Fibre optic jacket removal by pulsed laser ablation

Several applications of optical fibres for sensor and telecommunications re quire the polymer jacket to be stripped from the fibre, e.g. for the inscri ption of Bragg gratings. Here, we report an alternative approach to chemica l and mechanical fibre jacket stripping based on laser ablation. It is show n that excellent quality removal is possible using the ultraviolet excimer and infra-red CO2 laser, provided the latter is tuned to a suitably strong absorption band in the polymer. Characterization of the ablation properties of the acrylic jacket material, and the optical and mechanical properties of the stripped fibre are reported.