Cleaving of microstructured polymer optical fibres

Law, Syk; Harvey, J.D.; Kruhlak, Robert J.; Song, Moon Hee; Wu, Enboa; Barton, G.W.; Eijkelenborg, Martijn A. van; Large, M. I.

doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2005.08.011

Cited by 34 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The silica arm connected to the POF was equipped with a FC/APC connector and butt-coupled to the POF using a small amount of polymer index matching gel to eradicate any Fresnel reflections from the silica end face. The end face of the POF was cleaved using an 80˚C heated razor blade [10].The reflected power monitored during the growth phase is shown in Figure 1.There is no sign of the two-phase growth behaviour of POF FBGs reported in[11], though there are some differences between our experiment and theirs.Their work concerned step index fibre with a core containing a co-poymer (benzyl methacrylate), added to raise the refractive index, whereas our fibre is made from pure PMMA. Inscription was carried out at the same wavelength as in our experiment, though in their case a 5ns pulsed laser was used.…”

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confidence: 56%

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827 nm Bragg grating sensor in multimode microstructured polymer optical fibre

2010

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We report on the fabrication and characterisation of a Bragg grating in multimode microstructured polymer optical fibre with a Bragg wavelength of 827nm. This is the smallest Bragg wavelength reported to date for a polymer optical fibre grating and the relatively low loss of the fibre at this wavelength considerably enhances the utility of the device compared to gratings at longer wavelengths. IntroductionSilica fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors have become well established as an important sensing technology [1]. However, despite the fact that it is a decade since the first FBG was reported in a polymer optical fibre (POF) [2], applications of the polymer devices away for the optical bench have only just started to be reported [3]. Even though polymer FBGs posses some attractive features (e.g. a lower Young's modulus than silica and a higher failure strain[4]), a considerable barrier to their take-up has been the availability of gratings only at longer wavelengths, mainly around 1550nm [2], [5], though there have been reports of gratings at 980 nm [6]. The problem with these devices is the high attenuation of POF at longer wavelengths, typically around 100dB/m at 1550nm and 10 dB/m at 980nm [7].FBGs at these wavelengths in POF have only become useful with the development of glued connections to silica fibre down-leads that allow POF sensors just a few centimetres in length to be deployed [3]. However, the presence of the relatively fragile and bulky connection so close to the FBG is a significant limitation on its deployment. Consequently, we have been working towards the inscription of FBGs in the 800nm region where fibre loss is much lower (2dB/m) [7] and broadband semiconductor sources are readily available.Work from the early 1970s on the photosensitivity of bulk poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) reported a recording resolution of better than 200nm sufficient for the creation of Bragg reflectors for a red dye laser [8] and this suggested that the inscription of FBGs in POF at 820nm should not be problematic. Indeed, in our laboratory, we quickly succeeded in recording gratings with a period of 279 nm in 2mm thick slabs of bulk PMMA using a phase mask illuminated by a HeCd laser. However, numerous attempts to use the same laser to record similar gratings in samples of POF (both doped stepindex fibre and pure PMMA microstructured fibre) were completely unsuccessful. These attempts were made using two methods, the conventional phase mask approach [9] and an interferometric technique based on Lloyd's mirror [1].In this paper we report on our eventual success in producing gratings at 827nm and provide full details of the inscription arrangement that permits exposure times of around 2 hours. ExperimentalMultimode microstructured polymer optical fibre (MMmPOF) was used in this work. The fibre was obtained from Kiriama Pty. Ltd. of Sydney, Australia, and is made purely of PMMA with an outer diameter of 150µm along with a core diameter of 50µm. The photonic crystal fibre (PCF) design consists of three rings of holes ...

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confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

827 nm Bragg grating sensor in multimode microstructured polymer optical fibre

2010

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“…The former is likely to be linked to the change in material properties that occur in the region of the glass transition temperature, which is around 105 ºC for PMMA. The former may be related to the brittle to ductile transition that occurs around this temperature and which was invoked as a possible explanation for the change in cleaving behaviour with temperature reported by Law et al 9 . In fact both features are also present in the temperature dependence of the Young's modulus of PMMA 12 .…”

Section: Microstructured Pofmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Since the holes are then filled with a material of a very similar refractive index to the polymer, the condition for light guiding is dramatically reduced and insufficient light can be transmitted through the fibre. A technique demonstrated by Law et al eliminates the need for polishing by heating the fibre and a razor blade to between 70-80 ˚C 9 . The end of the fibre is then cleaved using the razor blade.…”

Section: Microstructured Pofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability of fibre Bragg gratings in polymer optical fibre

et al. 2006

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“…The core being surrounded by 60 air holes with diameters of 2.6 µm and a separation of 8.6 µm, see Figure 1. The ends of the mPOF were cleaved by using a hot sharp razor blade 5 . The mPOF was then mounted in v-grooves which were attached to an x,y,z translation stage, allowing the adjustment of coupling between fibre and connector.…”

Section: Mpof Grating Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%