Mode volume explained

In fiber optics, mode volume is the number of bound modes that an optical fiber is capable of supporting.

The mode volume M is approximately given by

V ^{2} \over 2 and {V ^{2} \over 2 } \left({g \over g +2 }\right) , respectively for step-index and power-law index profile fibers, where g is the profile parameter, and V is the normalized frequency, which must be greater than 5 for this approximation to be valid.

See also

• Equilibrium mode distribution
• Mode scrambler
• Mandrel wrapping