Fabrication of graded-index plastic optical fiber by the diffusion-assisted coextrusion method

Recently, plastic optical fibers (POFs) have drawn significant attention as high-speed transmission media due to their advantages over conventional glass optical fibers such as flexibility and durability. In addition, Grade-Index (GRIN) POFs with smoothly varying refractive indices provide increased data transmission speeds suitable for the short-distance communications such as local area networking or home networking.; In this research, the diffusion-assisted coextrusion process is introduced as a method to fabricate GRIN POFs. In this process, two or more polymeric materials containing additives for refractive index modification are fed separately into a coextrusion die where a concentric multi-layer structure is formed. Subsequently, the diffusion of additives take places in a diffusion zone creating a non-equilibrium concentration profile, hence the refractive index profile.; A theoretical analysis for the prediction of the refractive index profile obtainable by this process indicates that it is difficult to obtain a near-parabolic refractive index profile with the tubular flow design unless a very large residence time in the diffusion zone is provided. However, significant changes in the refractive index profile can be induced by adopting a multi-layer approach and an annulus flow design. Furthermore, the bandwidth estimated by the ray analysis indicates that even a small variation of the refractive index profile created by the additive diffusion can result in a significant increase in the bandwidth.; To verify the findings from theoretical analysis, poly(methyl methacrylate)-base GRIN POFs with diphenyl sulfide and diphenyl sulfoxide as refractive index-modifying dopants were prepared and the effects of various operating conditions such as melt temperatures, flow rates and core-cladding interface positions were investigated. The dopant concentration profile, thus the refractive index profile, characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, has been shown to be controllable by adjusting the material and/or process variables.; Through the theoretical analysis and experimental verifications, it was shown that bandwidth over 700 MHz at a 100 m distance could be obtained by this method, suggesting that the diffusion-assisted coextrusion process is a viable method to fabricate a high bandwidth GRIN POF that is applicable for short-distance communications.