JPH0519119A - Optical fiber - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the use of electric force for illumination in the inside of a house where a lighting equipment is required even in the daytime, and to save electric charges by leading in a natural light to a core of one end of an optical fiber in which plural minute holes are provided in a clad. CONSTITUTION:A main body 1 consists of two layers of a core 2 as a core material and a clad 3 as an outer wall material, and in the clad 3, plural minute holes 4 are provided. In this case, the clad 3 and the core 2 are made of materials whose refractive indexes are different, therefore, light 5 which goes into the core 2 advances, while repeating a reflection against the inner wall of the core 2, and a reflected partial light 5 goes out to the outside of an optical fiber from the minute holes 4, and illuminates brightly its vicinity. In this regard, as for the light sent out to the core 2, either a natural light or an artificial light can be used together.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber, and more particularly, to an optical fiber which is provided with minute holes in its outer wall and which can be illuminated by natural light.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical fiber has been used only for carrying natural light collected by a light collector or artificial light using electric power. When used as a lighting fixture, the end of the optical fiber is used. It was used only to emit a very thin light from the cut surface of.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional optical fiber only carries natural light collected by a light collector or artificial light using electric power, and is not often used as a lighting fixture. In general, a luminaire that uses electric power is often used, but the light conversion efficiency is poor, and most of the electric power becomes heat, and the proportion used as light is extremely small.

In addition, indoors and the like that require lighting equipment even during the daytime use lighting equipment that uses electric power all day or night, so that the electricity bill is heavy and a heavy burden is placed on the user.

Further, since it relies on illumination using electric power, there is a drawback that the illumination becomes impossible if a power failure occurs due to some accident.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above mentioned drawbacks and to provide an optical fiber which can provide illumination which does not require electrical power and therefore is unaffected by power failure.

[0007]

The optical fiber of the present invention comprises:
In a two-layer optical fiber having a core and a clad having different refractive indexes, a plurality of minute holes reaching a core as a core material are provided in a clad as an outer wall material, and natural light is received from one end of the core. It has a structure formed so that it can be formed.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The main body 1 is composed of two layers of a core 2 as a core material and a clad 3 as an outer wall material, and the clad 3 is provided with a plurality of minute holes 4.

Since the clad 3 and the core 2 are made of materials having different refractive indexes, the light 5 entering the core 2 travels while being repeatedly reflected by the inner wall of the core 2, and a part of the reflected light 5 Emits light to the outside of the optical fiber through a minute hole 4 provided in the clad 3 and brightly illuminates the vicinity thereof. In this case, the light sent to the core 2 may be natural light or artificial light, and both can be used together.

As described above, by using an optical fiber in which minute holes are provided in the clad, illumination by natural light can be easily secured in an arbitrary dark place during the daytime.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention, natural light is introduced into the core at one end of the optical fiber having a plurality of minute holes in the clad, so that it can be used for indoor lighting requiring a lighting fixture even in the daytime. You don't have to use electric power, so you can save electricity bills.

Further, as long as natural light can be used, there is an effect that it is not necessary to be affected by a power failure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 body 2 core 3 clad 4 hole 5 light

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location G02B 6/10 D 7036-2K

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. In a two-layer optical fiber comprising a core and a clad having different refractive indexes, a plurality of minute holes reaching a core as a core material are provided in a clad as an outer wall material. And an optical fiber formed so that natural light can be received from one end of the core.