Radiation Testing Of Single Mode Fibers At 1500 Nm

The sensitivity of long wavelength single mode fibers to ionizing radiation plays an important role in fiber optic component selection for military systems. Our research efforts have concentrated on low temperature and minimum optical power to reduce the annealing and photobleaching attributed to these operating conditions, and specifically focus on the damage mechanisms associated with fiber material compositions. Our test results indicate that the presence of phosphorus in fibers increases the induced attenuation during irradiation and the fibers display continual damage after irradiation. Without the presence of phosphorus, standard germanium doped core single mode fiber as well as an oxygen enriched germanium doped core fiber exhibit similar recovery characteristics. This research report will address the fiber sample composition, the test conditions, the test setup, and the test results.