V. I. Sokolov, I. O. Goriachuk, A. A. Zamyatin, A. A. Makovetskii, D. V. Ryakhovskiy
- Federal Research Centre Crystallography and Photonics, Russian Academy of Sciences,Moscow
- Kotelnikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics, Fryazino Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Abstract: Samples of optical silica fibres with a reflective cladding made of amorphous perfluorinated copolymers of perfluoro-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxol and perfluoro(propyl vinyl ether) are fabricated. The copolymers have high optical transparency and an ultralow refractive index n = 1.293 – 1.314 in the visible and near-IR wavelength ranges, which makes it possible to form optical fibres with a high numerical aperture. The polymer cladding is deposited on the silica light-guiding core of the fibre by a die method both from melts and from copolymer solutions. The optical losses, aperture and scattering properties of the formed silica-polymer fibres are studied. They are compared with the optical properties of fibres with light-reflecting claddings made of organosilicon elastomers and polycrystalline fluoropolymers.
Keywords: amorphous perfluorinated polymers, ultralow refractive index, silica-polymer optical fibres, optical losses, aperture and scattering properties of silica-polymer fibres.
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation within the framework of the State Assignment for the Federal Scientific Research Centre Crystallography and Photonics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in part of the synthesis of amorphous perfluorinated copolymers) and the Fryazino Branch of the Kotelnikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of RAS (in part of using the perfluorinated copolymers to manufacture silica-polymer optical fibres).
Received: 01.03.2022