The future of plastic optical fiber

Abstract

T he twentieth century, the so-called 'miraculous century of physics', has drastically changed our way of life. Th e advent of new physics, the relativity theory and the quantum theory, have dramatically enhanced technology, revolutionizing our vision of the universe. Today, people are in the midst of a new revolution, with our perspective of the world shifted by the concept of 'networks'. Twenty years after the development of low-attenuation single-mode (SM) silica glass optical fi ber (GOF) in the 1970s [1], the United States launched the Information Superhighway project. Th e establishment of a global fiber-optic network has allowed the distribution of a wide range of media content, providing immediate access to new information. Th e world has become much smaller, eliminating physical constraints and endowing people with the ability to connect with anyone at anytime, living anywhere around the world. Th e internet has not only made our life more interesting and livable, but has created new industries, given rise to new cultures, and infl uenced politics. Indeed, it has changed our way of life.However, there remains one final hurdle to achieving ubiquitous high-bandwidth connectivity: there is not yet a high-speed pipeline that connects users to the superhighway. In the 'last hundred meters' between the superhighway and users, especially in home and office local area networks (LANs), optical fi bers must be bent at many points when laid down along walls. However, SM GOF is designed with a small core of just 5-10 μm (Figure 1) so as to excite only one optical mode within the fiber, and is thus not capable of withstanding all the bends required in the last hundred meters. One solution that has been proposed is multi-mode (MM) GOF, which is designed with a larger core. However, the number of modes excited within MM GOF increases dramatically with enlargement of the core region, causing the transmission rate to decrease accordingly due to an increase in the diff erences of the arrival times for each mode (modal dispersion). The future of plastic optical fi berYasuhiro Koike 1,2 * and Makoto Asai 1,3 Keio University, JapanThe number of services providing large-volume information content, such as high-defi nition movies, continues to increase rapidly. Single-mode glass optical fi ber (SM GOF), which has been widely deployed in data trunk lines and pipelines connecting large cities and nations, has already become indispensable as an information transmission medium. However, SM GOF is mechanically weak and lacks sufficient bending ability. Moreover, as the core diameter is very small, just 10 μm, extremely precise techniques and expensive devices are required to connect fi bers to signal receiving devices. It is therefore diffi cult to lay SM GOF for very short reach networks, such as local area networks in buildings. These difficulties are recognized as the problem of the 'last hundred meters' for optical fi ber infrastructure. Plastic optical fi ber (POF) has a relatively large-diameter core and is fl exible enough ...

Single-end-access strain and temperature sensing based on multimodal interference in polymer optical fibers

“…The MMFs used in the experiment are PFGI-POFs [30] with a core diameter of 62.5 µm and a cladding diameter of 72.5 µm. Their core and cladding layers are composed of doped and undoped polyperfluorobutenylvinyl ether, respectively.…”

Simplified optical correlation-domain reflectometry using polymer fiber

“…A 1.0-m-long pigtail of the circulator was connected to 10.0-m-, 2.9-m-, 2.9-m-, 2.0-m-, and 2.2-m-long POFs sequentially using SC/PC connectors; the distal end of the FUT was kept open (angled cut). Note that the POFs used here were perfluorinated graded-index POFs [28]. The core and cladding layers, composed of doped and undoped polyperfluorobutenylvinyl ether, have diameters of 50 µm and 70 µm, respectively.…”

Potencialidades da Análise de Fluxo de Materiais no Processo Produtivo de Fibras Ópticas Poliméricas

“…Pouco tempo depois estes mesmo autores, em outro estudo, apresentam maneiras de fabricar fibras poliméricas micro-estruturadas multimodo gradual, bem como fibras com núcleo duplo ou com núcleo oco, conferindo ainda mais capacidade de transmissão a um dado cabo óptico, bem como novas possibilidades de aplicação [19] . Em uma revisão histórica acerca das fibras ópticas poliméricas, Koike e Asai [20] chamam a atenção para estudos voltados para a produção de fibras ópticas por co-extrusão. Para tanto, monômeros são dopados, polimerizados e fundidos para então serem submetidos à extrusão que originará o filamento óptico multimodo gradual.…”

“…Como se pôde perceber nas pesquisas de Noda e Koike [17] , Koike e Asai [20] e Bartoli et al [21] , há acréscimo nos custos de produção em função dos materiais ou Quadro 1. Relação entre comprimento de onda e coeficiente de atenuação em fibras vítreas e poliméricas.…”

“…Ao sugerir métodos para ganho de eficiência e produtividade os autores permitem um menor consumo de energia e, como consequência indireta, a redução nas emissões de calor. Koike e Asai [20] e Yu et al [22] , por sua vez, optam por proposições cujo consumo energético é maior frente ao processo de extrusão comumente utilizado, aumentando as emissões de calor. Adicionalmente, a proposição de Bartoli et al [21] é uma potencial geradora de emissões de HFC (hidrofluorcarbono), gás cuja presença na atmosfera é altamente persistente e agrava o efeito-estufa em função de acelerar a quebra do ozônio.…”