Dose rate effects in WLS fibers

The radiation hardness of different types of WLS fibers produced by BICRON, KURARAY and POL.HI.TECH has been systematically studied. Low dose rate irradiations (from 0.55 krad/h up to 4 krad/h and total dose of about 140 krad) were performed with a ⁶⁰Co γ source. The results are compared with high dose rate irradiations (1.5 Mrad/h and total dose of 1 Mrad) in a mixed field of 20% of neutrons and 80% of γ's in a nuclear reactor. The degradation of the optical properties of fibers with different composition, namely different Ultraviolet absorber (UVA) concentration and different type of cladding are studied. Dose rate effects are investigated as well as the effect of irradiation with different type of particles. The UVA can help on the radiation hardness, but no permanent dose rate effects, or special effects due to the neutron component of the irradiation field were observed.