Topic: OFM Preference: Poster

FABRICATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF A DYE DOPED HOLLOW

POLYMER OPTICAL FIBRE

M.Kailasnath1, Ravi Kumar2, Krishna Murari2, VPN.Nampoori1, P.Radhakrishnan1

International School of Photonics1, Centre of Excellence in Lasers and Optoelectronic Sciences2.
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi 682022
kailas@cusat.ac.in

Abstract: A Rhodamine 6G doped hollow polymer optical fibre has been fabricated and characterized. The
technique of side illumination fluorescence was used for the characterization of the fibre. A diode pumped solid
state laser emitting at 532nm and 488nm line of an Argon ion laser were used as the pump sources. Florescence
studies of the fibre using a 488nm line of the Argon ion laser, showed that, when filled with an aqueous solution
of the dye, Sodium fluoresceine (FDS), it offers a wide range tunability and multi wavelength operation at a
specific point of illumination. The shifts in the peak wavelengths of the spectra were also studied. It was
observed that a red shift of around 60 nm occurred for a propagation length of around 10cm, which leads to a
wide tunability.

1. INTRODUCTION the thermally induced photo bleaching [6]. In the

Organic dyes, particularly laser dyes that are used
in dye lasers as a gain medium are promising
candidates for high power light amplification because
of extremely high absorption and emission cross
sections [1]. For example, Rhodamine B in polymer
matrix exhibits a cross section that is approximately
10,000 times larger than that for Er3+ in GeO2-SiO2
glass [2]. As a result, tunability over a wide range is
possible for many of the dyes. Doping an organic dye
into a polymer matrix provides an opportunity to
produce active elements for solid-state amplifiers and
lasers.
Vast majority of optical amplifiers are based on an
optic fiber doped with a fraction of a percent of the
rare-earth element erbium. Although rare-earth
doping has been generally used in silica, many
laboratories have been working to develop stable
rare-earth doped polymer lasers and amplifiers. The
main issue with rare earth doped polymer lasers and
amplifiers have been pumping inefficiencies due to
the de- excitation caused by the IR absorption in the
polymer. In bulk form, polymer hosts impregnated
with certain dyes have now achieved 80% conversion
efficiency from pump power to signal power with
tuning range close to those in solution . Dye –doped
POFs can be made into useful fiber amplifiers and
lasers that operate at wavelengths other than 1300nm
and 1550 nm [3-5]. Optical amplifiers and lasers
made of dye-doped fiber require much less pump
power than the bulk material because of the effective
confinement and long interaction length available in
the fiber. Since photo bleaching increases with the
increase of the exposure intensity, low pump
intensity would increase the lifetime of the gain
medium. Moreover, the thin and long geometry of the
fiber is ideal for good thermal relaxation to minimize
present paper we report the fabrication of a
Rhodamine 6G doped poly (methyl methacrylate)
(PMMA) based hollow fibre and its fluorescence
characterization when an aqueous solution of the dye
Sodium fluorescein filled in it by the technique of
side illumination fluorescence [7].
2. EXPERIMENTAL
The hollow polymer optical fiber preform was
prepared by the following technique. For the
monomer purification, the inhibitors in the monomer
were removed by rinsing with a 0.5 N NaOH
aqueous solution, followed by repeated washing with
distilled water to remove the remaining NaOH. The
monomer was dried over CaCl2, distilled under
reduced pressure and filterd through a 0.2- µm
membrane filter. Initially a hollow polymer tube was
prepared. There are many methods for the polymer
tube fabrication [8-9]. In the present investigation we
have used the Teflon technique for the PMMA tube
fabrication [10] .In this technique, we use a Teflon
rod of diameter 6mm that is properly fixed at the
centre of a glass tube of inner diameter 13mm. One
end of the tube is sealed and then it is filled with a
mixture of monomer (MMA), Rhodamine 6G (10-5
m/l) ,0.4 wt% of polymerisation initiator benzoyl
peroxide (BPO) and 0.1 wt% of the chain transfer
agent (n-butyl mercaptan). The thermal
polymerization of the filled tube is carried out in a
temperature controlled oil bath at 80oC. After the
monomer was fully polymerized and heat-treated, the
Teflon was removed and we obtain a polymer tube.
Next, the polymerised tube was heat treated at 1000C
in an oven for 24 hours. This preform was drawn at
1800C as a hollow fibre of inner diameter of about
650 µm using a fibre drawing setup. .
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3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1.0mm

2.0mm
0.05 3.0mm
4.0mm

Fluorescence Intensity ( a.u)

6.0mm
8mm
4.0 A Absorption FDS solution 0.04 10mm
D B Absorption Rh 6G inPMMA 2cm
A C C Emission FDS solution 3cm
3.5 D Emission Rh 6G inPMMA 4cm
0.03 5cm
Absorption/Emission ( a.u)

6cm
3.0 B 7cm
8cm
9cm
0.02
2.5 10cm

2.0 0.01

1.5
0.00
1.0
530 540 550 560 570 580 590
0.5
Wavelength ( nm)
0.0

-0.5
400 450 500 550 600 650 700 Fig .3 Variation of fluorescence intensity from Rh 6G
Wavelength ( nm) doped hollow fibre with distance from point of
illumination at 532 nm excitation
Fig. 1. Absorption/emission spectra of Sodium
Figure 3 depicts the fluorescence from the fibre for
fluorescein in water and Rh 6G in PMMA.
532 nm excitation. An important difference noticed
Fig 1 shows the absorption spectra of FdS (10-4 m/l) here is that the emission intensity saturates at a fibre
in water and Rh 6G ( 10-5 m/l) in PMMA along with length of about 3cm.Above this length the
their emission. As seen in the spectrum, the fluorescence emission intensity decreases. This result
absorption of the dye solution extends from 425 nm suggests that there is an optimum fiber length for
to 525 nm with absorption maximum occurring maximum gain with 532 nm excitation. For 488nm
around 488 nm. The absorption of Rh 6G doped excitation this optimum length may be beyond the
polymer extends form 450 to 575nm. Therefore Ar present 10cm.
ion laser emitting at 488 nm and a DPSS laser
emitting at 532 nm were used as the excitation 0.12
sources. The hollow fibre of length 10cm was filled 1mm
2mm
with aqueous solution of Sodium fluorescein (10-4 0.10 3mm
Fluorescence Intensity ( a.u)

5mm
m/l) by making use of a syringe. By using transverse 1
6mm
2
0.08 8mm
excitation technique, fluorescence spectra from the 40 10mm
20
dye hollow was recorded for by changing the point of 0.06
10
60
80
20mm
40mm
8
excitation from a 10cm long fibre. As seen from the 3
100
60mm
80mm
5
figure 2, at the excitation wavelength 488nm, there is 0.04 100mm
6
considerable enhancement in the fluorescence
0.02
intensity and a noticeable reduction in the FWHM
with distance of propagation. 0.00

480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640

Wavelength ( nm)
0.08 2mm
8mm
0.07 12mm
Fig 4. Variation of fluorescence intensity of the
Fluorescence Intensity ( a.a)

16mm
0.06
20mm Sodium fluorescein solution filled Rh 6G doped
40mm
0.05
60mm hollow fibre with distance from the point of
80mm
0.04
100mm
illumination
0.03

0.02 In order to investigate the possibility of multi peak

0.01 emission from the fibre, we filled the Rh 6G doped
0.00 fibre with FDS solution and repeated the experiment.
-0.01
Fig 4 shows that possibility of multi peak emission
480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 very less as for all the chosen propagation lengths of
Wavelength ( nm)
fibre, the emission was either around 510 nm or
560nm.For fibre lengths up to 3mm, the emission is
Fig .2 Variation of fluorescence intensity from Rh dominated by the contribution from the FDS solution
6G doped hollow fibre with distance from point of where as the fibre fluorescence dominates beyond
illumination at 488nm excitation that length. Another important observation is that we
can switch the emission wavelength by the
Topic: OFM Preference: Poster

appropriate choice of the fibre length. considerable increase in the emission intensity.

We have also studied the fluorescence emission from 0.012

B
the undoped hollow fibre when it was filled with the C
aqueous solutions of the dyes. Figures 5 and 6 show

Fluorescence Intensity ( a.u)

0.010 D
E
the recorded fluorescence from the undoped hollow 0.008 F
fibers filled with the dye solutions for different G

propagation lengths. 0.006

0.004

0.07 8mm 2mm

4mm 0.002
4mm 8mm
0.06 100mm 12mm 0.000
16mm
Fluorescence Intensity

12mm 20mm
0.05
40mm -0.002
80 16mm 480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 660
60mm
60
0.04 80mm Wavelength (nm)
40 100mm
0.03
20mm
Fig .7 Variation of fluorescence intensity from Rh 6G
0.02
2mm : Sodium Flurescein mixture solution filled undoped
0.01 hollow fibre with distance from point of illumination
at 488nm excitation
0.00
490 500 510 520 530 540 550 560 570
Wavelength ( nm)
580

Fig. 5 Variation of fluorescence intensity of the

Sodium fluorescein solution filled undoped hollow
560
fibre with distance from the point of illumination A
Wavelength ( nm)

B
with 488nm excitation C
D
540 E
F
1cm
0.04
2cm
4cm
Fluorescence Intensity ( a.u)

6cm 520
0.03 8cm
10cm

0.02 500
0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance ( mm)
0.01

Fig.8. Tuning characteristics of 10 cm fibre A-Dye

0.00
doped hollow fibre at 488nm excitation, B-Dye
480 500 520 540 560 580 600 620 640 660 doped hollow fibre at 532nm excitation, C-FDS
Wavelength (nm) solution filled hollow fibre at 532nm excitation, D-
Rh6G:RhB solution filled hollow fibre at 488nm
Fig.6 Variation of fluorescence intensity of the Rh excitation, E-Rh6G:RhB solution filled hollow fibre
6G solution filled undoped hollow fibre with distance at 532nm excitation, F- FDS solution filled undoped
from the point of illumination with 488nm excitation. hollow fibre at 488nm excitation

It is clear from the graph that both solutions show a Figure 8 shows the tuning characteristics of the dye
blue shift , reduction in the FWHM and increase in solution filled dye doped fibre. The dye doped
intensity with propagation length. hollow fibre filled with dye solution gives rise to a
tunability of about 60 nm as compared with the 32
A mixture of the FDS and Rh 6G dye solutions (1:1) nm for the doped hollow fibre with out dye filling.
was filled in to an undoped hollow fibre. Figure 7 We also found that the tunability of the dye solution
shows the fluorescence obtained from this fibre at a filled in an undoped hollow fibre is comparatively
488nm excitation. As shown in the figure, beyond a less ~14 nm. As the fluorescence light is guided
length of 1cm both the peaks corresponding to the through the dye solution filled fiber, the effective
dyes are distinct. Interestingly no prominent path length increases resulting in self-absorption and
wavelength shifts were noticed even though there is re-emission causing a red shift in the observed
Topic: OFM Preference: Poster

spectrum [10] M.Kailasnath, T.S.Sreejaya, Rajesh Kumar,

P.Radhakrishnan, V.P.N.Nampoori, C.P.G.
Vallabhan, J.Opt.Las.Tech. 40 (2008), 687-691.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Any increase in the interaction length of the medium
is equivalent to the increase in concentration of the
dye molecules, which results in an enhanced gain.
The value of gain reaches a maximum and beyond a
certain length, it was found to decrease. In a dye
solution filled dye doped hollow fibre, the emission
wavelength can be selected by appropriate choice of
the fibre length. Another important observation is
that, multi peak emissions are possible by using a dye
mixture filled undoped hollow fibre. Maximum
tunability can be obtained by using a Rh 6G doped
hollow fibre filled with FDS solution. there is a red
shift for the propagating light with increase in the
propagation distance. The result from the present
study on the liquid fibre can be extended to different
solvents for the development of a high gain optical
medium and tunable optical amplifiers operating in
the visible region.

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