ABSTRACT
An automated chemical tapering process for plastic optical fibre tapers was developed. On-line monitoring was performed whilst varying the solvent composition to optimise taper formation in order to obtain repeatable, optically clear and mechanically robust tapers in a minimum time period. A theoretical model of the tapering process was developed in terms of fibre core radius and core/cladding refractive index. In-fibre and end-fibre tapers have application as high order and low order mode strippers, sol-gel coated probes and couplers, strain sensors and biofilm evanescent field sensors.
