A method to study light attenuation effects in wavelength shifting fibres

The quality of wavelength shifting fibres depends on two basic parameters: the transparency of the core material, polystyrene, and the reflection coefficients at the fibre internal interfaces (core–clad and clad–clad in double-clad fibres). We have developed a model to parameterize these effects. The model has been applied to study the light attenuation in fibres used in the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter (TILE Calorimeter), as well as in the ones produced by several firms.