RADIATION HARDNESS STUDY OF OPTICAL FIBERS

The radiation features of a selection of silica and polymer fibers wer e investigated. Silica fibers with a high-OH-content core demonstrated a radiation hardness of similar to 6-10 Mrad/m in the ultraviolet wav elength range (lambda = 337 nm). The fibers partially recovered their optical properties at room temperature and completely recovered them o n heating to 300 degrees C. It was found that the radiation hardness o f fragile polymer fibers was similar to 300 times less than that of no rmal ones.