School of Physics - Theses

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End date: 2004 × Start date: 2000 × Type: Masters Research thesis ×

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    Characterisation of Optical Fibres Based on High Resolution Imaging
    Pace, Mr Peter ( 2004-12)
    This thesis presents a method for accurate characterisation of optical fibres using highspatial resolution imaging. Increasing demands in the application of optical fibres hasproduced a rapid advance in fibre fabrication and optical fibres are being createdexhibiting features that are beyond the optical resolution of current characterisationtechniques.High resolution imaging of optical fibres was performed using an atomic forcemicroscope (AFM). Germanium doped fibres were chemically etched in hydrofluoricacid solution (HF) and the wet etching characteristics of germanium were studied. Amethod of calculating the refractive index profile from an AFM depth profile isdemonstrated. The refractive index profile extracted from AFM data was compared withQuantitative Phase Microscopy (QPM) and nanometer Secondary Ion MassSpectrometry (nanoSIMS) measurement techniques.In addition, AFM was employed to study the diffusion of the dopant produced by thearc fusion splicing technique using a fluorine-doped fibre and a multiple-dopant fibre.Furthermore, the phase and the refractive index profiles of a thermally expanded core(TEC) fibre were performed using quantitative phase microscopy (QPM).The application of the AFM to the resolution problem provides a fundamentalenhancement on the optical resolution from of around 400 nm to 500 nm. This providesconsiderable new structural information about the fibre.