Recently, distributed strain/temperature measurement based on Brillouin scattering in polymer optical fibers (POFs) has been successfully demonstrated, but its signal-to-noise ratio is not yet sufficient. One approach to overcome this issue is to enhance the incident optical power, which could cause a so-called fiber fuse phenomenon. In this study, we report the first observation of the fiber fuse in POFs. A fuse propagation velocity of 21.9 mm/s, which is 1–2 orders of magnitude slower than that in standard silica fibers, is experimentally demonstrated. The achieved threshold power density and proportionality constant between the propagation velocity and the power density are 1/180 of and 17 times the values for silica fibers, respectively. An oscillatory continuous curve instead of periodic voids is formed after the passage of the fuse. An easy fuse termination method is also presented.

Date Published: 2 June 2014
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 9157, 23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors, 9157AI (2 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2058858

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9157:
23rd International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors
José M. López-Higuera; Julian D. C. Jones; Manuel López-Amo; José Luis Santos, Editor(s)