Single-mode polymer optical fibers

The mechanical properties of polymer optical fibers (POF) make them very interesting candidates for fiber optical sensors. Today POFs are mainly used for short range data communication. These fibers have a very large core of 980 μm. This large core is beneficial for handling and maintenance in fiber networks. Fiber sensors however, often need high optical intensity or optical coherence (e.g. in fiber Bragg gratings). For such applications there is a need for single mode polymer optical fibers (SMPOF). It turns out that the fabrication process of SMPOFs is not just a matter of scaling, but requires new approaches to obtain high quality fibers.