Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

Experiment No.3

Name of the student: SAP NO.

Date:
Aim: Measure the Numerical Aperture of the fiber

Apparatus: NA jig, Optical Fiber Link and Optical fiber cable.

Objective: The objective of this experiment is to measure to the Numerical Aperture (NA) of
the fiber.

Theory:

Numerical aperture refers to the maximum angle at which the light incident on the fiber end
is totally internally reflected and is transmitted properly along the fiber. The cone formed
by the rotation of this angle along the axis of the fiber is the cone of acceptance of the fiber.
The light ray should strike the fiber end within its cone of acceptance else it is refracted out
of the fiber. The principle of operation of optical fiber lies in the behavior of light. Light
travels in straight line through most optical materials, but that’s not necessarily the case at
the junction (interface) of two materials of different refractive indices. Air & water are a
case in point as shown in Fig. 1. The light ray traveling through air actually bends as it
enters the water. The amount of bending depends on the refractive indices of the two
materials involved & also on the angle of the incoming (incident) ray of light as it strikes
the interface. The angle of the incident ray is measured from a line drawn perpendicular to
the surface. The same is true for the angle of the outgoing (transmitted) ray of light after it
has been bent.

Snell’s Law explains the mathematical relationship between the incident ray & the refracted
ray
n1• sinθ1 = n2 • sin θ2

In which n1 & n2 are the refractive indices of the initial and secondary materials respectively,
θ1 and θ2 are the incident and transmitted angles.

Snell’s Law says that refraction (bending) of light cannot take place when the angle of
incidence grows too large (as when light travels from a material with a high refractive
index to one with a low refractive index). If the angle of incidence exceeds a certain critical
value (in which the product on nl & the sine of the angle equals or exceeds one.) light

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cannot exit. If light cannot exit the material, it is reflected. The angle that is reflected is
equal to the angle of incidence. The phenomenon just described is called Total Internal
Reflection and it is what keeps light inside an optical fiber.

Figure. 1: The Different Portions of a Light Ray at A Material Interface

Total Internal Reflection

Since, the angle of refraction is always greater than the angle of incidence. Thus when the
angle of refraction is 90° and the refracted ray emerges parallel to the interface between the
dielectrics the angle of incidence must be less than 90°. This is the limiting case of
refraction and this angle of incidence is known as critical angle c. The value of critical
angle is given by :

Sin θc =n2 / n1

At angles of incidence greater than the critical angle the light is reflected back into the
originating dielectric medium. This behavior of light is termed as “TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION”. Here, Angle of Incidence = Angle of Reflection.
This is the mechanism by which light may be considered to propagate down to an optical
fiber with low loss. Figure 3 below illustrates the transmission of a light ray in an optical
fiber via a series of total internal reflection at the interface of the silica core and slightly
lower refractive index silica cladding. The light ray shown in figure is known as meridian
ray as it passes through the axis of the fiber core. It is generally used when illustrating the
fundamental transmission properties of optical fiber.

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 Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

Figure 2: Total Internal Reflection of Light Ray.

Figure 3: The transmission of a light ray in a perfect optical fiber

Acceptance Angle

Since, only ray with an angle greater than critical angle at the core cladding interface are
transmitted by total internal reflection, it is clear that not all rays entering the fiber core will
continue to be propagated down the length. Figure 4 illustrates a meridian ray at the critical
angle c within the fiber at core cladding interface. It may be observed that this ray enters the
fiber core at an angle a to the fiber axis and is refracted at the air - core interface before
transmission to the core - cladding interface at the critical angle. Hence, any ray which are
incident into the fiber core at an angle greater than a will be transmitted to the core
cladding interface at an angle less than c and will not be totally internally reflected instead
will be refracted into the cladding and eventually lost by radiation. Thus, for rays to be
transmitted by total internal reflection within the fiber core they must be incident on the
fiber core within an acceptance cone defined by conical half angle a. Hence, a is the
maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter the fiber in order to be propagated and
is referred to as the acceptance angle for the fiber.

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 Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

Figure 4: Experimental set-up for Numerical Aperture Measurement

Numerical Aperture
It gives the relationship between, the acceptance angle and the refractive indices of the
three media involved viz. the core, the cladding and air.

Where = refractive index of air

n0
N = refractive index of core
n1
N = refractive index of cladding
n2

The numerical aperture is a very useful measure of light collecting ability of a fiber.

PROCEDURE:

1. Connect the AC Supply to Kit.

2. Ensure that all fault switches is in normal position.
3. Make the connections as shown in Block Diagram-13.
4. Connect 1KHz. Sine Wave signal to 660nm FO Transmitter input and adjust the
amplitude at 5Vp-p.
5. Connect one end of 1mtr. Fiber optic cable to 660 nm FO Transmitter output and the
other end of the F.O cable to the numerical aperture measurement jig. Hold the white

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screen facing the fiber such that its cut face is perpendicular to the axis of the fiber.
6. Switch ON the power supply of the trainer.
7. Hold the white screen with 4 concentric circles (10, 15, 20 & 25 mm diameter)
vertically at a suitable distance to make the red spot from the fiber coincided with
10mm circle.
8. Record the distances of screen from the fiber end L and note the diameter W of the
spot.
9. Compute the numerical aperture from the formula given below:

10. Vary the distance between in screen and fiber optic cable and make it coincide with
one of the concentric circles. Note its distance.
11. Tabulate the various distances and diameter of the circles made on the white
screen and computes the numerical aperture from the formula given above.

Inferences

The NA recorded in the manufacturer’s data sheet is 0.5 typical. The variation in the
observation is due to fiber optic being under filled. The acceptance angle is given by θ MAX
The deviation from the data sheet is again due to fiber being under filled.

Observation table:

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 Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

Sr.No. Length Diameter W Acceptance angle

NA=
(L) (W) √ 4 L2+W 2 −1
θ max =sin (NA )
1 10mm
2 15mm
3 20mm
4 25mm

Conclusion:

Setup to measure the Numerical

Aperture of the fiber

B. Tech SEM-VIII Optical communication Laboratory (DJS22EL801)