Fiber Measurement for Long Term Reliability: Strength, Hydrogen and Radiation.

The long-term reliability of glass lightguides must be assured as system requirements become more stringent and applications in adverse environments increase. The design of meaningful experiments as well as the development of accurate measurement techniques play important roles in predicting long-term reliability. Fiber measurements for three important reliability issues are discussed: the degradation of fiber strength with time, optical loss increases due to the permeation of H sub 2 into the fiber, and optical effects resulting from the interaction of various types of radiation with the fiber. This is a summary of an invited paper to be presented at the "Symposium on Optical Fiber Measurements", sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards, September 20-21, 1988, in Boulder, Colorado.