Optical Absorption in Commercial Single Mode Optical Fibers in a High Energy Physics Radiation Field

This paper reports on the radiation induced attenuation of light at 1310 nm and 1550 nm in 12 commercially available single mode (SM) optical fibers. The fiber samples are exposed to gamma rays from a
⁶⁰
Co source and to a high energy physics radiation field. The attenuation is studied as a function of total dose, dose rate, light power and temperature. Radiation hard fibers from one manufacturer show an extraordinary low attenuation for light at 1310 nm that does not exceed 5 dB/km even after a total dose of 1 MGy. 2500 km of this type of fiber have been produced by the manufacturer and quality assurance measurements of the production batches are presently ongoing.