Effects of Gamma Radiation on Light Transmission by Step-Index Plastic Optical Fibers

Plastic optical fibres (POFs) are used for short-range applications including in LANs, multi-node bus networks, sensors, power delivery systems, and light guides (as in toys, entertainment and medical devices). POFs provide for low-cost solutions because they can be integrated with low-precision plastic components without precision couplers. Their immunity to electromagnetic interference makes them ideal for sensing and realtime monitoring in environments with ionizing radiation. Despite this immunity, POFs do degrade when subjected to such radiation. They develop inhomogeneities that perturb light transmission, lowering the utility of the fibers. Quantifying such performance-deterioration would be the aim of this project. Supported by experimental verification and testing, in simplest terms, the project could be summarized as combining the proposers’ previous work on POF characterization in presence of random anomalies in the fiber, with effects of radiation-induced fiber anomalies on POF performance.