Radiation-resistant optical fibers

This article summarizes the results of the research of the microscopic mechanisms of radiation-induced attenuation of light (RIA) in radiation-resistant optical fibers with an undoped and F-doped silica core. We created a laboratory technology for radiation-resistant optical fibers with an undoped high-oxygen-excess silica core. Our research discovered that oxygen excess in the core promotes significant suppression of all the RIA mechanisms. Direct experimental comparison of the fibers developed and an industrial radiation-resistant fiber of the "J-fiber" company shows that RIA in the former fibers is a few times lower than in the latter at the wavelengths of 1.31 and 1.55 μm in the course of γ-irradiation from a ⁶⁰Co-source at a dose rate of 7.6 Gy/s up to a dose of at least ~28 kGy.

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