JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOLUME 64, NUMBER 5 MAY 1974

Failure of geometric optics for analysis of circular optical fibers

Allan W. Snyder, D. J. Mitchell, and Colin Pask
Institute of Advanced Studies, Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University,
Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia
(Received 18 August 1973)

In addition to rays that lose energy by undergoing refraction, there is a large class of weakly attenuated
rays in circular optical fibers. These leaky rays are incorrectly predicted to be lossless by Fresnel's laws.
Thus, Fresnel's laws fail for the analysis of long fibers. The significance and properties of leaky rays are
discussed. A very simple attenuation coefficient is given, from which the loss of all rays is computed. This
attenuation coefficient makes it possible to extend the use of ray tracing and Snell's laws for analyzing
circular optical fibers.

Index Headings: Fiber optics; Geometric optics; Waveguides; Surface-guided waves.

It has long been widely accepted that geometric optics, in Fig. 1, and X is the wavelength in vacuum. A is the
i.e., ray tracing 'using Snell's laws and Fresnel's re- projection of the wave vector within the fiber onto
flection coefficients, provides a good approximation of the z axis, i.e.," 7
the light-acceptance and transmission properties of
optical fibers when the ratio of fiber radius to wave- /27
Ao= ( )coso", (1)
length is large. For example, on p. 36 of his authori-
tative account of fiber optics, Kapany' stated that the
geometric optics of fibers "is rigorously valid for calcu- where O is illustrated in Fig. 1. Thus, at cut off, the
lations of optical characteristics of large-diameter angle 0, equals A,, where
fibers." This assumption has led to the wide-spread
belief'-' that a ray is transmitted, unattenuated, within n2
a lossless fiber if it strikes the fiber boundaries at an coso 0=-. (2)
nl
angle equal to or greater than the critical angle neces-
sary for total internal reflection. In other words, all The angle 0, is the complement of the critical angle
the rays that fall within the generalized numerical
aperture' of the fiber are assumed to be trapped. Sup-
port for these assumptions comes, to take an example, P
from the accurate prediction by geometric optics of 2
2p
>n
the dark band across the exit end of the fiber ob-
served at steep angles when the fiber is illuminated I
with a diffuse source." 4 PR
The objectives of this paper are (i) to emphasize
that many of the so-called trapped or totally reflected
rays are in fact leaky, i.e., they lose or radiate their
energy as they propagate within the fiber, (ii) to
describe the significance and properties of these leaky RD
rays in physical problems, and (iii) to present numerical
values of their attenuation. Since leaky rays account
for a significant portion of the light-carrying capacity
of the fiber, geometric optics is useful only throughout
a length of fiber for which these rays retain most of P
their initial energy. We determine this length.

EXISTENCE OF LEAKY RAYS

ON CIRCULAR FIBER
All energy that is transmitted unattenuated in a
dielectric rod must he contained in bound modes,', 6
The characteristic propagation constant 3 for bound
modes traveling along the axis of a dielectric waveguide
has a minimum value 3 =27rn2/X at cut off,"- 8 where n2
is the refractive index of the outside medium, as shown
608
FIG. 1. Illustration of angles defined at incidence on fiber
boundary. P is the point of incidence. 0 is the center of the
circular cross section. ON is the angle between the normal to the
boundary, given by line OP, and the incident-ray direction (RD).
The angles ON, O°, and 0 are related by sino, sinos = cosON. PR
is the projection of the ray direction onto the cylinder cross
section.
May 1974 ANALYSIS OF OPTICAL FIBERS 609

necessary for total internal reflection.' Thus, when A. Importance of Leaky Rays
applied in the appropriate asymptotic limit, bound- The power initially contained in the leaky rays
mode theory tells us that rays with 0,> 0c are not
depends on the source of illumination. Here we suppose
trapped. This agrees with geometric optics for a planar that all rays are launched with equal power, as is the
or slab waveguide.5 6' 8 However, because rays can be case for incoherent or diffuse illumination.'' 0 Our
skew to the circular-fiber axis, i.e., have 0kR?7r/ 2 in objective is to determine the power contribution of
Fig. 1, many rays with 02>00 have ON>{(ir/2)-O,}
leaky rays to the total power of rays predicted to be
and are predicted by geometric optics to be trapped.'
trapped by geometric optics. The power predicted by
Therefore, in a circular fiber, all rays with 0,>0, that
geometric optics to be trapped within the cylinder is a
are predicted by geometric optics to be trapped are
sum of the power of trapped rays PTR plus the initial
in fact not trapped, i.e., there are no bound modes
power of the leaky rays PLR-
with 0,> 0c.
The amount of power PTR transmitted by trapped
The method for determining the existence and
rays is proportional to the square of the numerical
properties of nontrapped rays is to solve -for certain
aperture of the fiber for meridional rays [Ref. 1, Eq.
complex roots of the eigenvalue equation.6' 9'" These (2.5)]. Thus
complex roots are associated with modes that attenuate
on lossless structures. Using the Debye asymptotic PTR = sin 200 (3)
expansion for Bessel functions, we can show that the
fields of a mode are formed by a family of rays; each where from Eq. (2)
ray of the family is incident on the boundaries at the s 12( 2
same angle to the normal. This decomposition enables sin20C= J-t- (4)
us to study ray behavior within optical fibers. The
results of this procedure are discussed here. By rays
we mean the trajectories of the normals to local plane The summed power PTOT transmitted by the leaky and
waves. See Ref. 15 for mathematical details. trapped rays is proportional to the square of the
numerical aperture of the fiber for all skew rays,
A. Rays in the Slab (Refs. 5, 6, and 8) ignoring the refracted rays [Ref. 1, Eq. (2.39), with
There are two main classes of rays in the slab, n= no]. Thus, assuming a unit power source,
(i) trapped and (ii) refracted. The rays with 0,< 0 are
PTOT= PTR+PLR
trapped by total internal reflection. The rays with
02> 0, are attenuated by the well-known mechanism of
refraction loss. = 1--[(d-62)1+(1-25) cos'lV], (5)
7r
B. Rays in the Cylinder
where we have used the notation B= 1- (n2/nl)2 . The
There are three main classes of rays in the cylinder, percent leaky-ray power (% PLR) contribution to the
(i) trapped, (ii) refracted, and (iii) leaky. The rays total power predicted to be trapped by geometric optics
with 02<00 are trapped. The rays that make an angle is
2
ON< { (7r/ )- O0 with the normal attenuate by re- PLR
fraction. The third class of rays have 0,>0,, with % PLR= 10X (6)
ON> ( (Xr/2) - }J. These rays are trapped according to PTR+PLR
geometric optics; however, we now know that they
leak a small amount of energy. We call this third class and is illustrated in Fig. 2 vs sin200 . From this figure, we
of rays leaky rays. We refer the reader having difficulty can determine the contribution of leaky rays to the total
visualizing skew-ray propagation in an optical fiber light-transmitting property of the fiber, assuming a
to Ch. 2 of Ref. 1. diffuse or incoherent illumination. When nl n2, as
it is for optical-communication fibers,3 "' nearly. 50%
PROPERTIES AND SIGNIFICANCE of the power is initially launched into the leaky rays.
OF LEAKY RAYS The PTOT curve shows that, as the difference between
nl and n2 increases, the total power-transmission
Although most of what has been stated above is in capability of the fiber increases.
the literature in one form or another,',', 7"i0 the behavior We can easily construct illumination conditions for
and significance of leaky rays and the consequence of which only leaky rays are launched. We give three
their presence in any physical problem have remained well-known examples.
unappreciated or misunderstood. The remainder of this
paper is devoted to the task of filling this gap. (i) The light accepted by an optical fiber, due to
The most-general, descriptive property of leaky rays illumination at angles 02 of incidence greater than 00
is that they are more skew to the fiber axis than the but with ON> {(7r/ 2 )-A0), is transmitted as leaky
trapped rays. rays." 4 ,12
610 SNYDER, MITCHELL, AND PASK Vol. 64

10 0-9 08 07 06 0-5 03 l analysis of coherent"2 and incoherently illumination of

50 I I I, I I 1
lI~
10 semi-infinite optical fibers. For certain very long fibers,
only trapped rays are significant and mode theory
40 0*8 provides an accurate description. All rays can then be
treated as if they are meridional and ray tracing is
IR
PTOT simplified.10, 12
30
C. Multimode Optical Fibers of Arbitrary Length
20 04 Clearly there are fibers for which analysis by either
geometric optics or mode theory is unsuitable. For
these fibers, we need to know the attenuation of the
10 02 leaky rays. Knowing the attenuation of each ray, we
can preserve geometric-optic concepts for analysis of a
0o A A fiber.
0 02 04 0-6 08 1.0
2
sin ec - 1 - (n2/n,)2 ATTENUATION OF LEAKY AND
REFRACTING RAYS
FIG. 2. Percent power % PLR carried by the leaky rays within
an optical fiber excited by an incoherent or diffuse source S. The Here we present a simple analytic expression for the
total power Pw0t is also shown. Upper scale refers to n2/nl. attenuation of all leaky rays and the refracting rays
when the refractive index of the fiber is only slightly
(ii) The bright bands across the exit end of a fiber more than that of its surround, i.e., when
observed at steep angles are due to leaky rays.'. 4
(iii) The so-called whispering-gallery modes in 0C-sinOe: [1-(I- 2 <<1. (7)
large-diameter optical fibers launched by highly skew
illumination, are formed by leaky rays.' 3
In most applications we are concerned with rays that
These examples should indicate to the reader that are nearly z directed, i.e.,
the rays we classify as leaky have an important role
,-_sin0,<<1. (8)
in many physical problems. Until now, we have con-
sidered only the amount of power accepted by the These conditions are not restrictive, because Oz can be
leaky rays and not the consequence of attenuation of many multiples of Oc and all the general ray behavior is
their power. Nevertheless, the success of geometric retained. Furthermore, many of the leaky rays are
optics in describing the light-transmission phenomena contained within Oz< 100, as illustrated by Fig. 3.
in the examples cited illustrates that, in many situ- Since n1-n 2 , the results are insensitive to the polar-
ations, the attenuation is so slight that the leakage can ization of the electric vector.', 8
be neglected. Indeed, for such examples, the limit The power P (z) of an attenuated ray at a distance z
X-> 0 of mode theory provides an inadequate descrip- along the fiber axis is
tion of light transmission. This is because, in a formal P(z) =P(0)e-zlP, (9)
electromagnetic solution to such problems, modes
account only for the unattenuated or guided energy,
whereas radiation accounts for the leaky and refracted
90 ' /2
energy.5 8 On the other hand, geometric optics approxi- 86 >
mates certain features of the total electromagnetic
field and is therefore successful when the leaky rays
are only slightly attenuated. 6/ sin O.A% 3

B. Failure of Geometric Optics for Long, RR -0-

Multimode Fibers
That leaky rays attenuate, however slowly, indicates
200 1T/8
that geometric optics does not provide an adequate
representation of light transmission within certain
very long fibers. This phenomenon has particular 00 0
0 1 2 4 6 8 10
relevance to multimode liquid-core fibers proposed for
use in long-distance optical-communication systems. 3 "
Furthermore, the failure of geometric optics for very
FIG. 3. The ray type associated with 00 and 0, for the case
long fibers explains the discrepancy between mode when 0, and 0, are small. LR=leaky rays, TR=trapped rays,
theory and geometric optics that appeared in the and RR=refracted rays.
 May 1974 ANALYSIS OF OPTICAL FIBERS 611

where p is the fiber radius and the dimensionless attenu-

ation coefficient a is found from9', 5
40
a 4(0\2(1\ 1
(10)
09 Ar } H)i(Q)H (Q)- 30
The parameters 1, Q, and V are
ec
20
1= V cos0o, (11a)

10
F/6 2
1
(lib)
0E
-27rpn1 2 3 4 5 6
V= 0-ti. (1ic) ez/ec

The angles 02 and 0, are defined by Fig. 1 and 00 is
given by Eq. (7). The modulus of the Hankel function,
IHI(Q) , is a smooth decreasing function of Q. When-
ever Q or l is large, the Hankel-function product in
Eq. (10) can be replaced by I Hi(Q) 12.
For a given V, a/0, is determined by specifying
02/00 and 0,D. In Fig. 3 we show the ray types associated
with these two parameters. Equation (10) simplifies in
the special cases to be considered next.
FIG. 5. Same as Fig. 4 with V= 104.
figures shows the effect of approaching the geometric-
optics limit, i.e., the effect of increasing V defined by
Eq. (11c). In particular, as V - o the attenuation of
leaky rays decreases to zero, whereas the attenuation
of most of the refracted rays remains unchanged.
The attenuation coefficient associated with the curves
A, B, and C in the figures can be approximated by

APPROXIMATIONS AND NUMERICAL RESULTS 0a Cc0 02 (12a)

A. The Attenuation Picture in General
for curve A,
Figures 4 (with V= 100) and 5 (with V= 104) present
the general behavior of the attenuation coefficient for
the leaky and refracting rays. A comparison of the -=z .59( i I (12b)

for curve B, i.e., for rays at the critical angle, and

40 ao 0\2/0 - 0o Vlot/c-h2
-V _ (12c)
0c, 0z+0c

30 for curve C.

B. Attenuation of Refracted Rays

20 When a ray is incident on the fiber boundary at less
than the critical angle, Fresnel's laws show that it has
an attenuation due to refraction loss given by"5
10 a 0 2 0 2 1
-2 sin'00 - I . (13)
0C
01 2 3- 4 5 '6 This equation is valid unless the ray is very close to the
critical angle.

C. Transition Region Between Leaky

FIG. 4. The attenuation coefficient divided by A, vs 0,/Oc for
V= 100. LR=leaky rays, RR = refracted rays. Curves A, B and
C are associated with the approximate expressions, Eqs. (12a),
(12b), and (12c), respectively. Curve A is associated with l=0,
i.e., the meridional ray. Curve C is the most skew ray.
and Refracted Rays
As shown by Figs. 6 and 7, a changes rapidly in the
transition region between leaky and refracting rays.
612 SNYDER, MITCHELL, AND PASK Vol. 64

cos O

10

8
OC
Ec
6

ocL
4

nv
'2 22 2-4 2-6 2-8
(/e

FIG. 6. Attenuation of rays near the critical angle. 0,=25.8'

(cosO = O.9). The V = 104 curve obeys Fresnel's laws (FL) except e, (dog)
close to the critical angle. The critical angle is given by the vertical
line. LR is leaky rays, and RR refracting rays. FIG. 7. Same as Fig. 6, but with (0/O6) = 1.35,
and with varying 0>.

The critical angle is represented by the vertical lines

in the figures. This is the angle at which O.sinOp-0,O
or ON (defined by Fig. 1) is (r/ 2)- O,.The attenuation
coefficient, exactly at the critical angle, is given by
Eq. (12b).
The refracted rays are to the right of the critical
angle. There is a very narrow region for which the
refracted rays depart from Fresnel's laws when V is
large. This is the region where Fresnel's laws, i.e.,
Eq. (13), give incorrect results for refracted rays, e.g.,
Fresnel's laws give a=0 for rays at the critical angle.
The leaky rays are to the left of the critical angle.
C
Their attenuation decreases rapidly as we move away
from the critical angle, i.e., as either Oz or 0, decrease.
Furthermore, the attenuation of leaky rays depends
dramatically on V, as we will show in further detail.
We are reminded that Fresnel's laws give a = 0 for
leaky rays.

D. Attenuation of Leaky Rays

Figures 8-11 provide further detail of leaky-ray
attenuation. Except when a ray is very close to the '- 1-2 1-4 1.6 1-8 20 2-2
critical angle, the attenuation is extremely small
compared with that of refracted rays. However, for
long fibers, this attenuation can be significant. For FIG. 8. Attenuation of leaky rays. 0O0=25.8' (coso,=0.9). The
example, the power of a ray decreases to one-half of ray is at the critical angle when Oz/O@= 2.294.
May 1974 ANALYSIS OF OPTICAL FIBERS 613

Cos 0,
10 0-9 &8 0-7 0-6 0-5 0A4 0-3
iod' I I I II 0O8 06 0-4 0-2 0

e,0 (deg)
FIG. 9. Attenuation of leaky rays. The heavy dashed curve
represents the critical angle.

its initial value when

z 0 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
-c (14) 8,o (deg)
p
FIG. 11. Attenuation of rays vs 0d when V = 500. Vertical
Let us calculate this a when z is equal to 103 m and bars indicate the critical angle, as in Fig. 10.
the fiber radius is p = 10-5 m. Then,
10-s will have its power reduced by half. Rays on this
a O.7 /p\ 0.7 fiber with a/C,< 10-"1 require a length greater than
ac
Z) oc(15)
Ac 106 m to decrease to half power, so that their attenu-
ation is negligible. The p and 0Cassumed in the fore-
where we have determined a/0C because that is how the going are typical of proposed multi-mode liquid-core
results are presented in Figs. 8 and 9. Typically, optical fibers"' when V- 100.
0-0.2, so that a ray on this fiber with a/0c of order Throughout most of the leaky-ray region, the attenu-
ation coefficient, as given by Eq. (10), is accurately
approximated by

-_2R 2 (1-R 2 sin2C+)§

tc
10( Xexp[ -- V 1 (16)
L3 R-1
where R =
=O/C.

MECHANISM FOR ATTENUATION

oo
FIG. 10. Attenuation of rays when V = 500. The vertical bars on the
curves represent the ciritical angle given by 0° sin0e= O¢.
OF LEAKY RAYS
What causes the attenuation of leaky rays? That
there are no leaky rays on slabs (all of the attenuated
rays are refracted rays) reveals that the curvature of
the fiber is responsible. However, it cannot be curvature
alone or else the trapped skew rays would also be
attenuated.
Marcuse' 4 has shown that radiation loss arises
because a portion of the energy associated with the
614 SNYDER, MITCHELL,
incident ray in medium 1 must also travel in medium 2.
The wave in medium 2 must remain in step with that
in medium 1. Consequently, when the surface is curved,
the phase velocity of the wave in medium 2 may
exceed the velocity of a plane wave in medium 2. At
the position where this occurs, the power disassociates
itself from the incident ray, i.e., it radiates into space.
This position is found from electromagnetic theory to
be at a radial distance r from the fiber axis, where for
leaky rays r=p sinO, cos0o/(sin2 0,-O,2)1 and r=p for
refracted rays.
DISCUSSION
Fresnel's laws predict zero loss for all leaky rays and
give an incorrect loss for refracted rays very near the
critical angle. We have found the attenuation co-
efficient for all leaky rays and those refracted rays that
are weakly attenuated. That attenuation coefficient
makes it possible to extend the use of ray tracing and
Snell's laws for analyzing optical fibers. The power of
each ray is determined from the attenuation coefficient
by use of Eq. (9). Thus, a given by Eq. (10) provides a
generalized attenuation coefficient that accounts com-
pletely for the losses of all rays on a lossless fiber when
0, and O are small. Although the refracted rays are
usually attenuated rapidly, many leaky rays persist
over enormous distances. Mode theory is inadequate
unless all leaky rays have been significantly attenuated.
On the other hand, geometric optics, using Fresnel's
laws, can be useful only for short fibers, i.e., fibers for
AND PASK Vol. 64
which leaky-ray attenuation is negligible. In practice,
a is well approximated by Eq. (16).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Peter McIntyre and Rowland Sammut for
participating in numerous discussions that helped to
clarify the subject of this paper. We gratefully acknowl-
edge financial support by the Australian Post Office
and the stimulation of their optical group, particularly
Mr. Graeme Kidd.
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'N. S. Kapany, Fiber Optics (Academic, New York, 1967),
2
p. 31.
V. Maxia, M. Murgia, and K. Testa, Appl. Opt. 12, 98
(1973).
3J. P. Dakin, W. A. Gambling, H. Matsumra, D. N. Payne,
and H. R. D. Sunak, Opt. Commun. 7, 1 (1973).
4R. J. Potter, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 51, 1079 (1961).
'R. E. Collin, Field Theory of Guided Waves (McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1960), p. 470.
'N. S. Kapany and J. J. Burke, Optical Waveguides
(Academic, New York, 1972), p. 7.
7
A. W. Snyder, IEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech. 17,
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'D. Marcuse, Light Transmission Optics (Van Nostrand
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'A. W. Snyder and D. J. Mitchell, Electron. Lett. 9, 437
(1973).
'"A. W. Snyder and C. Pask, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63, 806 (1973).
"R.
12
D. Maurer, Proc. IEEE 61, 452 (1973).
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"F. G. Reick, Appl. Opt. 4, 1395 (1965).
' 4D. Marcuse, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63, 1372 (1973).
'5A. W. Snyder and D. J. Mitchell, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 64, 599 (1974).