Measurement of optical fiber parameters and thermal core diffusion characteristics by digital image processing

The simultaneous measurement of the numerical aperture (NA) and mode field diameter (MFD) of single-mode fibers was performed on several commercial fibers by means of digital image processing of the output light projected into a screen. In addition, the changes induced by core diffusion in an ultra-high (UH) NA fiber at several heat depositions from a CO laser source were measured. The measurement method was demonstrated to be useful to monitor the adiabaticity of this process, by taking the product of the NA and MFD to verify if it remains constant. The method provides a cheap alternative to measure these optical fiber parameters by using simple optomechanical elements and a readily available smartphone camera, and it can be easily implemented in the laboratory.