Radiation performance of low bend-loss optical fiber for gyroscope applications

In this presentation we will describe the effect of radiation on a low bend loss, polarization maintaining (PM) fiber for an interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG). Our experimental design for exploring radiation effects incorporated unusual steps up and down in temperature during irradiation in order to further elucidate the radiation darkening mechanism. While the experiments showed that the fiber was radiation hard, and the step had the desired effect of increasing the statistical precision of the model, it also showed the surprising result that in addition to accelerating the annealing of defects, increased temperature accelerates the formation of loss-causing defects during irradiation.