Polymer coated optical glass fibers: review and extension

The paper contains a brief overview of the state-of-the-art in the field of mechanics of optical fiber coatings. The review is based primarily on the author´s research conducted at Bell Laboratories and at the ERS/Siloptix Co. during the last twenty years. We address some reliability problems, predictive modeling, hermetic and non-hermetic coatings, and strippabilityiadhesion issues. The extension part deals with the application of a newly developed nanoparticle material (NPM) as an attractive substitute for the existing optical fiber coatings.