Effect of natural radioactivity on optical fibers of undersea cables

Author

Henschel, Henning ; Baumann, Eduard

Author_Institution

Fraunhofer-INT, Euskirchen, Germany

Volume

14

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

5/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

724

Lastpage

731

Abstract

For undersea cables radiation doses between 2.5 and 25 rad are to be expected during a working life of 25 years. The majority of previous investigations of the radiation sensitivity of optical fibers, however, apply dose rates ≳1 rad/s and total dose values ≳3×10 ³ rad. The present paper describes ⁶⁰Co irradiations of a Ge-doped single mode fiber with dose rates between 10 ^-4 and 20 rad/s. Expected loss increase of an undersea optical fiber cable at 1550 nm wavelength with a temperature of 2°C is derived by three different methods. The most comfortable and reliable one, the `dose rate transformation method´, yields, for example, a loss of only 0.0244 dB/100 km after 25 years of irradiation with a dose rate of 0.4 rad/s. This method could be the basis of a standard test procedure for the effect of natural radioactivity on optical fibers for very long repeaterless terrestrial and undersea cables

Keywords

optical cables; optical fibre losses; optical fibre testing; optical fibres; radiation effects; submarine cables; 1550 nm; 2 degC; 2.5 to 25 rad; 25 y; ⁶⁰Co irradiations; Co; Ge-doped single mode fiber; dose rate transformation method; loss increase; natural radioactivity; optical fibers; radiation doses; radiation sensitivity; standard test procedure; undersea cables; very long repeaterless terrestrial cables; working life; Atomic measurements; Extrapolation; Loss measurement; Optical fiber cables; Optical fiber losses; Optical fiber testing; Optical fibers; Optical losses; Repeaters; Temperature dependence;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.495151

Filename

495151