Polymer optical fibers as radiation sensors?
- Application importance of ionizing radiation has been growing steadily over the last decades. Extensive utilization of ionizing radiation generates demand for development of suitable monitoring techniques. Radiation monitoring systems based on optical fibers offer several key advantages such as small footprint, possibility of remote and real-time measurement as well as electromagnetic immunity. In this contribution, we investigate radiation-induced attenuation (RIA)-based sensing with perfluorinated polymer optical fibers (PF-POFs). The RIA response of two commercial PF-POFs is assessed in a low dose region and performance and limitations of the system are discussed. The concept represents a potential high-sensitivity, low-cost and easy-to-use on-line radiation monitoring system with distributed detection capability.