Optical properties of cyclic olefin copolymers

TLDR

Cyclic olefin copolymers are valued for high use temperature, excellent optical transmission, low birefringence, and low moisture uptake. The study presents the optical properties of Celanese AG’s Topas™ cyclic olefin copolymer. The authors compare Topas™ to common thermoplastics such as polycarbonate and polymethyl methacrylate, and to other optical polymers investigated for waveguiding. Topas™ exhibits low optical losses (<0.5 dB/cm at 830 nm and ~0.7 dB/cm at 1550 nm), making it suitable for datacom and telecom applications.

Abstract

The optical properties of a cyclic olefin copolymer, Topas™, made by Celanese AG, are presented. This class of materials is attractive on account of their high use temperature, excellent optical transmission, low birefringence, and low moisture uptake. These materials are compared with other commonly used thermoplastics, namely, polycarbonate and polymethyl methacrylate. Finally, Topas™ is compared with a number of other optical polymers being studied for optical waveguiding applications. It is found that at 830 nm Topas™ has low losses (less than 0.5 dB/cm), so that it may be useful for datacom applications. At the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm the losses are in the range of 0.7 dB/cm.