High-bandwidth plastic optical fiber with W-refractive index profile

A plastic optical fiber having a W-shaped refractive index profile [W-shaped plastic optical fiber (POF)] was prepared for the first time to realize a higher bit rate transmission than those of the conventional silica-based multimode fiber and graded-index (GI) POF links. Since the W-shaped POF has a valley of the refractive index at the boundary of the core and cladding of the conventional GI POF, the group delay of higher order modes is strongly influenced, thus compensating the modal dispersion that exists in the GI POF. The modal dispersion compensation effect by the W-shaped index profile was theoretically and experimentally confirmed.