Uniform efficient light diffusing fiber

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10175405-B2
Application number	US-201514840416-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2015
Priority date	Dec 19, 2011
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

Light diffusing optical fibers for use illumination applications and which have a uniform color gradient that is angularly independent are disclosed herein along with methods for making such fibers. The light diffusing fibers are composed of a silica-based glass core that is coated with a number of layers including a scattering layer.

First claim

We claim:

1. A light diffusing fiber capable of emitting light, said fiber comprising:
a core and a cladding such that for all viewing-angles from about 40° to about 90° relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber the intensity of the of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than 42% of maximum intensity value wherein the cladding said core, wherein a scattering layer surrounds the core and the cladding, wherein said scattering layer comprises a polymer matrix with said nano to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of said scattering material situated therein.

2. The light diffusing fiber of claim 1 , wherein maximum intensity value occurs at an angular position of at an angle of at least 42.5 degrees, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

3. The light diffusing fiber of claim 1 , wherein said core is silica based core.

4. The light diffusing fiber of claim 1 , wherein said core and cladding are structured such that for all viewing-angles from about 30° to about 120° relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber intensity of the of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than 45% of maximum intensity value.

5. A light diffusing fiber comprising:
a. a core comprising a silica-based glass comprising scattering defects; and
b. a scattering layer surrounding the core, the scattering layer comprising nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of a scattering material in a polymer matrix; such that when light is propagating through the light diffusing fiber the intensity of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than about ±21% from average intensity for viewing-angles between 40° and 90°, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

6. The light diffusing fiber of claim 5 , wherein maximum intensity value occurs at an angular position of at an angle of least 42.5 degrees, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

7. The light diffusing fiber of claim 5 , wherein said core and cladding are structured such that for viewing-angles from about 30° to about 90° relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber the intensity of the of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than 42% of maximum intensity value.

8. The diffusing of claim 5 , wherein the emitted radiation does not vary by more than about ±21% from average intensity for viewing-angles between 30° and 90°, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

9. The light diffusing fiber of claim 5 , wherein said nano- to microscale voids or nano or in microparticles of said scattering material are situated and distributed such that for all viewing-angles from about 30° to about 120° relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber the intensity of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than 45% of maximum intensity value.

10. The light diffusing fiber of claim 5 , wherein the emitted radiation does not vary by more than about ±22.5% from average intensity for viewing-angles between 30° and 120°, relative to the direction of the propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

11. A light diffusing fiber comprising:
a. a core comprising a silica-based glass comprising scattering defects; and
b. a scattering layer surrounding the core, the scattering layer comprising nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of a scattering material in a polymer matrix; such that when light is propagating through the light diffusing fiber the intensity of the emitted radiation does not vary by more than about ±38% from average intensity for viewing-angles between 30° and 160°, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber.

12. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , wherein said core is a silica based core surrounded by a cladding.

13. The light diffusing fiber of claim 12 , wherein a scattering layer surrounds the core and the cladding, wherein said scattering layer comprises a polymer matrix with said nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of said scattering material situated therein.

14. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , wherein the scattering layer surrounds the core, wherein at least said scattering layer comprises a polymer matrix with said nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of said scattering material situated therein.

15. The light diffusing fiber of claim 14 , wherein the slope of the intensity of the emitted radiation to viewing-angle changes by less than 22% within any 20 degree change in viewing-angle for viewing-angles situated between 40° and 90°.

16. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , wherein the scattering layer comprises CPC6.

17. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , wherein said fiber provides uniform illumination, such that the intensity of light emitted from the light diffusing fiber does not vary by more than 25% over a segment length of 4 to 100 m.

18. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , the core having a radius from 10 μm to 600 μm.

19. The light diffusing fiber of claim 18 , wherein radial width of the cladding is between 10 μm and 100 μm.

20. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , the core having a radius from 30 μm to 200 μm.

21. The light diffusing fiber of claim 11 , wherein the core having a radius 50 μm to 100 μm and the radial width of the cladding is between 10 μm and 100 μm.

22. A light diffusing fiber comprising:
a. a core and a cladding; and
b. nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of a scattering material, situated and distributed such that when light is propagating through light diffusing fiber comprising, the intensity of the emitted radiation has maximum intensity, and the maximum intensity value occurs at an angular position at least 42.5 degrees, relative to the direction of propagation of the light in the light diffusing optical fiber wherein a scattering layer surrounds the core and the cladding, wherein said scattering layer comprises a polymer matrix with said nano- to microscale voids or nano or microparticles of said scattering material situated therein.

23. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein the scattering induced attenuation loss comprises from about 0.1 dB/m to about 50 dB/m at an operating wavelength.

24. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein the core comprises a plurality of randomly distributed voids.

25. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein the cladding comprises a polymer.

26. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein the microparticles or nanoparticies comprise SiO 2 or Zr.

27. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein the scattering material comprise at least one of: a metal oxide, TiO 2 , ZnO, SiO 2 , Zr, or gas bubbles.

28. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , said fiber having substantially uniform illumination over its length, wherein said length being in the range of 0.15 to 100 m.

29. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22 , wherein said scattering material has an average diameter of 200 nm to 200 nm to about 10 μm.

30. The light diffusing fiber of claim 22

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Logunov Stephan Lvovich
• Shustack Paul John

Classifications

• G02B6/102

  for infrared and ultraviolet radiation · CPC title

• G02B6/03694

  Multiple layers differing in properties other than the refractive index, e.g. attenuation, diffusion, stress properties · CPC title

• G02B6/02395

  Glass optical fibre with a protective coating, e.g. two layer polymer coating deposited directly on a silica cladding surface during fibre manufacture (G02B6/02052, G02B6/02057, G02B6/024, G02B6/032, G02B6/105, G02B6/14 take precedence; coating on fibre gratings G02B6/02104; multilayer core or cladding G02B6/036; reinforcing splice joints G02B6/2558; optical cables, i.e. comprising protective structures external to the protective coating such as a jacket or plural coated optical fibres G02B6/44; coating of glass to obtain optical fibres C03C25/104) · CPC title

• G02B6/02

  Optical fibres with cladding {with or without a coating} · CPC title

• G02B6/001 Primary

  the light being emitted along at least a portion of the lateral surface of the fibre · CPC title