G-M counter, counting statistics and absorption cross-section

September 22, 2011

Objectives
To study the diode laser characteristics. To determine numerical aperture of multi-mode optical ber To measure the length of a given optical ber.

Apparatus required
Laser diode(Infra red) Multi-mode optical ber XYZ movements Laser source mount microscopic objective and microscopic objective Photo-detector and multimeter Fiber cutter

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3.1

Theory
Construction of an optical ber

An optical ber consists of a core (refractive index = nc ) and a claddind (refractive index = nclad ) with the condition that nc < nclad . Hence , for such sytem, total

internal reection will occur if the angle at which the light enter the optical ber is greater than the critical angle, ehich is given by icritical = sin1 (nclad /nc ) Since the optical ber has symmetrical structute, hence once the light enters the ber with angle greater than critical angle, it always satises this condition and the signal can be observed from the other side of the ber. The structural dierence between single mode ber and multi-mode ber is in the relative thickness of core and cladding. The core is of larger radius in a multi-mode optical ber. Moreover, if one soves the Maxwells equations for the light propagation in the optical ber, one can show that single mode ber can carry light wave of only one mode, whereas for multi-mode ber more than one solutions exist for the light propagation.

3.2

Numertical Aperture

Numerical aperture is a measure of light collection ability of an optical ber. It menifests the light-conning ability of an optical ber. It also helps in determination of the number of modes guided by a ber. Theoretically, the numerical aperture of an optical ber is dened as, N A = (n2 n2 ) 2 c clad From symmetry grounds, one can say that if the light enters in the optical ber at na angle i, it should come out of the ber at the same angle. Hence, above formula should in principle give the numerical aperture of the optical ber. However, this assertion has some problems, which will be later discussed. One of the ways to measure the numerical aperture of an optical ber is visual method. In this method, one measures the Intensity of the light coming out of the optical ber over a certain angle range after which the intensity almost goes to zero. The broadness of the peak decides the numerical aperture.
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3.3

Determination of the length of the ber

Assuming that the speed of light is given, one can have an estimate of the length of the ber with the apparatus provided. The method is quite simple The photodetector has a time delay associated with it. Moreover, as the light passes through a long optical ber, it would take some nite time to reach the detector, which will be greater than the time which light takes to reach the photodetector directly. 2

 If one could measure the time delay due to the photodector and other parts of the apparatus, and also the time delay when the light is passed through the optical ber, one can substract the former time delay from that later to nd the time that light takes to come out of the optical ber.

Observations

Angle Vs Intensity (amplication = 104 ) - without pin hole serial no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 angle(degree) -24 -22 -20 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Intensity(volt) 0.05000 0.05100 0.05400 0.05700 0.07200 0.10000 0.20000 0.75000 4.17000 5.10000 5.10000 5.03000 4.67000 0.71000 0.08600 0.05400 0.04400 0.04000 0.03500 0.03500 0.03600 0.03700

Table 1: Angle Vs Intensity (amplication = 104 ) - without pin hole Angle Vs Intensity (amplication = 104 ) - with pin hole Determination of length of the ber: Length of the short wire = 44.7 cm Distance from holder to detector = 39.8 cm 3

serial no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

angle(degree) -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22

Intensity(volt) 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.07000 1.53000 4.52000 4.90000 3.38000 0.77000 0.10000 0.02000 0.01000 0.00800 0.00500 0.00400 0.00200

Table 2: Angle Vs Intensity (amplication = 104 ) - with pin hole Distance from holder to holder = 37 cm From the above two sets of readings, the mean length of the ber was be crudely estimated to be 3000m. The exact vaue is around 1000m.

Discussion and Conclusion

As stated earlier, the mean length of the ber was determined to be 3000m, while the actual value was around 1000m. The deviation can be accounted as the the measurement of the delay time was not very precise. In multi-mode ber, dierent modes suer dierent attenuation rates, reered as dierential mode attenuation (DMA). Hence, the numerical aperture obtained via the above process may be smaller than the actual numerical aperture. One can also study, the length dependence (ber length) of the numerical aperture measure. This happens, as there are some modes which attenuate so soon along the wire. More over, modes with higer power fraction also attenuate faster.

conguration long wire without Set 2 long wire Short wire without

delay (microsec 176 168

max value (volt) 10 1.76

(1/e)*max value(volt) 3.68 0.65

dierence 8

length of b 2400

44.8 20.4 32.8

10 8.8 0.62

3.68 3.24 0.23 12 3600

Table 3: Statics of various distribution functions

Precautions
The ber end must be of good quality. Attempts should be done to attain maximum coupling.