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An effective attenuation coefficient

for evanescent wave spectroscopy
using multimode fiber
a
V. Ruddy
a
School of Physical Sciences Dublin City University
Glasnevin , Dublin 9, Ireland
Published online: 13 Sep 2006.

To cite this article: V. Ruddy (1990) An effective attenuation coefficient for evanescent
wave spectroscopy using multimode fiber, Fiber and Integrated Optics, 9:2, 143-151, DOI:
10.1080/01468039008202901

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01468039008202901

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An Effective Attenuation Coefficient for Evanescent

Wave Spectroscopy Using Multimode Fiber

V. RUDDY
School of Physical Sciences
Dublin City University
Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Ireland
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 14:15 31 October 2014

Abstract An attenziation coeficientfbr evanescent wave specfroscopyon the core

of a mzrltimode step index.ftber in contact with an absorbing species is derived in
terms of the range of incident angles of the meridional rays to the interface. An
expression,for the,fiactional power outside the core as a function of incident angles
is also given. Their ratio is discussedfor the case of ajber sensor having a porous
cladding in contact with a gaseoozis absorbing species and one in which a section of
cladding has been removed and replaced bv an absorbing liquid.

Introduction
Attenuated total reflection spectroscopy at the surface of a crystal waveguide is a
well-known analytical tool [ 1, 21. At each reflection, the penetration of the evanes-
cent wave of the guided ray into the absorbing medium (of lower refractive index)
gives rise to a reduction of the power propagating in the crystal. The penetration of
the evanescent wave may be expressed as an exponentially decaying E field with a
characteristic penetration depth of

d, =
x
27rn,(sin26 - n : , ) ' / 2

where the light of the wavelength A is propagating in a medium of refractive index n1

and is internally reflected at an angle 6 to the normal to the interface with a medium
of index n2(n2, = n 2 / n 1 ) ;this expression is true for TE (transverse electric) modes.
The light incident at the interface with a well-defined angle makes a small number of
reflections.The technique is suitable for a laboratory instrument to which representa-
tive fluid samples are brought.
Use of an optical fiber to transmit light to a section of its core in contact with an
absorbing cladding offers the possibility of remote spectroscopy or in-line analysis.
Unlike the crystal waveguide, the optical fiber offers the advantage of a much greater
number of reflectionswhile transmitting light over a range of incident angles, some of
which are well removed from the critical angle where the absorption is strongest (or
evanescent wave penetration is greatest). In the case of a fiber evanescent wave
chemical sensor, it is desirable to restrict the propagating modes to those close to

Received: December 26, 1989; accepted: March 15, 1990.

143
 144 I.: Ruddy

cutoff, and this can be achieved by tapering in the sensing region [ 31 or by low-order
mode removal by masking at the launch optics into the fiber [ 41. Evanescent wave
spectroscopy using multimode fibers has been reported by many workers [ 5-81.
Plastic-clad silica (PCS) fiber operated in the visible has been used by many because
of the ease of cladding removal. Porous cladding has also been used for sensing [ 91.
Silver halide fiber operated in the infrared, where many chemicals exhibit strong
absorption, has been used by one group [ 101.
Absorption of power in a fiber due to attenuation of the evanescent wave in the
cladding may be characterized by an evanescent absorption coefficient y, which is
related to the bulk absorption coefficient a by the expression [ 1 I ]

y = ra (2)
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The fraction of the optical power carried in the cladding is given by r . This expression
is stated to be true only for weakly guiding fibers, that is, those for which the core and
cladding refractive indices are close in value. Gloge [ 121gives a value of r = 4 f i / 3 V
for a fiber of normalized frequency V in which all possible bound modes are
propagating.
In evanescent wave spectroscopy using a fiber, the cladding material is often
partially removed and replaced with, in general, a material having a much lower
index. Thus, the condition upon which Eq. (2) is based is no longer valid. Modes that
were weakly guided enter a more strongly guiding region, and only some of the
possible bound modes of this sensing region are now propagating.
In this paper, a value for r ( & , 6 , ) for the case of rays striking the interface at
angles in ( 0 2 , 0, ) to the normal is derived and compared to the corresponding evanes-
cent absorption coefficient y( 0 2 , 0, ).

Theoretical Model
Absorption of light at an analytical wavelength X may be characterized by a complex
refractive index for the medium, the imaginary part of the index being

aX
n* =-
(3)
41r

where a is the bulk absorption coefficient of the medium (usually expressed in

cm-'). In the case of an optical fiber, Snyder and Love [13] have shown that the
optical power at a distance Z , P ( Z ) , along a fiber with an absorbing cladding is
related to the launched power P(0) by

P ( 2 ) = P ( 0 ) exp(-NTZ) (4)

where Nis the number of ray reflections per unit length of fiber and Tis the transmis-
sion coefficient of the light on penetrating the cladding. Thus, an attenuation coeffi-
cient ( y ) can be written

y = NT
 Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy Using MM Fiber I45
In the case of a fiber of core radius p, the value of N is

where 6' is the angle at which the light strikes the interface (with respect to the nor-
mal). The transmission coefficients for TM (transverse magnetic) and TE (transverse
electric) modes can be derived from the Fresnel coefficients using a complex refrac-
tive index for the cladding material and taking the refracted angle OT as

for the case of total internal reflection [ 141.

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Transmission Coeficieni for a Lossy Cladding

For the case of weakly guided light ( n , N n 2 ) , the transmission coefficients are
identical for both polarizations. This has been treated by Snyder and Love [ 131 for
light incident at angles not too close to the critical angle. For strongly guided light
( n, b n,), the penetration depth of the TM mode exceeds that of the TE mode [ I] by a
factor that varies from n:2 at the critical angle to nil at 6' = a / 2 . For a strongly guided
case of n, = 1.5 (silica) and n2 = 1.33 (water), a variation of about 25% exists between
the two penetration depths at maximum. This analysis will be based on the TE
modes, for which [ 141

4n1n2cos 6' cos 8,

T=
I n, cos 6' + n, cos
Using Eq. ( 5 ) , it can be seen that for an absorbing cladding, T is real and given by

The complex cladding index is ( n2 - j n z ) , and the imaginary part of ( sin20 - n:1)1/2
is

Therefore,

d n , cos 6'
T=
a(n: - n : ) l m
and the attenuation coefficient y( 6') of that ray
 146 V Ruddy

where

An Eflective Evanescent Absorption Coeficient

The magnitude of y(8) is determined by the relative size of X and p. Although the
term (sin’ 8 - n;,)-”’ is infinite at the critical angle, very few modes of a multimode
fiber experience total absorption. For example, for n2 = 1.5 (silica), n2 = 1.33
(aqueous solutions),f( 8) is greater than 10 only for incident angles within 50 arc min
of the critical angle of 62”, or less than 3% of them. Thus, in a multimode fiber with
many thousands of modes, the attenuation term of Eq. (4) can be written
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 14:15 31 October 2014

exp[-~(O)Z] = 1 - y(8)Z

for sensing lengths on the order of 1 m or less. If the power reaching the sensing region
is distributed equally among all rays with incident angles in ( 8,, 0 2 ) ,then the transmit-
ted power of each ray, after a distance Z along the fiber, is

Integrating over all rays, the total transmitted power is

I ( Z ) = I,( 1 - y J ) N I, exp( - y r Z )
where

To include all modes (above and below a plane through the fiber axis), this value
must be doubled to yield an effective absorption coefficient Y ~ On . of Eq. (6),
~ use
this becomes

using [ 15] where

cos 8 cos 8
g ( 8 ) = -arctan
Iln:,sinze-1+ nZ1arcsin -
cos 8,

and BC is the critical angle given by sin-’ n 2 , .

 Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy Using MM Fiber 147

In evanescent wave spectroscopy on fibers d2 = 7r/2 and

i; )
y -,8 =
cos 8
d n : - n,'> (arctan $sin2 8/sin2 8, - 1
- sin 8, arcsin -
con*) (9)
cos oc

This leads to

The Fraction of Power Outside the Core

The fraction of optical power outside the core of the fiber for light incident at 8 to the
interface with the cladding may be written
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Using E( r , 8) = E, exp[ -2( r - p)/d,) for the electric field in the cladding in terms of
the core field E, we get

where 4 = arcsin(cos B/cos 8,)

k = cos 8,

and F( 6,k ) is the incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind.

For small values of k ( k < 0.5), as occurs in weakly guiding fibers and in many
evanescent probe designs, the incomplete elliptic integral F( 4, k ) obeys A F = A 4 [ 161
so that

r(02, 8,) = - -- A4
27rpn, A8

and

arcsin (cos 8/cos 8,) sin ( ~ / -

2 8,)
ir/2 - 8 (13)

In Fig. 1, the variation in r( 7r/2,B) with 8 using Eq. ( 13) is shown for plastic-clad
silica fiber having a numerical aperture ( N A ) equal to 0.4 (8, = 75'). As expected, r
has a maximum at 8, with a value of 7r/21/, or approximately 17% lower than the
Gloge [12] value of 4fi/31/. The discrepancy may be attributed to this analysis
being based solely on TE modes, which penetrate the cladding less deeply than do
TM modes.
 148 !P Ruddy

n
CD
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75 80 85 90

Figure 1. Variation of V r ( r / 2 ,0 ) with 0 [Eq. ( 1 3 ) ] .

The Ratio of y to r
The ratio of the effective absorption coefficient [ Eq. ( S ) ] to the fraction of power
outside the core [ Eq. ( 1 I ) ] can therefore be calculated for particular values of 01, 02,
and 0,:

For evanescent wave spectroscopy using fibers, O2 is always 7 ~ 1 and

2 the lower limit is
defined by the NA of the lead-in fiber to the sensing region. In such circumstances,
cos 0
T(T/2,0) -
--
vsin2 d/sinZ 0, - I
- sin 0,
r(a/2,O)a cos2 0, arcsin (cos 0/cos 0,)

This function is shown in Fig. 2 for the particular case of 0, = 75" (PCS lead-in
fiber). A smoothly decreasing function as (0 - 0,) increases is observed.
The linear dependence of the evanescent absorption coefficient y on the bulk
absorption coefficient a means that for species obeying the Lambert-Beer law of
 Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy Using MM Fiber 149

1.o

0.9

0.8

0.7 -
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 14:15 31 October 2014

0.6 -

0.5 -

0.4 -

75 80 85 90
8
Figure 2. Ratio of y to a as a function of 0 for Oc = 75" [ Eq. ( 15)].

absorption, the evanescent coefficient will depend linearly on absorber concentra-

tion. Accordingly, the evanescent absorbance is predicted to depend linearly on both
the length of the sensing region of the fiber and the concentration of the absorbing
species, which is in agreement with the experimental results of many workers.

Applications
( 1 ) The fiber's cladding remains intact, but an absorbing gaseous species dif-
filses through it to the core. The critical angle of the lead-in fiber is, in this
case, the same as that in the sensing region and
 150 V Ruddy

which for weakly guiding fiber (8, N ~ / 2 reduces ) to y 1: ra.

( 2 ) Thefiber's cladding is removed and a lower index-absorbingfluid surrounds
the core. In this case, the lower limit of 8 is 8:, the critical angle for the lead-in
fiber (cos 0: = NA/n,), and fl: < 8,. The expression of E!q. (15) with B = 0;
= 75" is shown in Fig. 3 as a function of the critical angle of the core-absorb-
ing species interface or of the refractive index of the absorbing species. It can
be seen that y / r a approaches 1.O only within a few degrees of the critical
angle 8: and that in general y < ra.
On measuring the absorbance of an evanescent wave probe, then, y can
be extracted and Fig. 3 used to determine a. Knowledge of the absorptivity
of the species can then be used to determine its concentration.
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 14:15 31 October 2014

10 20 30 40 50 60 70

0c
Figure 3. Ratio of y to YOI for 02 = 75" as a function of 0 [Eq. ( 15)].
 Evanescent Wave Spectroscopy Using MM Fiber 151

Conclusions
A model based on the penetration depth of the evanescent wave in the cladding of a
step index multimode fiber has been developed to determine an effective attenuation
coefficient for a fiber evanescent wave sensor. A relationship between the evanescent
absorption coefficient and the fractional optical power outside the core was derived.
In the special case where all bound modes of the fiber are incident on the sensing
region, this ratio is given by the bulk absorption coefficient. In all other cases, it is less.

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