Environmental Effects on the Static Fatigue of Silica Optical Fiber

Abstract

The static fatigue properties of silica optical fiber are measured in 90°C aqueous environment for various pH s in the range 0 to 14 and for distilled water. The effect of a UV‐curable urethane acrylate protective coating is evaluated by directly comparing coated and bare fiber. It is found that both higher pH and (at long times) the presence of the protective coating increase the fatigue rate. Enhanced fatigue is observed in which the stress corrosion parameter, n, is significantly less than the accepted value of ∼20 measured from short‐term experiments.