Spectral excess attenuation of monomode optical fibers with sinusoidally perturbed core radius

The spectral excess attenuation caused by coupling between the guided HE11 mode and radiation modes is calculated with the aid of the formula derived by Marcuse for the radiation loss of a monomode optical fiber with step-index profile and sinusoidally perturbed core radius. The pronounced minima and maxima of the spectral excess attenuation curve converge as the spatial frequency of the perturbation of the core radius increases. Even perturbation amplitudes as small as 0.01 μm may lead to excess attenuations of the order of 10 dB/km if the radiation wavelength does not coincide with an attenuation minimum. The spectral behavior of the excess attenuation can be utilized to design fibers which act as optical filters.