Conference on Active and Passive Optical Components for WDM Communication, Colorado, United States Of America, 21 - 24 August 2001, vol.4532, pp.323-329
It is shown that fiber surface performance degradation due to scratches and pits can be analysed using wave scattering by imperfect surfaces. The return loss of a fiber endface/interface is obtained in terms of a parameter which gives the relative increase in scattering due to a defect over a defectless fiber endface. This parameter can be expressed as the ratio of the bidirectional scatter distribution functions with and without the defect. The predicted return losses as a function of the ratios mentioned above are presented.