ABSTRACT
We investigate the power losses in bent and elongated graded-index polymer optical fibers (GI POFs). The variations of power losses in deformed GI POFs for various radii of curvature and elongations are measured. A simple tensile test result is used to calculate the average plastic energy density (APED) in a deformed GI POF at various elongations. The results indicate that the APED accumulated in a deformed GI POF can be considered as a key index to study the power loss in POF. Based on the experimental results, a curve-fitted equation is proposed to estimate the power loss using the APED for various radii of curvature. The maximum difference between the proposed equation and the experimental results is less than 3% for the deformed GI POFs.