A set-up to measure the optical attenuation length of scintillating fibres

The optical attenuation length of a scintillating fibre characterizes the quality of light transport through the fibre. It relates directly to the quantity of detectable light at the readout end of the fibre. An optical bench has been constructed, which allows excitation of the fibre at various distances from the photodetector. Depending on the choice of the photodetector – Si-PIN photodiode or grating spectrometer – the attenuation length is measured as weighted average over the sensitivity of the photodetector or as a spectral distribution. A few examples illustrate its operation and performance. The set-up serves for fibre optimisation in the R&D phase and is expected to be used for systematic checks during the series production phase of the LHCb SciFi tracker project.