Integration of optical fibers in radiative environments: Advantages and limitations

We review the advantages and limitations for the integration of optical fibers in radiative environments. Optical fibers present numerous advantages for applications in harsh environments such as their electromagnetic immunity. This explains the increasing interest of the radiation effects community to evaluate their vulnerability for future facilities. However, it is also well-known that optical fibers suffer from a degradation of their macroscopic properties under irradiation. We illustrate the major mechanisms and parameters that govern the degradation mechanism, mainly the radiation-induced attenuation phenomena. We focus on the fiber transient radiation responses when exposed to the pulsed and mixed environment associated with the Megajoule class lasers devoted to the fusion by inertial confinement study.