Effect of buffer materials on thermal imprint on plastic optical fiber

Solution doping of off-the-shelf plastic optical fibers (POFs) represents rather simple and cheap way for preparing custom cladding-doped POFs (CD-POFs) with short to medium lengths. CD-POFs are especially attractive for environmental sensing applications, but might be of interest for illumination task as well. In this work, the proposed doping technique is tested with three different commercial low-cost polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) POFs; Eska CK-40 and Eska GK-40 from Mitsubishi Rayon and Raytela PGU-FB1000 from Toray. The aim of the work is to aid the selection of the most suitable fiber yielding highest optical quality of prepared CD-POFs. Firstly, the optimal doping times are determined for the individual fiber types using short fiber samples. Secondly, longer 10 m CD-POFs are prepared from all tested fibers using the optimized doping procedure. Finally, attenuation of pristine POFs and prepared CD-POFs is measured using optical time domain reflectometry in order to characterize the impacts of the doping on fiber optical properties. In addition, the importance of post-doping drying procedure for CD-POF optical performance is investigated as well. The results suggest that, although doping of all tested fibers is generally feasible, Eska CK-40 is the most suitable candidate with regard to the doping efficiency and fiber post-doping performance.

Application of highly concentrated sunlight transmission and daylighting indoor via plastic optical fibers with comprehensive cooling approaches

Study on thermal protection and temperature of PMMA plastic optical fiber for concentrated sunlight transmission in daylighting

The potential for 'do-it-yourself' installation, easy maintenance, and high bending tolerance is driving the commercialization of large-core polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) plastic optical fibres (POFs) for short-range multi-gigabit transmission capacities. Record transmission rates have been achieved, by using advanced modulation formats with simple intensity-modulation direct-detection systems with low-cost and eye-safe transceivers to enable transmission over 50-m POF links. In addition, results of transmitting high-capacity baseband signals together with wireless signals such as OFDM ultra-wide band transmitted over a single POF infrastructure are presented to highlight the key potential for POF-enabled delivery of both high-speed wired and wireless services.

The paper reports the numerical analysis and some experimental results relative to an optical sensor system based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) at the interface of a liquid sample and a sandwiched structures realized starting from the exposed core of a Plastic Optical Fiber (POF). The advantages of POF sensors is that they are simpler to manufacture than those based on silica optical fibers. In the scientific literature there are only simple POF sensors based on laterally polished bent structures prepared along a plastic optical fiber [1]. In this paper different POF sensor configurations are simulated and experimentally tested. The classical geometry of sensors based on SPR in silica optical fiber is adapted and borrowed for Plastic Optical Fibers [2], so representing a simple approach to low cost plasmonic sensing.

We have developed a low-loss bidirectional optical coupler for high-speed optical communication with plastic optical fibers (POFs). The coupler, which is fabricated by an injection molding method that uses poly (methyl methacrylate), has an antisymmetric tapered shape. We show that the coupler has low insertion and branching losses. The tapered shape of the receiving branch reduces beam diameter and increases detection efficiency coupling to a photodetector, whose area is smaller than that of the plastic optical fiber. The possibility of more than 15-m bidirectional transmission with a signaling bit rate up to 500 Mbits/s for simplex step-index POFs is demonstrated.

In this work, Fe2O3 was investigated as a doping agent for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in order to enhance the plasmonic effect in sensors based on D-shaped plastic optical fibers (POFs). The doping procedure consists of immerging a premanufactured POF sensor chip in an iron (III) solution, avoiding repolymerization and its related disadvantages. After treatment, a sputtering process was used to deposit a gold nanofilm on the doped PMMA in order to obtain the surface plasmon resonance (SPR). More specifically, the doping procedure increases the refractive index of the POF’s PMMA in contact with the gold nanofilm, improving the SPR phenomena. The doping of the PMMA was characterized by different analyses in order to determine the effectiveness of the doping procedure. Moreover, experimental results obtained by exploiting different water–glycerin solutions have been used to test the different SPR responses. The achieved bulk sensitivities confirmed the improvement of the plasmonic phenomenon with respect to a similar sensor configuration based on a not-doped PMMA SPR-POF chip. Finally, doped and non-doped SPR-POF platforms were functionalized with a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP), specific for the bovine serum albumin (BSA) detection, to obtain dose-response curves. These experimental results confirmed an increase in binding sensitivity for the doped PMMA sensor. Therefore, a lower limit of detection (LOD), equal to 0.04 μM, has been obtained in the case of the doped PMMA sensor when compared to the one calculated for the not-doped sensor configuration equal to about 0.09 μM.

Based on the fiber macrobending and the refractive index matching technologies, a novel scheme of nonintrusive light injection, namely, the light signal is injected into the fiber core from the fiber cladding without any destruction, is proposed in plastic optical fibers (POFs). Using the ray-tracing method, a 3-D theoretical model is established to characterize the performance of the light injection. The influences of the fiber bending radius, the light source placement, and the surrounding medium refractive index on the light injection efficiency are investigated and assessed. Meanwhile, correlative experiments have also been conducted to contrast theoretical simulations. The experiment results fit theoretical ones well. This nonintrusive light injection technology in POFs might have many potential applications such as the optical signal uploading and downloading, the optical coupling, and the local area networks.

We develop plastic optical fibers (POFs) with microscopic material properties designed for stable data transmissions for ultrahigh-definition applications in households (<30m). In the POF link, transmission quality tends to be improved with increase in link length despite loss increase.

Realization of high flux daylighting via optical fibers using large Fresnel lens

The daylighting systems via polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) plastic optical fibers have obvious cost advantages and have been widely studied. However, there is light leakage when PMMA optical fibers transmit concentrated sunlight, resulting in a transmission efficiency lower than the theoretical value. This research aims to quantitatively study the light leakage effect of PMMA optical fibers. Concentrated sunlight was used as the sunlight source instead of a monochromatic laser. An adjustable diaphragm was used to adjust the angle of the incident light, and the infrared filter and heat-absorbing glass were used to solve the overheating problem of PMMA fibers. The results show that when the incident angle is greater than 13°, the relative transmission efficiency of the fibers drops rapidly, which means that the light leakage deteriorates. The data also show that the angle of the output beam of PMMA optical fibers is ±30°, which is independent of the angle of the incident beam. Based on this conclusion, a PMMA optical fiber daylighting system with an incident angle of 13° was developed, which has higher transmission efficiency than previously developed systems. This study indicates that the angle effect of light leakage should be considered in the design of a plastic optical fiber daylighting system.

The aim of the study was to verify the usefulness of commercially available granulates of PMMA (poly (methyl methacrylate) and PS (polystyrene) for the production of polymer optical fibers by extrusion method. Samples were subjected to thermal processing in various conditions (different temperatures and exposure time). Thermal (TG/DTG) and spectroscopic (ATR/FT-IR) analyses were carried out to analyze changes in the samples. Based on FT-IR analysis of liquid monomers and granulates the conversion of double bonds was calculated, which gave us a picture of the degree of monomers conversion, crucial information from the technological point of view. Full Text: PDF ReferencesO. Ziemann, J. Krauser, P.E. Zamzow, W. Daum, POF Polymer Optical Fibersfor Data Communication (Berlin: Springer 2008). DirectLink P. Stajanca et al. "Solution-mediated cladding doping of commercial polymer optical fibers", Opt. Fiber Technol. 41, 227-234, (2018). CrossRef K. Peters, "Polymer optical fiber sensors—a review", Smart Mater. Struct., 20 013002 (2011) CrossRef J. Zubia and J. Arrue, "Plastic Optical Fibers: An Introduction to Their Technological Processes and Applications", Opt. Fiber Technol. 7 ,101-40 (2001) CrossRef M. Beckers, T. Schlüter, T. Gries, G. Seide, C.-A. Bunge, "6 - Fabrication techniques for polymer optical fibres", Polymer Optical Fibres, 187-199 (2017) CrossRef M. Niedźwiedź , M. Gil, M. Gargol , W. Podkościelny, P. Mergo, "Determination of the optimal extrusion temperature of the PMMA optical fibers", Phot. Lett. Poland 11, 7-9 (2019) CrossRef

Vision in vertebrates: By K. Tansley. 132 pp Science Paperbacks, 1965. 12 s 6 d

This paper investigated the different materials of optical fibers, two of them are plastic optical fibers that are namely polysulfone (PSU)/vinyl-phenyl acetate (VPAC) with refractive indices of 1.63/1.567, and the second plastic material namely sapphire (S)/polysulfone (PSU) with refractive indices of 1.77/1.63. One of the other materials consists of fluorite (FT)/polytetrafluorophenylmethacrylate (PTFPMA) with refractive indices of 1.433/1.422, where the second material consists of fluoride (FD)/poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) with refractive indices of 1.56/1.49. Finally, the third material consists of silica (Si)/tetrafluoropropylmethacrylate (TFPMA) with refractive indices of 1.46/1.373. The simulation results are done by using optiwave simulation version 13. FT/PTFPMA fiber channel has outlined 19.23 Tb/s bit-rate with maximum Q-factor of 11.01, a minimum bit error rate of 1.05 × 10−28, gain value of 36.57 dB, and noise figure of 5.67 dB in the presence of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). It is observed that VCSEL has superior to continuous wave (CW) laser by the improvement of the performance parameters understudy at the same operating conditions.

The combination of plastic optical fiber (POF) with monolithically integrated transmitter and receiver is becoming increasingly attractive for the development of miniature optoelectronic sensing systems. Here, we propose a temperature sensing system by integrating a GaN optoelectronic chip with a POF and aluminum (Al) reflector. Owing to the overlap between electroluminescence and responsivity spectra of multiple quantum well (MQW) diodes, both the transmitter and the receiver having identical MQW structures are monolithically integrated on a tiny GaN chip by using the same fabrication process flow. Environmental temperature change leads to thermal deformation in the Al reflector, which reflects the transmitted light back with a light pulse. The reflected light is coupled into the guided POF again and sensed by the on-chip receiver. Finally, the temperature information is read out as electrical signals. When the ambient temperature changes from 20.1°C to 100°C, the optically induced electrical signal decreases from -3.04 µA to -3.13 µA. The results suggest that the monolithically integrated GaN device offers a promising option for optoelectronic temperature sensing systems.