AMS Technologies is offering refractive index profilers for optical fibres manufactured by US-based developer Interfibre Analysis. The manufacturer claims that its profiler is the world's first commercially available device for scanning the optical index of refraction (RIP) of an optical fibre along its length. Additionally, the profiler is capable of multi-wavelength fibre index profiling.
By scanning the fibre from the side the unit measures the refractive index profile (RIP) of any optical fibre with a sub-micron spatial resolution. The measurement is independent of cumbersome fibre preparation such as cleaving, and it allows for measuring the evolution of the refractive index profile over a given length of fibre. The equipment uses a broadband light source and can determine the refractive index profile at any wavelength between the visible and near-infrared.
The profiler can be used to verify the RIP during fibre manufacturing, to measure the RIP for Bragg gratings or to optimise splice processes for mode adaptation. Sample measurements can be done on request. The profilers are available from AMS Technologies throughout Europe from local offices in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.