Controllable acid stripping system for bare fiber with high tensile strength

Abstract

Bare fiber is the base for fabricating many functional fiber devices showing broad applications in both fiber-optic communication and sensing. However, the conventional mechanic stripping method to remove fiber coating deteriorate inevitably fiber tensile strength. Alternately, an acid stripping technique has been introduced to keep the original tensile strength. But the traditional acid stripping coating system usually use a large amount of concentrated sulfuric acid with time-consuming rinsing process, and it is difficult to control the solution temperature and the stripped length of the fiber. In this work, we have proposed and demonstrated a system by exploring a T-shaped glass tube associated with an alcohol lamp to control the acid stripping process. By dropping a small amount of concentrated sulfuric acid (>95wt%H2SO4) in the T-shaped glass tube heated by the lamp, the length of bare fiber length can be controlled. The tensile strength of such bare fiber has been further studied, proving that our method can keep the original tensile strength. The obtained bare fiber with high tensile strength shows potential application in functional fiber devices together with special micromachining or coating techniques.