Mode volume

In fiber optics, mode volume is the number of bound modes that an optical fiber is capable of supporting.

The mode volume M is approximately given by ${\displaystyle 4V^{2} \over \pi ^{2}}$ and ${\displaystyle {V^{2} \over 2}\left({g \over g+2}\right)}$, respectively for step-index and power-law index profile fibers, where g is the profile parameter, and V is the normalized frequency, which must be greater than 5 for this approximation to be valid.