What is the most transparent polymer?

The development of polymer optical fiber (POF) leads to the fundamental que stion about the transmission loss limit of amorphous polymer glasses. The t wo important intrinsic loss factors in amorphous polymer optical fibers are molecular vibration absorption and scattering due to fluctuation. In this paper, we have investigated the lower limit of the inherent light transmiss ion loss of amorphous polymer glass from its molecular structure by using t he Morse potential theory for absorption and the fluctuation theory for sca ttering. The theoretical lower limit of the attenuation of the amorphous pe rfluoropolymer is 0.3 dB km(-1) at 1.3 mu m, and is comparable with that of silica fiber. Amorphous perfluoropolymer seems to be a most transparent po lymer.