Birefringence, arising from locally preferred orientation of molecules or functional groups in polymeric and relatedmaterials has been observed in a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) at suboptical spatial resolution. Our observations were successfully correlated to existing structural models of the samples, demonstrating the utility of birefringence observations in NSOM. We present ...

We have measured the optical phase sensitivity of fiber based on poly(methyl methacrylate) under near-single-mode conditions at 632.8 nm wavelength. The elongation sensitivity is 131 +/- 3 x 10(5) rad m(-1) and the temperature sensitivity is -212 +/- 26 rad m(-1) K(-1). These values are somewhat larger than those for silica fiber and are consistent with the values expected on the basis of the b...

Polymer fibers are currently exploited in tremendously important technologies. Their innovative properties are mainly determined by the behavior of the polymer macromolecules under the elongation induced by external mechanical or electrostatic forces, characterizing the fiber drawing process. Although enhanced physical properties were observed in polymer fibers produced under strong stretching ...

The chromatic dispersion and the refractive index of poly(methyl methacrylate) polymer optical fibers (POFs) have been characterized in this work by using a tunable femtosecond laser and a Streak Camera. The characterization technique is based on the measurement of the time delays of light pulses propagating along POFs at different wavelengths. Polymer fibers of three different lengths made by ...

For photoacoustic imaging, usually point-like detectors are used. As a special sensing technology for photoacoustic imaging, integrating detectors have been investigated that integrate the acoustic pressure over an area or line that is larger than the imaged object. Different kinds of optical fiber-based detectors are compared regarding their sensitivity and resolution in three-dimensional phot...

We demonstrate that the light excitation and capturing efficiency of fluorescence based fiber-optical sensors can be significantly increased by using a CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator) tip instead of the standard plane-cut tip. We use Zemax modelling to find the optimum CPC tip profile and fiber length of a polymer optical fiber diabetes sensor for continuous monitoring of glucose levels. ...

This paper proposes an optical fiber strain sensor based on packaged long-period fiber gratings (PLPFG) which is fabricated by the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) process and packaged with poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer materials. The optical fiber sensor packaged with PDMS improves robustness effectively. The proposed PLPFG sensors have periods of 610, 650, 660 μm and fiber diamet...

A novel technological approach to space division multiplexing (SDM) based on the use of multiple individual fibers embedded in a common polymer coating material is presented, which is referred to as Multi-Element Fiber (MEF). The approach ensures ultralow crosstalk between spatial channels and allows for cost-effective ways of realizing multi-spatial channel amplification and signal multiplexin...

Progress on microstructured polymer optical fibres (MPOFs), a new class of polymer fibres that were developed last year, will be presented, including various single-mode MPOFs, highly birefringent MPOF, twin-core MPOF, nonlinear MPOF, graded-index MPOF and hollow core MPOF, the latter case being where light is guided in an air core.

The optical polishing of hydrophilic polymer materials is a complex process that requires a comprehensive setting of various operating parameters. Based on a series of experimental investigations and dimensional analysis, this paper presents a simple empirical equation to evaluate material removal in the polishing of optical spherical surfaces of hydrophilic polymer materials. It is shown that ...