Propagation loss, degradation and protective coating of long drawn microfibers
Abstract(#br)Propagation losses, transmission spectra and optical degradation attributed to surface scattering, crack propagation and water absorption were characterized for long microfibers fabricated by using a drawing tower. The propagation losses and optical degradation at 1550\u003cce:hsp sp=\"0.25\"/\u003enm wavelength were found increasing as the diameters decreased for the microfibers. A coating setup was established where polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used as coating material and a CO 2 laser as curing source to form a cylindrical film layer along the surface of microfiber.