Radiation effects on optical fibers and amplifiers

摘要

The effects of gamma radiation on rare-earth doped optical fibers have been investigated over the range of 0.01 to 145 kilorads(Si) per hour to total doses exceeding 100 kilorads(Si). The effects of 3 to 4 MeV protons have also been investigated. The level of radiation induced damage has been found to be strongly dependent on radiation dose rate and fiber composition. The existence of dose rate dependence is explained by the process of simultaneous creation of color center defects and annihilation via thermal annealing. Through the use of a suitable kinetic analysis technique, we have determined appropriate rate constants for this process and have developed an empirical model based on our experimental results. In addition to these results, we present the effects of gamma radiation on the performance of operational high power erbium-ytterbium optical amplifiers.