The paper presents the first complex study of Gamma radiation effects on a low-loss perfluorinated polymer optical fiber (PF-POF) based on Cytop® polymer. Influence of gamma radiation on fiber’s optical, mechanical and climatic performance is investigated. The radiation-induced attenuation (RIA) in the visible and near-infrared region (0.4 μm-1.7 mm) is measured and its origins are discussed. Besides attenuation increase, radiation is also shown to decrease the thermal degradation stability of the fiber and to increase its susceptibility to water. With regard to complex fiber transmission performance upon irradiation, the optimal operation wavelength region of PF-POF-based systems intended for use in Radiation environments is determined to be around 1.1 μm. On the other hand, the investigated fiber holds potential for low-cost RIA-based optical fiber dosimetry applications with sensitivity as high as 260 dBm⁻¹/kGy in the visible region.
Gamma radiation induced effects in perfluorinated polymer optical fibers for sensing applications
(2015)
Radiation induced attenuation in perfluorinated polymer optical fiber was investigated as a potential mean for online. in situ gamma radiation monitoring. Spectral dependence of radiation induced attenuation was measured in the visible and near infrared range. Attenuation spectrum exhibits sharp increase both towards the ultraviolet and infrared side of the spectrum with 3 distinct peaks around 1400 nm. The fiber sensitivity to gamma radiation was further evaluated at two commonly used IR wavelengths (1310nm and l550nm} by pre- and post-irradiation optical time-domain reflectometry measurements. The examined fiber is sensitive up to lOO kGy of total absorbed dose with only minor saturation towards the large dose values. The influence of gamma radiation on the fiber mechanical properties was studied as well. Up to the maximal dose of 100 kGy, no significant deterioration of fiber strength and elasticity was observed.
A systematic study of annealing behavior of drawn PMMA fibers was performed. Annealing Dynamics were investigated under different environmental conditions by fiber longitudinal shrinkage monitoring. The shrinkage process was found to follow a stretched exponential decay function revealing the heterogeneous nature of the underlying molecular dynamics. The complex dependence of the fiber shrinkage on initial degree of molecular alignment in the fiber, annealing time and temperature was investigated and interpreted. Moreover, humidity was shown to have a profound effect on the annealing process, which was not recognized previously. Annealing was also shown to have considerable effect on the fiber mechanical properties associated with the relaxation of molecular alignment in the fiber. The consequences of fiber annealing for the climatic stability of certain polymer optical fiber-based sensors are discussed, emphasizing the importance of fiber controlled pre-annealing with respect to the foreseeable
operating conditions.
Systematic investigation of annealing behavior of drawn PMMA fibers was performed. Dynamics of annealing process were measured under different environmental conditions by fiber longitudinal shrinkage monitoring. Process was found to follow stretched exponential decay function indicating heterogeneous nature of underlying molecular dynamics. Consequences of fiber annealing for climatic stability of polymer optical fiber-based sensors are discussed, emphasizing importance of fiber controlled post-fabrication annealing. Dependence of induced fiber shrinkage on annealing time, temperature and fiber drawing conditions is investigated and interpreted. In addition, strong influence of humidity on annealing process was observed, which was not recognized in previous studies. This further highlights role of fiber post-fabrication thermal treatment with respect to intended operating conditions.
In this work, the potential of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in low-loss perfluorinated polymer optical fibers (PF-POFs) is explored. The FBG is femtosecond-inscribed in a commercial multi-mode (MM) PF-POF based on Cytop® polymer. Femtosecond inscription leads to creation of a highly saturated grating with a number of higher order reflection Peaks visible throughout the visible and near-infrared spectral region. For 2 mm long FBG having a pitch of 2.2895 μm, a total of nine higher-order MM reflection bands are visible spanning from 1548 nm (4th order) to 520 nm (12th order). Strain sensitivity was measured for 6 peak bands in 500-900 nm region, where relatively low cost CCD based spectrometers and broadband LEDs are available. Strain sensitivity increases almost linearly with increasing initial peak wavelength, growing from 4.82 ± 0.02 nm/% measured for 12th order peak at 517 nm to 8.12 ± 0.04 nm/% measured for 7th order peak at 883 nm. These values correspond to roughly 20 % higher sensitivity than silica FBGs exhibit in this spectral range. The gratings in PF-POFs combine the higher strain sensitivity and low-loss operation while maintaining the mechanical advantages of polymer optical fibers. Therefore, they hold a high potential for considerable broadening of polymer optical fiber Bragg gratings application range.
Impact of gamma radiation on transmission of a commercial Cytop polymer optical fibre (Lucina, Asahi Glass Company) is investigated. Spectral dependence of radiation induced attenuation in the investigated fibre is measured in the VIS-NIR spectral region. Besides attenuation increase, radiation is found to increase fibre susceptibility to water as well. While pristine Cytop fibre is rather humidity insensitive, strong humidity related absorption in the NIR region is observed after fibre irradiation. Selective irradiation of separate fibre sections is proposed as a way of fibre humidity sensitization and quasi-distributed water detection is demonstrated using optical time domain reflectometry at 1310 nm.
The mechanical stress-strain behaviour of polymer optical fibres (POFs) drawn from various materials was measured, both before and after temperature annealing of the POFs. The POFs were drawn from PMMA (GEHR), Zeonex (480R), PC (Makrolon LED2245) and two different grades of Topas (8007S-04 and 5013S-04). With fibre drawing stresses at or above the elastic (uniaxial extensional) plateau modulus, the polymer chains in the POFs have a high degree of alignment, which has a large impact on fibre mechanical behaviour. The testing was performed at straining rates ranging from 0.011%/s, to 1.1%/s for the un-annealed fibres and a straining rate of 1.1%/s for the annealed ones. The elastic modulus of the tested POFs showed no sensitivity toward variation of straining rate. In the case of Topas 5013S-04 and PMMA, the producer-reported values are the same as the one obtained here for the POFs both before and after annealing. The drawn POFs made of Zeonex, PC, and Topas 8007S-04 exhibit larger elastic modulus than the respective materials in the bulk form. The elastic modulus of these fibres is reduced upon annealing by 10-15%, but still remains above the producer-reported values for the bulk polymers. In the nonlinear elastic region, only the PC POF is statistically unaffected by the changes in the straining rate, while Topas 8007S-04 POF shows insensitivity to the straining rate until 3% strain. All other changes affect the stress-strain curves. The annealing flattens all stress-strain curves, making the fibres more sensitive to yield.