Optical Fiber Science and Technology: Novel Fibers and Fiber Sensors

This equipment grant has permitted the purchase of a complete optical fiber draw facility and auxilliary equipment for our fiber characterization laboratory. The draw tower has been erected in a specially prepared laboratory. It is a 7.8 m automated tower with a 20 kw carbon induction furnace, and sufficient room for two uv coating stages, or a uv coating stage, and a thermal curing stage. The tower installation took perhaps somewhat more time than initially anticipated, largely due to difficulties in the site preparation. The tower itself has been installed on a reinforced concrete pad, with appropriate vibration isolation. For about six months, we have been gaining experience in the use of the tower, and have been drawing kilometer lengths of fiber that range in diameter from 50 microns to 250 microns with a tolerance of the order of a few microns. In anticipation of expanding the coating capabilities of our draw tower, a vacuum system was purchased for use with radio frequency sputtering on-line on the tower. This will be particularly useful for ceramic coated fibers in the study of the behavior of fiber strengthened composite materials.