Abstract

Data concerning radiation damage to optical fibers have been reported in several papers. Among them there are peculiar phenomena such as the photobleaching effect¹ and radiation-induced hardening.² These mechanisms have not been clearly explained to date. This paper describes dose rate dependence on recovery of optical loss in a radiation environment. Radiation-induced loss in optical fibers is produced when the electrons and holes released by the radiation occupy preexisting traps in the core. Curves of radiation-induced loss increase are complicated, because the increasing curves are composed of mixed reaction rate of growth and decay. Therefore, to clarify the behavior of radiation damage in optical fibers, recovery of optical fibers was investigated in several dose rates.

© 1983 Optical Society of America