44104 2018 eng 227 234 41 article Elsevier Inc. 1 -- -- -- Solution doping of commercial polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer optical fibers (POFs) is presented as a novel approach for preparation of custom cladding-doped POFs (CD-POFs). The presented method is based on a solution-mediated diffusion of dopant molecules into the fiber cladding upon soaking of POFs in a methanol-dopant solution. The method was tested on three different commercial POFs using Rhodamine B as a fluorescent dopant. The dynamics of the diffusion process was studied in order to optimize the doping procedure in terms of selection of the most suitable POF, doping time and conditions. Using the optimized procedure, longer segment of fluorescent CD-POF was prepared and its performance was characterized. Fiber’s potential for sensing and illumination applications was demonstrated and discussed. The proposed method represents a simple and cheap way for fabrication of custom, short to medium length CD-POFs with various dopants. Optical Fiber Technology 10.1016/j.yofte.2018.02.008 urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-441045 1068-5200 1095-9912 12.04.2018 Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International Pavol Stajanca Ievgeniia Topolniak Samuel Pötschke Katerina Krebber eng uncontrolled Polymer optical fiber eng uncontrolled Solution doping eng uncontrolled Polymethyl methacrylate eng uncontrolled Rhodamine B eng uncontrolled Dye-doped fiber eng uncontrolled Fluorescent optical fiber Analytische Chemie Verlagsliteratur Datei für die Öffentlichkeit verfügbar ("Open Access") Wissenschaftliche Artikel der BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/files/44104/2018_PStajanca_OFT_solution-mediated cladding doping of commercial polymer optical fibers.pdf