Scattering loss in plastic optical fiber

Author

White, W.R. ; Wiltzius, P. ; Dueser, A.

Author_Institution

Lucent Lab., AT&T Bell Labs., Murray Hill, NJ, USA

fYear

1998

fDate

20-24 July 1998

Abstract

We have investigated lower limits for scattering loss in plastic optical fibers produced from PBVE. Even in the undoped polymer, frozen-in variations of density and orientation cause Rayleigh scattering, resulting in a minimum attenuation at 850 nm of -5 dB/km. Upon addition of dopant, this minimum attenuation increases to 10 dB/km. Since all of these scattering mechanisms (as well as any extrinsic scattering) introduce coupling between the various modes of a multimode plastic fiber, it is conceivable that scattering will positively impact the fiber bandwidth by reduction of modal dispersion.

Keywords

Rayleigh scattering; mode matching; optical fibre communication; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre losses; optical polymers; 850 nm; PBVE; Rayleigh scattering; extrinsic scattering; fiber bandwidth; minimum attenuation; modal dispersion; multimode plastic fiber; plastic optical fiber scattering loss; scattering mechanisms; undoped polymer; Fluctuations; Glass; Light scattering; Loss measurement; Optical fiber losses; Optical fibers; Optical scattering; Plastics; Rayleigh scattering; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Broadband Optical Networks and Technologies: An Emerging Reality/Optical MEMS/Smart Pixels/Organic Optics and Optoelectronics. 1998 IEEE/LEOS Summer Topical Meetings

Conference_Location

Monterey, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4953-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LEOSST.1998.690048

Filename

690048