Laser stripping of fiber Bragg grating polymer coating using pulsed 10.6?μm TEA CO 2 laser

Abstract

Stripping the polymer coating is the first step for the fabrication of fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The conventional stripping approaches are labor intensive and time consuming. Because of high precision and throughput, as well as non-contacting, laser stripping obtained more and more attention in recent years. This paper reports the primary experiments on laser stripping of polymer coating from FBG using pulsed transverse electric atmospheric (TEA) CO₂ laser with wavelength of 10.6 μm and pulse width of 2 μs. Using cylindrical lenses, the coating can be removed thoroughly at one time. The theoretical analysis and experimental investigations were carried out. The influence of laser fluence and pulse number on stripping quality has been investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscope, and electrical balance were employed to detect the quality removal. The result shows that excellent quality removal is possible by using pulsed 10.6 μm TEA CO₂ laser.