High-bandwidth, graded-index polymer optical fiber for near-infrared use

We describe graded-index polymer optical fibers with high bandwidth (5.12 GHz for 100-m transmission) and low loss in the near-infrared region (56 and 115 dB/km at wavelengths of 688 and 773 nm, respectively) that we successfully obtained with a new interfacial-gel polymerization technique using an all-deuterated methyl methacrylate monomer and a partially fluorinated acrylate monomer. The necessity for both low attenuation and high bandwidth for a polymer optical fiber is described for its use as a physical media in a high-speed multimedia network.