FORMATION OF THE REFRACTIVE-INDEX PROFILE IN THE GRADED-INDEX POLYMEROPTICAL-FIBER FOR GIGABIT DATA-TRANSMISSION

Bandwidth characteristics of the large core graded index polymer optic al fiber (GI-POF) are theoretically and experimentally clarified in th is paper, The refractive index profile of the GI-POF was controlled by the interfacial-gel polymerization to investigate the relation betwee n the index profile and the bandwidth characteristics. It was experime ntally confirmed that the maximum bandwidth of the poly methyl methacr ylate (PMMA) base GI-POF is at most 3 GHz for 100 m transmission with using the typical laser diode emitting at 650-nm wavelength (3 nn sour ce spectral width) when its refractive index profile is optimized, The maximum bandwidth theoretically estimated by considering both modal a nd material dispersions is approximately 3 GHz which is exactly the sa me as the measured value, while higher than 10 GHz for 100 m was expec ted if only modal dispersion was taken into account, The optimum refra ctive index profile of the PMMA base GI-POF is theoretically and exper imentally clarified by further considering the profile dispersion.