Research On Plastic Optical Fiber Amplifier

Plastic optical fiber (POP) is a kind of data transmission dielectric, which is low cost, light weight, soft and easy to install and use. In short-haul, small and medium capacitance communication systems, for example Local area network, using POP to substitute coaxial cable and twisted wire pair has become a tendency and also make it possible for further realizing all-optical network and expansion and upgrade of the system. As plastic optical fiber amplifier (POFA) is a key component to perfect and expand the performance of POP, it is important to meliorate the performance of the POFA.At present, one of the key problems of plastic optical fiber amplifier is organic dye bleaching, which will greatly decrease the lifetime of the component. So we adopt the new structure梔ouble cladding fiber to enhance the coupling efficiency and power of pump light, decrease the intensity of pump light in unit cross section of the fiber, naturally suppress the bleaching phenomenon and improve the lifetime of the component.According to the requirement of the project "Plastic Optical Fiber Amplifier" of National Natural Science Foundation, we analyzed the working principle of plastic optical fiber amplifier systematically and studied the whole manufacturing process of plastic optical fiber amplifier from selecting material and raw material synthesis to fiber drawing; theoretically analyzed how double-cladding structure can reduce organic dye bleaching at the same time keep high pump efficiency, and experimentally confirmed the feasibility of the structure. Meanwhile the absorption and fluorescence spectrums and gain characteristic of the double-cladding plastic optical fiber amplifier (DC POFA) that we had made were tested.In view of we are short of money in our study group, some facilities are designed and made by ourselves, the testing condition is limited in some degree as well. In despite of this, we get some results although they are not satisfying enough. At the end of the paper, the author points out problems may exist and improvement measures that maybe have some consulting values for the work later.