Theoretical investigation on the dispersion of graded-index polymer optical fibers

Various experiments on polymer optical fibers (POF's) suggest that they present a large transmission capacity, but this is not confirmed by the standard theory. In this paper we present a full dispersion model based on evaluating the frequency response of the fiber instead of the direct calculation of the pulse broadening from the moments of the impulse response. The mathematical formalism is firstly displayed and subsequently applied to the graded-index POF made with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The simulation results show that the baseband bandwidth is indeed enhanced due to the strong differential mode attenuation (DMA).