Scattering of light in polymer waveguides

An investigation was made of the scattering properties of polymer optical fibers with the aim of identification of the mechanism responsible for the optical energy losses. An analysis was made of the methods for determination of light scattering involving different ways of averaging over the length of a polymer optical fiber and the theory of the methods was considered. It was found that quantitative estimates could be obtained of the size of scattering inhomogeneities from the experimentally determined wavelength dependences of the scattering factor. The size of the scattering inhomogeneities in polymer optical fibers with a polystyrene core was found to be in the range 30–200 nm, in good agreement with the results of electron-microscopic investigations of the structure of the same samples.