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*Click on the wavelength range to view the attenuation plot.
Features
Numerical Apertures from 0.1 to 0.48
Cables Available for Wavelengths from 280 nm to 2400 nm
SMA 905 Connectors on Both Ends
Ø3 mm or Ø3.8 mm Outer Jacket
Custom Cables Available (See Custom Cables Tab)
Applications
Spectroscopy
Illumination
LED Energy Transmission
Medical Instruments
Optogenetics
Thorlabs offers multimode step index fiber optic patch cables with SMA 905 (straight ferrule) connectors on both ends. These cables are ideal for a broad range of wavelengths from 280 nm to 2400 nm. With Numerical Apertures up to 0.48, these are excellent for coupling using our SMA reflective couplers.
Each patch cable includes two protective caps that shield the connector ends from dust and other hazards. Additional CAPN Fiber Caps for SMA-terminated ends are also sold separately. All patch cables on this page are sold from stock with same-day shipping available.
We have extensive patch cable capabilities including a large, diverse stock of bare fiber and many different types of fiber connectors. If you do not see an SMA to SMA step-index multimode cable suitable for your application, please click the Custom Cables tab above for a quote on your desired fiber patch cable.
Numerical Aperture (NA), a measure of the acceptance angle of a fiber, is a dimensionless quantity. For applications, it is most commonly expressed as
where
is the maximum 1/2 acceptance angle of the fiber,
and
is the index of refraction of the material outside of the fiber; this material is typically air, making it equal to approximately 1.0, as shown in the figure below.
Figure: A ray at the maximum 1/2 acceptance angle propagates into a fiber.
Numerical Aperture can also be defined in terms of the index of refraction of the fiber core and the cladding. Due to Snell’s law, there is a critical angle above which all of the light at a fiber-cladding interface will be totally internally reflected. In turn, this means that there is a maximum acceptance angle at which light can enter the fiber. Following Snell’s law, the maximum acceptance angle can be determined:
Here,
is the index of refraction of the fiber core,
is the index of refraction of the cladding,
is the critical angle for total internal reflection,
and
is the maximum 1/2 acceptance angle.
This is the common way numerical aperture is defined for optical fibers. It is also important to note that these equations assume that a Gaussian beam is being outputted from the fiber.
Custom Patch Cables Service with Same Day Shipment
Thorlabs stocks the largest selection of single mode and multimode optical fibers in the photonics industry. Simply use the form below to receive a quote.
Custom patch cables can be shipped the same day provided the following criteria* are met:
Order Does Not Exceed 5 Cables
Each Cable Does Not Exceed a Length of 20 m
The Tolerance is ±1% or ±7 cm, Whichever is Greater**
The Order is Placed Before 2:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
*Other restrictions may apply. Not available with POF fibers, PM fibers, high-power cables, or fiber bundles. **Tighter tolerances may be available by contacting Technical Support and may not be available for same day shipping.
Please Note: Cables are manufactured in the US. Please allow for longer international shipment times.
Please use the Custom Cable web form below to request a quotation for custom patch cables.
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Posted Comments:
Poster: jlow
Posted Date: 2012-10-26 13:24:00.0
Response from Jeremy at Thorlabs: In general, it is good practice to look at the end face of the connector with a fiberscope before using it and clean it if necessary. This would make sure that the connector end face is clean before being used.
Poster: rpsmith
Posted Date: 2012-10-26 13:07:18.99
Hello,
I currently have the M15L05, and I am wondering about the cleaning procedure. Should one periodically clean the connectors with the hand-held connector cleaner (FCC-7020)? Or is it unnecessary to clean since the fiber has metal tips?
Sincerely,
Ryan
Poster: tcohen
Posted Date: 2012-07-12 15:03:00.0
Response from Tim at Thorlabs: When coupling into multimode fiber, you should make sure that the focused spot is comparable or smaller to the core size and that the incident angle is not larger than the acceptance angle of the fiber. Both of these factors should be considered for best efficiency and can be calculated based on the source and focusing lens you are using. I will contact you to discuss these parameters within your equipment.
Poster: paul.lauria
Posted Date: 2012-07-11 19:53:26.0
We're collecting a Raman signal using one of your collimators and are wondering about appropriate core diameters for fibers.
One would assume the larger the diameter, greater collection efficiency at the cost of greater divergence at spectrometer end, but all the formulae I've seen involve the NA only.
Poster: bdada
Posted Date: 2012-02-08 19:00:00.0
Response from Buki at Thorlabs to renfang:
The M24L01 patch cable uses the BFL22-200 fiber, which is designed for 350nm to 2500nm. The specification sheet is linked below and it includes attenuation curves for the wavelength range:
http://www.thorlabs.com/Thorcat/12200/12239-S01.pdf
Please note that the M24L01 has been replaced by M25L01, which uses a different fiber, FG200LCC. If you want to continue using the current patch cord you have, we can still provide it for you as a custom patch cord.
Please contact TechSupport@thorlabs.com if you have any questions.
Poster: renfang
Posted Date: 2012-02-08 16:50:22.0
Multimode fiber is very useful in some experiments. Now I'm using the multimode fiber(50 µm, 0.22 NA, SMA-SMA Fiber Patch Cable, 1 Meter) in my experiment.
Could you tell me the transmittance of multimode fiber M24L01 at the wavelength 380nm-390nm?
Thank you very much.
Poster: jjurado
Posted Date: 2011-08-04 13:26:00.0
Response from Javier at Thorlabs to last poster: Thank you very much for your feedback! We will implement your idea shortly. The core size and NA information will be printed on the jacket of our fiber patch cables. Please contact us at techsupport@thorlabs.com if you have any further questions.
Poster:
Posted Date: 2011-08-03 17:26:19.0
It would be nice to have the core size and NA printed on the cables.
Poster: bdada
Posted Date: 2011-06-06 19:39:00.0
Response from Buki at Thorlabs:
Thank you for using our Feedback Tool. To transmit 8W, please consider our high power SMA patch cables linked below and note that the core sizes available are 200um, 365um, and 550um.
http://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=4393
If you have further questions about this, please contact TechSupport@thorlabs.com
Poster: leonard.migliore
Posted Date: 2011-06-06 11:48:06.0
How much power can the M15L02 tolerate? I need to transmit 8 W CW at 532 nm.
Poster: jjurado
Posted Date: 2011-05-23 13:35:00.0
Response from Javier at Thorlabs to schaefer: Thank you very much for contacting us. If you plan to use the RC08SMA-P01, you could also use our HPSC25 fiber, which has a numerical aperture of 0.100 (± 0.015) and a core size of 25 um: http://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.cfm?ObjectGroup_ID=3255.
We can connectorize this fiber with SMA connectors to virtually any desired length. I will contact you directly for further support.
Poster: schaefer
Posted Date: 2011-05-23 10:56:38.0
I want to couple light from a polychromatic lightsource (a halogen lamp) into a multimode fiber and need a highly collimated output from that fiber. I assume your reflective collimators (RC04SMA-P01 & RC08SMA-P01) are what Im looking for. However, you state that for the RC08SMA-P01, which would have the lowest divergence, I need a multimode fiber with NA less than 0.167 but I cant find such a fiber on this page. Since divergence = arctan (Core Diameter in mm / EFL in mm) I would prefer to use a 50µm fiber (coupling efficiency isnt a big issue).
Poster: Adam
Posted Date: 2010-03-31 17:02:12.0
A response from Adam at Thorlabs to jonne: Damage thresholds are rather tough to provide as they depend heavily on initial conditions. The damage threshold of 5.4J/mm^2 for the .22NA fibers would be the same values for the .37NA(FT600EMT) and the .48NA(BFL48-600) fibers. Please note that this value is only valid if you are filling ~400-500um of the core. If you are filling the full 600um, you may damage some of the hard cladding.
Poster: jonne.haapalainen
Posted Date: 2010-03-31 10:27:46.0
Which of the 600µm (or 550µm) fibers has highest damage treshold (for ca. 1ns pulse)? NA 0.22 seems to be the only one which has specs for it.
Poster: apalmentieri
Posted Date: 2010-02-17 09:04:33.0
A response from Adam at Thorlabs to mth: We can provide AR coatings on the facets. We would need more information before we provide you with a quote. I will contact you directly to get this information.
Poster: mth
Posted Date: 2010-02-17 06:44:34.0
Can you do AR coatings (on facets) on these fibres for custom cables?
Poster: klee
Posted Date: 2009-10-20 10:49:32.0
A response from Ken at Thorlabs to s0793799: Please click on the Specs tab for specifications. For more information on the fibers used, you can click on the fiber part numbers in the Specs tab. The cables have polished ends, not cleaved ends.
Poster: s0793799
Posted Date: 2009-10-20 05:14:49.0
Specification catalogue is not available. How are the fibe cleaved?
Poster: Tyler
Posted Date: 2008-12-26 08:15:23.0
A response from Tyler at Thorlabs to omikrongr: The Numerical Aperture (NA) is a unitless number that is equal to the sine of the divergence angle. So a NA of 0.22 corresponds to a divergence angle of 12.7 degrees. For the remainder of your questions I am going to have a technical support team member contact you to discuss your application.
Poster: omikrongr
Posted Date: 2008-12-25 15:35:18.0
We have a DPSS laser of 95W at 980nm output and a DPSS laser of 40W output at 808nm.
Both of the have SMA connectors for the output.
We plan to use M14L05 to transfer the beam and take an output high power concentrated laser beam of 50um diameter at the end SMA connector.
We do not know much of fiber optics.
We assume that 0.22NA are in degrees.
Can you confirm us how long will the beam diameter be in a distance of 10mm?
What will be the losses in each one of the above applications? (How many Watts output will have on both applications)
Thank you in advance for your help.
Poster: Laurie
Posted Date: 2008-12-16 16:14:59.0
Response from Laurie at Thorlabs to anita_tzeng: These fibers can easily work down to vacuum levels around 1 x 10^-3 Torr. For vacuum levels in the 10^-5 or 10^-6 Torr range, these stock fibers are not suitable due to the jacketing and epoxy used. As a custom item, the jacketing can be changed to stainless steel and vacuum-compatible epoxy can be used. Please contact our technical support staff if you would like to pursue this avenue.
Poster: anita_tzeng
Posted Date: 2008-12-16 00:10:21.0
Please advise if this item could use under vacuity?
Poster: Laurie
Posted Date: 2008-04-16 09:02:06.0
Response from Laurie at Thorlabs to hongwei: Thank you for your interest in our products. I have passed your inquiry on to our technical support staff. You will be contacted shortly by an applications engineer who will work with you to determine the best solution for your application.
Poster: hongwei
Posted Date: 2008-04-14 18:01:55.0
Would you please recomend a collimator lens? I found some lens such as F240SMA-A. However, the NA doesnot fit. Furthermore, we are working at a broadrange from 400nm to 2000nm. Can you provide uncoated lens collimor?
Poster: technicalmarketing
Posted Date: 2007-11-01 14:27:42.0
Our web team has corrected the issue concerning which tab shows when you load the page. You should now view the overview tab when you first enter a page.
Poster: cjohns
Posted Date: 2007-10-29 13:44:24.0
When page is loaded, it brings up presentation feedback tab; not overview.
Poster: technicalmarketing
Posted Date: 2007-10-08 08:21:07.0
The M25L05 patch cable is 5 meters of BFL22-200 multimode fiber terminated on both ends with SMA connectors. So it is unnecessary to purchase the cable separately. Thank you for your feedback.
Poster: pierre
Posted Date: 2007-10-08 08:08:16.0
If I order want to M25L05, do I need to order BFL22-200 separately?
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Note: The material used in the cladding of this fiber to achieve an NA of 0.48 is softer than conventional fiber coatings. Due to this the connectors on this cable are terminated to the buffer layer to prevent the cladding from being disturbed.
Note: The material used in the cladding of this fiber to achieve an NA of 0.48 is softer than conventional fiber coatings. Due to this the connectors on this cable are terminated to the buffer layer to prevent the cladding from being disturbed.