Evaluation of Brillouin scattering properties in plastic optical fibers for wide-range temperature sensing

We investigate the temperature dependence of Brillouin scattering properties in perfluorinated graded-index (PFGI-) plastic optical fibers (POFs) in a wide temperature range from -170 to 130°C. The temperature dependence of Brillouin frequency shift is found to be nonlinear at > 84°C; while it shows linear dependences even at -170°C. The Stokes power is maximal at ~60 °C and is gradually reduced with decreasing or increasing temperature. Our results indicate that the Brillouin scattering in PFGI-POFs can be exploited to cryogenic-temperature sensing as well as higher-temperature sensing.