High-Thermally Stable and High-Bandwidth Graded Index Plastic Optical Fiber for Vehicle Networks

作者：Asai Makoto^*; Yamaki Yasushi; Takahashi Satoshi; Koike Yasuhiro

来源：Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics , 2011, 49(20): 1464-1469.

DOI：10.1002/polb.22329

• fibers
• glass transition
• high performance polymers
• high temperature materials
• optics
• refractive index
• thermal properties
• thermal stability

Radial refractive index profiles within the graded index plastic optical fiber (GI-POF) is formed by adding a dopant to a polymer. This addition of the dopant significantly decreased the T(g) of the polymer due to the plasticization. This disadvantage made the installation of the GI-POF difficult, especially in vehicle networks in which high thermal stability is required. We have suggested 9-bromophenanthrene (BPT) as a novel dopant induced less plasticization for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) than the conventional dopants. However, although the fabricated GI-POF using BPT had high enough thermal stability for vehicle networks, the attenuation was 800 dB/km and it could not be used. This high attenuation was caused by contaminant in the fabrication process of fibers. In this study, we succeeded to fabricate a GI-POF with low-attenuation and high-thermal stability using highly pure BPT. Its attenuation was improved to 240 dB/km at 650 nm, which was enough transparency for vehicle networks. The T(g) of the GIPOF was improved to 107 degrees C from 90 degrees C. The thermal stability of the GIPOF below 85 degrees C/dry and 75 degrees C/85% RH was demonstrated to be as high as that of the commercially available step index POF. The bandwidth of the GI-POF could be estimated over 4.0 GHz for the 50-m fiber. These results demonstrated that our GI-POF should qualify to be used in vehicle network.

• 出版日期2011-10-15