Effective mode volume
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For an optical fiber, the effective mode volume is the square of the product of the diameter of the near-field pattern and the sine of the radiation angle of the far-field pattern. The diameter of the near-field radiation pattern is defined here as the full width at half maximum and the radiation angle at half maximum intensity.
Note: Effective mode volume is proportional to the breadth of the relative distribution of power amongst the modes in a multimode fiber. It is not truly a spatial volume but rather an "optical volume" equal to the product of area and solid angle.
Source: from Federal Standard 1037C