Light Scattering Mechanisms in Few-Mode Fibers

The contributions of Rayleigh and small angle light scattering (SALS) mechanisms to attenuation for three different 6-LP-mode fibers are quantified and their impact on Differential Mode Attenuation (DMA) are analyzed. We show that a trapezoidal-index profile offers the best trade-off to reach low attenuation, low DMA and large effective-index differences between modes.