Characterization of evolution of mode coupling in a graded-index polymer optical fiber by using Brillouin optical time-domain analysis

A narrow bandwidth (2GHz) π-phase-shift flattop fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed to achieve Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) for perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fibers (GIPOFs) for the first time to best of our knowledge. Using the technique of BOTDA, we explore the evolution of mode coupling in perfluorinated GIPOFs by analyzing the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) variation along the whole fiber, and compare them with that of silica graded index multimode fibers (GI-MMFs). The characteristics of mode coupling of GI-POFs and GI-MMFs were also investigated in terms of the speckle patterns at the output face of the two fibers. The results show that compared with silica GI-MMFs, GI-POFs exhibit more efficient mode coupling and the excellent ablility of mode scrambling regardless of alignment conditions.