Radiation-Induced Attenuation in Single-Mode Phosphosilicate Optical Fibers for Radiation Detection

D. Di Francesca (1) , G. Li Vecchi (1, 2) , S. Girard (2) , A. Alessi (2) , I. Reghioua (2) , A. Boukenter (2) , Y. Ouerdane (2) , Y. Kadi (1) , M. Brugger (1)

1 CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research
2 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien

We investigated the online radiation-induced attenuation of two single-mode optical fibers (OFs) that were X-rays irradiated with doses up to 100 kGy(SiO2) at room temperature at 10.7 Gy/s. One of the two samples was doped only with phosphorous, whereas the other was codoped with phosphorous and cerium. Both OF types are very radiation sensitive in the near-infrared (NIR) domain and of interest for applications involving radiation detection. The addition of Ce to the P-doped core lowers the radiation sensitivity of the OF and introduces a spontaneous postirradiation recovery process at room temperature, which is negligible in the purely P-doped OF. We show that the diffusion of molecular hydrogen into the OFs allows the full recovery of the NIR losses caused by radiation-induced P-related point defects. However, the radiation response of the H2-regenarated samples is substantially different from that of the pristine ones. We conclude that the H2-loading procedure cannot be at the moment considered as a valid technique for the regeneration of a depleted P-doped OF radiation sensor.

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

D. Di Francesca, G. Li Vecchi, S. Girard, A. Alessi, I. Reghioua, et al.. Radiation-Induced Attenuation in Single-Mode Phosphosilicate Optical Fibers for Radiation Detection. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2018, 65 (1), pp.126-131. ⟨10.1109/TNS.2017.2778314⟩. ⟨ujm-01964814⟩