Weekly Progress Report

Week 1: 5 February 2001

I start to learn the basic concepts of fiber optics (Experiment with Fibers by Michael Hofmann). I also found many useful information from the website. On Friday, Bob Azmoun helped me prepare part of the set-up. I start to read chapters for Understanding Fiber Optics by Jeff Hecht.

Week 2: 12 February 2001

I continue to study fiber optics (Chapter 24 by Frank L. Pedrotti, S.J. and Leno S. Pedrotti Introduction to Optics). I am learning the basis for lasers. The lab set-up is prepared, using a He-Ne laser, two mirrors, one lens with long focal length (1 meter), one fiber port,and a light detector. I am trying to couple the light into the fiber.

Week 3: 19 February 2001

I tried to couple the light into the fiber. It is very difficult since the diameter of the single mode fiber is so small. At first, there is very little light go through it. So I change the long distance from about 1 m to about 45 cm without the lens. More light can be coupled into the fiber. But there is much light leaking from the fiber. So I tried other two fibers avaible. One has the same effect. And the other one is little better but with multimode.

Week 4: 26 February 2001

I continue to read something about the characteristics of the laser beam.

Week 5: 5 March 2001

I still work on coupling the light into the fiber. I found some useful information about the fiber port from the web.

Week 6: 12 March 2001

I am still working on the adjustment of the fiber port. With the help of Enju Lima, we can coupling 20% of the laser light into the fiber. During the spring break, we couple at least 60% of the light into the fiber. This job need great patient and some tricks. I also measured the divergence of the light after the focusing lens.

Back To Webreport