Graded-index polymer optical fiber with high thermal stability of bandwidth

The development of the perfluorinated (PF) polymer based graded-index polymer optical fiber (GI POF) for high-speed data communication is described. It was experimentally confirmed that gigabit data transmission for 500-1000 m at 1.3 mu m wavelength was achieved by the low-loss PF polymer based GI POF. The thermal stability of poly (methyl methacrylate) PMMA based GI POF is discussed. We selected several kinds of dopants that can maintain a high glass transition temperature (T-g) of the GT POF core. By using the newly selected dopants, we succeeded in maintaining the parabolic refractive index profile of GI POF with no degradation even at 85 to 90 degrees C for more than 5000 h.