One Step Pre-forms for Microstructured Polymer Optical Fibre

该项目生产的预制棒将实现聚合物光纤技术，就像合适的玻璃预制棒实现今天的光纤一样。一步浇注技术将生产出具有内部通道阵列的PMMA棒，这些通道可以是空的，也可以填充不同的透明聚合物。然后，通过拉伸生产出适用于高带宽通信的聚合物微结构光纤(PMOF)。这是汽车和建筑物的本地通信网络迫切需要的。可靠的PMOF通道是该项目的新功能，应该会使PMOF更易于部署。光传输模式和聚合物缺陷的纳米级映射将有助于验证通道设计。

The pre-form rods this project yields will enable polymer optical fibre technology, just as suitable glass pre-forms enabled today's optical fibre. One-step casting techniques will yield PMMA rods with arrays of internal channels which can be empty, or filled with different clear polymer. Polymer microstructured optical fibre (PMOF) suitable for high bandwidth communications is then produced by drawing. It is urgently needed for local communication networks in cars and buildings. Solid PMOF channels are new to this project, and should make PMOF easier to deploy. Nanoscale mapping of light transport modes and polymer defects will help validate channel designs.