High-speed plastic optical fibers and amplifiers

Recent progress of the graded-index polymer optical fiber (GI POF) and polymer optical fiber amplifier (POFA) are reviewed. Because the low attenuation of light transmission in the perfluorinated (PF) polymer base GI POF enables 500 to 1000 m transmission, more accurate analysis is required in the refractive index profile to realize the order of giga bit transmission. Furthermore, recent improvement of the thermal stability of the GI POF is introduced. We clarified that the stability of the refractive index profile and the attenuation under high temperature and high humidity atmosphere can be improved by selecting the suitable dopant material. We demonstrated that organic dye-doped polymer optical fiber amplifiers (POFA) cover a wide spectral range in the visible with a best observed gain of 37 dB in a Rhodamine B-doped POFA pumped at 550 nm. Also, with a GI POF doped with europium chelate of hexafluoroacetylacetone in tris form, we observed superfluorescence, evidenced by spectral narrowing and lifetime shortening. The prospect is that the wide choice of organic dyes and rare earth chelates offers optical amplifiers and superfluorescent sources for a variety of communication and sensor applications.