Bragg wavelength shift for irradiated polymer fiber Bragg grating

• Effect of Ionizing radiation doses on the PFBG has been studied.
• The refractive index of the irradiated PFBG has been calculated for different doses.
• The BWS and RIL have been calculated for different doses.

The effect of neutron-irradiation from a 5 Ci Am-241/Be-9 neutron source on the characteristics of Polymer Fiber Bragg Grating (PFBG) has been studied in the present work. The PFBG has been irradiated using fast neutrons with different doses range from 24 up to 720 Gy. The transmittance and reflectance of the PFBG have been recorded and interpreted before and after the irradiation. Results in this study showed that the neutron irradiation might cause a structural degradation of the polymer's main chain, which led to a shift in the Central Bragg Wavelength (CBW). In addition, the CBW increased from 4 pm to 14 pm when the neutron dose increased from 24 to 720 Gy. Moreover, no saturation has been observed in the CBW under the effect of the applied doses. Therefore, the PFBG of high Bragg wavelength is a suitable candidate for the use in the dosimetry systems.