I have a system that relies on white light entering through a single optical fiber of 400 um diameter. It currently has a NA of 0.22 but this could change if I want. I have an old Oriel tungsten source currently illuminating the fiber and have played around a bit with fiber placement, but it looks like there’s too little light for the system to work well. Especially, I’d like it to work out in the infrared to a micrometer or two, and the present system roughly falls off in a pretty straight line from 700 nm to 1600 nm.
It seems like the point here would be to get the closest approximation to the hottest blackbody possible, like maybe a carbon arc lamp or a zirconium one, or else to get the most intense plasma source possible. Considering the fiber size, I bet I’m not talking about high power or bright light, but rather, intense light. But, then, I hear there are new white LED fiber optic sources, and even found something a little confusing about a “white laser”.
Nobody’s sales literature seems to say how many watts of light can get forced into this little dot of a fiber.
Any advice? Thanks!