Effective Cleaving Parameters for Multimode Gradient Index CYTOP Polymer Fiber.

Ivan Chapalo,Sergei Chapalo,Antreas Theodosiou,Oleg Kotov,Kyriacos Kalli,Georgii Pobegalov

doi:10.3390/polym12112491

Ivan Chapalo, Sergei Chapalo + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112491

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Abstract

We experimentally address simple, low-cost and effective methods for the cleaving of multimode CYTOP optical fibers using razor blades. The quality of fiber end-face preparation depends on various parameters. The necessity of the near-field intensity pattern inspection for adequate evaluation of cleaved fiber end-faces is demonstrated. Razor blades of different manufacturers are evaluated for manual cleaving, as well as automated cleaving with controlled speed and temperature. The cleaving technique with both slowed motion of the razor blade and increased temperature up to 90 °C demonstrated the best quality of fiber end-faces. Typical cleaving defects are highlighted, whereas the cleave quality was characterized in terms of the light intensity profile emitted by the fiber in near field.

Highlights

Polymer optical fiber (POF) draws significant interest from researchers and industry due to its flexibility, ease of use, low Young modulus, and safety in biomedicine [1,2,3]
We demonstrate that near-field intensity pattern (NFIP)
POFs, for which cleave quality is usually evaluated by inspection of an air hole’s structural integrity by viewing a microscopic image of a fiber facet, a microscopic image of the CYTOP fiber facet does by viewing a microscopic image of a fiber facet, a microscopic image of the CYTOP fiber facet does not always provide an adequate representation of the cleave quality

Summary

Introduction

Polymer optical fiber (POF) draws significant interest from researchers and industry due to its flexibility, ease of use, low Young modulus, and safety in biomedicine [1,2,3]. In the case of CYTOP fiber, which has a multimode core but with a gradient-index profile, certain tasks require very good quality of fiber end-faces to provide both controllable launching conditions and spatial intensity distribution measurements. These tasks may include core refractive index profile evaluation [14,15], modal power distribution measurement utilizing intensity profile at the multimode fiber (MMF) output facet [16,17], differential mode delay

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