly with wavelength. Thus one expects that the
output power should vary periodically with
wavelength with a period (Dk2p ) over which DU
changes by 2p. This can easily be calculated using
Eq. (13) and is given by
Dk2p

p2 a2M n0
:
2DM L

14

3. Results and discussion

Using Eqs. (9) and (11), we have calculated
theoretically the output power from the lead-out
single mode ber corresponding to unit power
launched in the lead-in ber. We have used the
following values for various ber parameters.
For single mode ber: DS 0:002379; aS 2:2
lm; VS at k 0:6328 lm 2:2.
Here, DS is the relative core-cladding index
dierence of the single mode ber and is dened
similar to DM (Eq. (3)).
For multimode ber: DM 0:008, aM 25:0 lm.
In both the bers, cladding is considered as
pure silica, whose refractive index is calculated at

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A. Kumar et al. / Optics Communications 219 (2003) 215219

each wavelength by using Sellemeiers formula

(e.g., see Chapter 6 of Ref. [8]).
We rst obtained the wavelength at which the
spot sizes of the SM and MM bers match. Fig. 2
shows the variation of Gaussian spot sizes wS and
wM of the fundamental modes of SM and MM
bers with wavelength. The two spot sizes match
at wavelength k0 1:21 lm and dier at other
wavelengths. Fig. 3 shows the variation of the
modal power carried by rst ve modes of the
multimode ber as a function of wavelength, when
unit power is launched in the input single mode
ber. Powers carried by the higher order modes
are negligibly small and are dicult to show in the

present gure. This gure indicates that most of

the input power is carried by the rst few modes of
the multimode ber. In our calculations, however,
we have considered rst thirty excited modes of the
multimode ber, which carries more than 99.99%
of the incident power for the entire wavelength
range considered.
Fig. 4 shows the variation of the output power
(PSM ) as a function of the wavelength for 2 m
length of the multimode ber. We have chosen the
wavelength range such that the expression (Eq. (2))
for the Gaussian spot size for the single mode step
index ber holds valid. As expected, this gure
clearly shows periodic variation of the output
power with wavelength having high transmission
peaks. The rst two peaks are separated by
0:276 lm, which is very close to the value
0:283 lm predicted by Eq. (14). This gure also
shows a wide wavelength band of high transmission around k 1:21 lm, at which spot size of the
fundamental mode of the multimode ber matches
with that of the single mode ber. As a result, all
the input power is coupled from the lead-in ber to
the fundamental mode of the MM ber at the rst
splice and then couples out to the lead-out ber at
the second splice irrespective of the length of the
multimode ber.
In order to show that the spacing between the
various peaks is inversely proportional to the
length of the MM ber (as predicted by Eq. (14)),
we calculated the wavelength response for another
length of the MM ber. Fig. 5 shows the variation

Fig. 3. Variation of fractional modal power in the rst ve

modes of the multimode ber with wavelength.

Fig. 4. Variation of output power (PSM ) as a function of

wavelength for L 2 m.

Fig. 2. Variation of the Gaussian spot sizes of single mode and

multimode bers with wavelength.

A. Kumar et al. / Optics Communications 219 (2003) 215219

219

physical parameter (such as temperature, strain)

which can change L and hence Dk2p .

4. Conclusions

Fig. 5. Variation of output power (PSM ) as a function of

wavelength for L 4 m.

of the output power (PSM ) as a function of the

wavelength for 4 m length of the multimode ber.
The average value of Dk2p obtained from this gure comes out to be 0:139 lm while Eq. (14) predicts 0:142 lm. It is clear that the wavelength
spacing between the various peaks is now decreased by a factor of 2, indicating that Dk2p is
inversely proportional to L.
We would like to mention that wavelength k0
at which the two spot sizes match could be tailored
by selecting the ber parameters accordingly. For
example, if one wants to shift k0 towards a higher
wavelength, the parameters of both single and
multimode bers can be selected in such a way that
spot sizes of the fundamental modes match at that
wavelength. This can be achieved either by decreasing the wS or by increasing the value of wM
(see Fig. 2), by selecting the parameters of the SM
or MM ber appropriately keeping Eqs. (2) and
(5) in mind. The above results show that one can
design a SMS structure to act as band-pass
wavelength lter around any desired wavelength
or as a comb lter to transmit wavelengths separated almost equally with each other. Such a
structure can also be used as a sensor to sense any

We obtained theoretically the transmission

characteristics of the SMS ber structure when the
spot sizes of the fundamental modes of the single
and multimode bers do not match. It is found
that in such cases, the transmitted power becomes
highly sensitive to the wavelength of operation and
the length of the multimode ber used. The possible applications of such structures as sensors and
wavelength lters are discussed.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the Department of Science and Technology, Government
of India, through a research project R&D in
Fiber Optic Modal Sensors.

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