Plastic Optical Fiber Performance Index

1. Attenuation

The attenuation of plastic optical fiber mainly depends on the scattering loss and absorption loss of the selected material. To be used as a communication grade plastic optical fiber, one of the most basic requirements is that the attenuation of PMMA plastic optical fiber should be low, preferably less than 180dB/km.

2. Bandwidth

A graded plastic optical fiber is an optical fiber with a gradient distribution of refractive index, and its refractive index gradually decreases from the core to the cladding. As long as the formed gradient refractive index distribution is suitable, the effect of suppressing modal dispersion, maintaining a large numerical aperture, and controlling the broadening of the emitted light wave relative to the human light wave can be obtained. If the refractive index distribution is proper, then the material dispersion becomes the main factor that determines the transmission bandwidth. As long as you pay full attention to the material dispersion when choosing, it is completely feasible to obtain a bandwidth of several Ghz·km.

3. Heat resistance

Most importantly, the heat resistance of plastic optical fiber is mainly determined by its component properties. The material composition with good heat resistance determines that the plastic optical fiber has better heat resistance. Indexes for judging the heat resistance of materials include glass transition temperature, Vicat softening point, and heat distortion temperature.

4. Connectivity

Communication plastic optical fiber mostly uses 1mm diameter optical fiber, which is 8-20 times that of quartz optical fiber. The connection of thick plastic optical fiber is much easier than that of quartz optical fiber.