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Sensing in harsh environments
Harsh environments usually refer to extreme temperature and/or radiation level, and encompass environments such as nuclear facilities, Oil&Gas, high energy physics experiments, and space. Leveraging decades of continuous improvements made on standard telecom fibers, specialty optical fibers are now widely used in harsh environments for data transmission, sensing or in-vitro diagnosis.
Optical fibers are well suited for operation in extreme temperatures and radiative environments as they benefit from a light weight and low volume, low loss and high bandwidth, an immunity to electro-magnetism, and an ability to operate under a wide temperature range. Exail is a designer and manufacturer of passive or active specialty fibers, offering virtually unlimited design possibilities and optimization for UV, visible or NIR wavelengths through the careful selection of raw material, dopants and doping profile.
COATINGS for harsh environments: FROM ACRYLATE TO POLYIMIDE AND METAL
From cryogenic to high temperature environments, different polymer and metallic coatings are available in Exail’s portfolio for optical fibers. The coating is a multi-purpose element, some of its key functions are to protect the mechanical integrity of the fiber, to shield the silica glass from chemicals, and to limit micro-bending.
Most of the coatings in use nowadays are made of polymer. Polymer coatings are relatively easy to manipulate, provide good mechanical and chemical resistance and are very well suited to handle moderate temperatures found in outdoor applications. Metal coatings are also available for temperatures higher than 300 °C.
Acrylate is the standard coating for telecom fibers, with a maximum operating temperature of +85°C. It remains the preferred coating for standard environmental conditions, but it is not suitable for high temperature and/or radiation levels.
High temperature acrylate (HT acrylate) was specifically developed to offer an extended operating temperature up to +150 °C with good radiation resistance.
Polyimide offers an extended operating temperature range up to +300°C and excellent radiation resistance. It is worth noting that polyimide fibers typically have an outer diameter of only 150 – 160 µm, compared to 250 µm for acrylate coated fibers. It is also adapted for cryogenic environments (-196 °C)
Aluminum-coated fibers can handle long term temperatures of +400 °C. The thin metallic layer is also hermetic to hydrogen and water vapor, greatly reducing H2 induced absorption peaks and improving the mechanical reliability of the fiber.
Aluminum-coated fiber developed in partnership with Photonics Bretagne
Radiation resistance | Max Temperature | Vacuum compatibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
Standard telecom acrylate | Low | +85 °C | Medium |
HT acrylate | Medium | +150 °C | Medium |
Polyimide | High | +300 °C | Good |
Aluminum | High | +400 °C | Excellent |
Copper | High | +600 °C | Excellent |
Rad-hard fibers: leveraging a decade of investment in R&D
Radiation Induced Attenuation (RIA) is the most noticeable effect of radiation on optical fibers and consists in the decrease of optical transmission (expressed in dB/km/Gy) due to the creation of color centers by the incoming radiation.
Rad-Hard fibers were developed to mitigate the RIA and extend the fiber’s lifetime when used in radiative environments.
An example of such fiber is the PSC (Pure Silica Core) fiber with Fluorine doped (F-doped) cladding, available in singlemode or multimode. PSC F-doped fibers are designed and optimized according to the customer’s specifications, especially with regards to the operating wavelength. A matching Rad-Tolerant fiber (Germanium-doped) is available for low to moderate radiation level.
Exail rad-hard fibers can be used for data transmission, sensing or experiment monitoring. Some fibers are available on stock and custom design are available based on your specific application.
Copyright Timothé Allanche
Example of applications: highly specific rad-hard fibers are used for diagnostics in inertial laser fusion facilities (such as LLNL NIF and CEA LMJ).
The LabH6 Joint Laboratory was created between Exail and Hubert Curien Lab (CNRS/IOGS/St-Etienne Univ.) in 2019 to study optical fibers and optical fiber-based sensors in harsh environments.
Studying the effects of radiation on silica fibers led to continuous fiber improvement to reach better Radiation Induced Attenuation (RIA), at the forefront in the field. R&D efforts within the LabH6 joint laboratory are also opening the way to new developments in optical fibers for sensors in nuclear environment or for distributed radiation sensing, but also Fiber Bragg Grating for sensors in harsh environments.
Singlemode and multimode fibers, according to each customer needs
Leveraging Exail’s expertise in Radiation-Hardened fibers, Rad-Hard fibers with polymer and metallic coating are available with both singlemode and multimode designs. They are available for operations for UV, visible or NIR wavelengths (900, 1000, 1310, 1550 nm):
Example of applications: Singlemode fibers are typically used for low-loss transmission over a reduced wavelength range. FBG can be written on singlemode fibers for strain and/or temperature sensing. Multimode fibers have a much larger core than singlemode fibers and can transmit signals over a broad wavelength range. The large core of multimode fibers is advantageous to collect a lot of light for temporal and spectral monitoring such as plasma spectroscopy.
Single mode fibers
Exail single mode fibers are available with NA between 0.12 and 0.37. High-NAs fibers provide exceptional robustness against bending-loss and are also commonly used for FBG inscription thanks to their improved photosensitivity without hydrogenation. They can be coated with standard, high temperature acrylate or polyimide. Rad-hard versions can operate in harsh radiative environments.
Step-index multimode (MMSI) fiber
Step-index multimode (MMSI) fiber Pure Silica Core, F-doped cladding / Low-OH, Mid-OH or High-OH core / Large core diameter (up to Ø400 µm) / Wide operating wavelength range graded-index multimode fiber(MMGI) exist with various core size and NA. Standard versions have a Ge-doped core surrounded by a silica cladding, radiation resistant MMGI fibers are also available and have a Fluorinated core. The doping composition of the core, the cladding diameter and coatings can be tailored.
Step-index multimode fibers (MMSI)
Exail Step-index multimode fibers (MMSI) are made of a pure silica core with a fluorinated cladding. Standard 105-125 fiber with 0.22 NA is available off the shelf. In addition, a wide range of preforms can be manufactured and drawn with an on-demand cladding diameter up to 600 µm. They can be drawn with standard acrylate, high temperature acrylate or polyimide coatings. (MMSI) are made of a pure silica core with a fluorinated cladding. Standard 105-125 fiber with 0.22 NA is available off the shelf. In addition, a wide range of preforms can be manufactured and drawn with an on-demand cladding diameter up to 600 µm. They can be drawn with standard acrylate, high temperature acrylate or polyimide coatings.
How to choose the best optical fiber for harsh environments, according to temperature and radiation levels?
The table below summarizes the recommended singlemode fiber depending on the temperature and radiation levels. The references listed are compatible with standard SMF-28 fiber and can be spliced with low loss.
Polyimide coating can be applied indifferently on single-mode, multimode or custom fibers.
With more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing specialty optical fibers, Exail has all the expertise and tools to address custom developments and high-volume requirements.
 | ||
|---|---|---|
Ø clad = 125 µm,
| Insert Temperature ≤ 150 °C | 150 °C ≤ Temperature ≤ 300 °C |
Low-moderate radiation levels | Singlemode fiber with acrylate HT coating, 125 µm core diameter
| Singlemode fiber with polyimide coating, 125 µm core diameter
|
High radiation levels | Singlemode Rad-hard fiber with acrylate HT coating, 125 µm core diameter
| Singlemode Rad-hard fiber with polyimide coating, 125 µm core diameter
|
