Optical Characterization of Doped Thermoplastic and Thermosetting Polymer-Optical-Fibers

The emission properties of a graded-index thermoplastic polymer optical fiber and a step-index thermosetting one, both doped with rhodamine 6G, have been studied. The work includes a detailed analysis of the amplified spontaneous emission together with a study of the optical gains and losses of the fibers. The photostability of the emission of both types of fibers has also been investigated. Comparisons between the results of both doped polymer optical fibers are presented and discussed.This work has been funded in part by the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER); by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under project TEC2015-638263-C03-1-R; by the Gobierno Vasco/Eusko Jaurlaritza under projects IT933-16 and ELKARTEK (KK-2016/0030 and KK-2016/0059); by the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU under program UFI11/16; and by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through the Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST Program), initiated by the Council for Science and Technology. The work carried out by I. Parola has been funded by a research grant given by the Departamento de Educacion, Politica Linguistica y Cultura del Gobierno Vasco/Eusko Jaurlaritza for her PhD thesis. We also thank Stela Diamant and Oleg Palchik, from the company Intellisiv Ltd, for providing the thermosetting samples