Effect of cladding layer glass transition temperature on thermal resistance of graded-index plastic optical fibers

Yoshida, Hirotsugu; Nakao, Ryosuke; Masabe, Yuki; Koike, Kotaro; Koike, Yasuhiro

doi:10.1038/pj.2014.75

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Published: 27 August 2014

Polymer Engineering

Effect of cladding layer glass transition temperature on thermal resistance of graded-index plastic optical fibers

Hirotsugu Yoshida¹,
Ryosuke Nakao¹,
Yuki Masabe¹,
Kotaro Koike² &
…
Yasuhiro Koike²

Polymer Journal volume 46, pages 823–826 (2014)Cite this article

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Graded-index plastic optical fibers (GI POFs)¹ are a highly competitive transmission medium for short-range communications such as local area networks and interconnections. Because GI POFs have a parabolic refractive index profile in the core region, modal dispersion is minimized and high-speed data transmission of over a gigabit per second is possible. Currently, most suppliers produce GI POFs via coextrusion and a dopant diffusion method;² the core polymer, which contains a diffusible dopant that has a higher refractive index than that of the base polymer, and the cladding polymer are concentrically extruded. The core and cladding polymers flow together into a diffusion zone, and the dopant from the core layer diffuses toward the cladding layer, forming the GI profile. The polymer then flows into an exit die and is drawn into a fiber.

The biggest issue in GI POF fabrication is that the dopant significantly decreases the glass transition temperature T_g because of the plasticization effect. The operating temperature of GI POFs was previously considered to be limited by the lowest T_g, which is usually that of the core center where the dopant concentration is the highest, and thus, considerable effort has been invested in developing high-T_g core materials to enhance the thermal resistance of GI POFs. Recent studies have mainly focused on two approaches: employing high-T_g polymers as the core base material^{3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} and reducing the dopant concentration (which determines the refractive index change between the core and cladding) by designing high-refractive-index dopants^{10, 11, 12, 13} or by choosing combinations of core and cladding base polymers that have certain refractive index differences.^{5, 7, 9, 13} In other words, little attention has been paid to the cladding layer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through its ‘Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST Program).’

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Authors and Affiliations

Kyoto R&D Laboratories, Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan
Hirotsugu Yoshida, Ryosuke Nakao & Yuki Masabe
Keio Photonics Research Institute, Keio University, Research Building E, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Kotaro Koike & Yasuhiro Koike

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Hirotsugu Yoshida
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Ryosuke Nakao
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Yuki Masabe
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Kotaro Koike
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Yasuhiro Koike
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Correspondence to Hirotsugu Yoshida or Yasuhiro Koike.

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Yoshida, H., Nakao, R., Masabe, Y. et al. Effect of cladding layer glass transition temperature on thermal resistance of graded-index plastic optical fibers. Polym J 46, 823–826 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2014.75

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Received: 11 June 2014
Revised: 17 July 2014
Accepted: 17 July 2014
Published: 27 August 2014
Issue date: November 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2014.75

Effect of cladding layer glass transition temperature on thermal resistance of graded-index plastic optical fibers

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