Dopant designing for thermally stable graded index plastic optical fiber

Abstract

The graded index polymer optical fiber (GI POF) has been proposed as a media for very short reach network because of its high flexibility, low laying cost and excellent transmission characteristics. However, the plasticization efficiency which causes by the high refractive dopant decreases the glass transition temperature (T g ) in the center of the core and deteriorates thermal stability of fibers. In this paper, thermally stable PMMA based GI POF was successfully fabricated for the first time by designing dopant molecule which has little plasticizer effect. T g at the core region was improved to 104 o C while that of conventional GI POF is 86 o C. Stability of attenuation at 85 o C/dry and 75 o C/85 %RH were clarified to be as high as that of non-doped step index POF.