Effects of para-fluorine substituent of polystyrene on gradient-index fiber-optic properties

To study the effects of fluorine substituent of polystyrene (PSt) on gradient-index fiber-optic properties, a poly(para-fluorostyrene) (P(p-FSt))-based graded-index plastic optical fiber (GI POF) is fabricated, and its properties are compared with those of a PSt-based GI POF. The para-fluorine substitution positively affects the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the core, wavelength dispersion of the optimum refractive index profile, bandwidth, and attenuation. The core Tg of the P(p-FSt)-based GI POF is 88 °C, which is higher than that of the PSt-based GI POF by 9 °C when both fibers have an identical numerical aperture (NA = 0.2). The optimum refractive index profile coefficient for the P(p-FSt)-based GI POF varies from 2.2 to 2.1 in the 600-800 nm range, whereas that for the PSt-based GI POF varies from 2.6 to 2.3 in the same wavelength region. The bandwidth of the P(p-FSt)-based GI POF is intrinsically higher than that of PSt-based GI POF. Moreover, the fiber attenuation of the P(p-FSt)-based GI POF was significantly smaller than that of the PSt-based GI POF over the source wavelength range. Our study demonstrates that P(p-FSt) has favorable properties as a GI POF base material.