TY - JOUR A1 - Stajanca, Pavol A1 - Topolniak, Ievgeniia A1 - Pötschke, Samuel A1 - Krebber, Katerina T1 - Solution-mediated cladding doping of commercial polymer optical fibers N2 - 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. KW - Polymer optical fiber KW - Solution doping KW - Polymethyl methacrylate KW - Rhodamine B KW - Dye-doped fiber KW - Fluorescent optical fiber PY - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-441045 SN - 1068-5200 SN - 1095-9912 VL - 41 SP - 227 EP - 234 PB - Elsevier Inc. AN - OPUS4-44104 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Stajanca, Pavol A1 - Topolniak, Ievgeniia A1 - Pötschke, Samuel A1 - Krebber, Katerina ED - Kalli, K. ED - Mendez, A. ED - Bunge, C.-A. T1 - Solution doping of commercial plastic optical fibers N2 - 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 fibersusing 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. T2 - SPIE Photonics Europe 2018 CY - Strasbourg, France DA - 22.04.2018 KW - Plastic optical fibers KW - Solution doping KW - Polzmethyl methacrylate KW - PMMA KW - Rhodamine B KW - Fluorescent optical fibers KW - Cladding-doped fibers PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2315619 SN - 0277-786X VL - 10681 SP - 106810O-1 EP - 106810O-7 AN - OPUS4-44907 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -