Extraction of Attenuation and Backscattering Coefficient along Hollow Core Fiber Length Using Two-Way Optical Time Domain Backscattering

Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) is a key technique to characterize fabricated and installed optical fibers. OTDR of emerging Hollow Core Fibers (HCFs) has been demonstrated only very recently, being almost 30 dB weaker than in the glass-core optical fibers. Additionally, it has been challenging to extract useful data from the OTDR traces of HCFs, as the longitudinal variation in the fiber’s geometry, notably the core size or the longitudinal variations of the air pressure within the core result in commensurate changes of the backscattering strength. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, that the distributed loss and backscattering coefficient in antiresonant HCFs can be separated, obtaining key data about the fiber distributed loss and uniformity. This is enabled by using OTDR traces obtained from both ends of the HCF.