] 1 6 Se p 20 02 Computational studies of light acceptance and propagation in straight and curved optical fibres

A Monte Carlo simulation has been performed to track light rays in cylindrical fibres by ray optics. The trapping efficiencies for skew and meridional rays in active fibres and distributions of characteristic quantities for all trapped light rays have been calculated. The simulation provides new results for curved fibres, where the analytical expressions are too complex to be solved. The light losses due to sharp bending of fibres are presented as a function of the ratio of curvature to fibre radius and bending angle. It is shown that a radius of curvature to fibre radius ratio of greater than 65 results in a loss of less than 10% with the loss occuring in the initial stage of the bend (at bending angles Φ ∼ π/8 rad).