Smooth end face termination of microstructured, graded-index, and step-index polymer optical fibers.

A new technique, based on a partially automated process, for smooth end face termination of three types of plastic optical fibers (microstructured, graded-index, and step-index) is presented. The cross-sectional shape of the fibers is preserved, and the structure in microstructured plastic optical fibers (POFs) is of good quality, showing no plastic deformations. The termination is achieved in a fast and easy way, independent of material properties or structures inside the fiber. The process is reproducible and it shows that thin-diameter POFs can be used. The POFs' near-field pattern and the insertion loss are also analyzed, showing good coupling capabilities.

[1]  Christos Markos,et al.  Label-free biosensing with high sensitivity in dual-core microstructured polymer optical fibers. , 2011, Optics express.

[2]  Maryanne C. J. Large,et al.  Cleaving microstructured polymer optical fibres , 2005 .

[3]  Maryanne C. J. Large,et al.  Fabrication of microstructured polymer optical fibres , 2004 .

[4]  Yin Shao,et al.  112-Gb/s transmission over 100m of graded-index plastic optical fiber for optical data center applications , 2012, OFC/NFOEC.

[5]  David J. Webb,et al.  Narrow bandwidth Bragg gratings imprinted in polymer optical fibers for different spectral windows , 2013 .

[6]  Clayton J. Radke,et al.  Solubilities and diffusivities of water vapor in poly(methylmethacrylate), poly(2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate), poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) and poly(acrylonitrile) , 2003 .

[7]  Alessio Stefani,et al.  Cleaving of TOPAS and PMMA microstructured polymer optical fibers: Core-shift and statistical quality optimization , 2012 .

[8]  Mervyn J. Kowalsky,et al.  Cleaving of solid single mode polymer optical fiber for strain sensor applications , 2009 .

[9]  David J. Webb,et al.  Demountable connection for polymer optical fiber grating sensors , 2012 .

[10]  Christian-Alexander Bunge,et al.  Microstructured Polymer Optical Fibers Compared to Conventional POF: Novel Properties and Applications , 2010, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[11]  John Canning,et al.  UV laser cleaving of air-polymer structured fibre , 2002 .

[12]  G. Peng,et al.  Highly tunable Bragg gratings in single-mode polymer optical fibers , 1999, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[13]  Mark G. Kuzyk,et al.  Fabrication and mechanical behavior of dye-doped polymer optical fiber , 2002 .

[14]  Simon Fleming,et al.  Microstructured polymer optical fibre. , 2001 .

[15]  K. Krebber,et al.  Polymer Optical Fiber Sensors for Distributed Strain Measurement and Application in Structural Health Monitoring , 2009, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[16]  D. Abbott,et al.  Cleaving of Extremely Porous Polymer Fibers , 2009, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[17]  D. J. Webb,et al.  Connectorisation of fibre Bragg grating sensors recorded in microstructured polymer optical fibre , 2013, Other Conferences.

[18]  V. Minkovich,et al.  Polymer Optical Fiber Termination With Use of Liquid Nitrogen , 2014, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.