Influence of high temperatures on optical fibers coated with multilayer protective coatings

In this work we present an innovative method of enhancing optical fibers’ resistance to extremely high temperatures by deposition of a multilayer metal coating on the fibers’ surface. Such multilayer coating is necessary because of the silica degradation at elevated temperatures. Despite the fact that copper coated fibers work well at temperatures up to 400°C, at higher temperatures copper oxidizes and can no longer protect the fiber. To hold back the copper oxidation and silica degradation processes we developed a dedicated multilayer coating which allows fibers to operate at temperatures up to 700°C. The optimal protective layer has been chosen after numerous high-temperature tests, where copper plates coated with different kinds of coatings were evaluated. What is more, we present results of the high-temperature reliability tests of copper coated fibers protected with our multilayer coating. Performed tests proved that our solution significantly improved optical fibers’ reliability to both: elevated temperatures and rapid changes of temperature. Furthermore the developed metal coatings allow fibers’ to be electrolytically bonded to other metal elements (e.g. sensor transducers) what makes them great candidates for harsh environment fiber optic sensor applications.