Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1539308 Optics Communications 2009 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

Single mode polymer optical fibers (smPOFs) can be applied for measuring large strains in numerous applications, such as civil engineering infrastructure assessment and health monitoring. Because of the large light attenuation of solid smPOFs, small lengths of the fiber would need to be coupled to silica optical fibers (SOFs) for practical applications of the smPOF as a strain sensor. This coupling requires smooth cleaving of the smPOFs. In this work, several cleaving techniques previously demonstrated to provide smooth cross-sections of multimode POFs were applied to the smPOF. From these techniques, hot-knife cutting was determined to be a feasible method for cleaving when the blade was heated to 80 °C and the smPOF heated in the range of 30 °C to 40 °C. In addition, focused ion beam machining which produces high-precision cleaves of the solid smPOF cross-section, was performed to set a bench mark and thus evaluate the quality of cleaving from other methods used in this study.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Materials Science Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
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