CHARACTERIZATION AND SENSOR APPLICATIONS OF POLYCARBONATE OPTICAL FIBERS

Some of the optical, mechanical, thermal, and chemical tests performed on a polycarbonate optical fiber (Optipol) developed by BAYER AG are described in this paper. All the tests were mainly done in order to ev aluate the performances of this optical fiber, looking for its applica tion as light transmitter in Local Area Networks (LANs) and sensors ma nufacture in the automobile industry. Some sensors using this fiber ar e also described in this paper: one speedometer, one tachometer, and o ne magnetometer. The last two sensors are Faraday effect sensors and h ave been developed with polycrystalline Cd1-xMnx Te. This low-cost Far aday rotator has been specially manufactured by the authors to be used in industrial applications.