Refractive Index Profiling of Axially Symmetric Optical Fibers using Mach-Zehnder Interferometer and Model Matching Method

Abstract

We propose a method for determining the refractive-index profile of axially symmetric optical fibers from transverse interferograms obtained by a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The profile is obtained from the interferogram data by a model-fitting algorithm which uses the Abel transform of an approximate polynomial expression of the profile. This algorithm is simple to use, and does not require the Fourier transform. The proposed method is validated through computer simulations.