Technology for the Preparation of PDMS Optical Fibers and Some Fiber Structures

We describe a new technology for the fabrication of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) optical fibers and PDMS fiber structures, based on fiber drawing from partially cured PDMS. This technology allows the fabrication of PDMS fibers in a wide range of diameters and different lengths. We demonstrate the potential of such prepared PDMS optical fibers on a variety of typical and unconventional fiber structures such as multimode optical fibers, looped and twisted fibers, and optical fiber couplers.