JPH10133020A - Appliance for condensing and converging light - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the taking of light and the utilization thereof to thickening, transmitting and illuminating and the coupling and branching thereof to and from an optical fiber by forming the one end of the appliance finer in an axial center direction while maintaining the original refractive index distribution, thereby forming this end to a funnel shape. SOLUTION: The refractive index difference in the appliance 1 is made higher nearer the central axis. When the optical path of incident rays 5 is explained, these incident rays are made incident on an about middle-refractive index part 3 toward the outer side and arrive at a low-refractive index part 4 as the rays advance in the appliance 1. The rays are, therefore, diffracted gradually in the central axis direction of a high refractive index. When the rays advance to an opposite side past the central axis part, the rays arrive this time at the middle-refractive index part 3 again and the optical path is eventually changed in the central axis direction. The appliance 1 is gradually reduced in its outside diameter while the same refractive index distribution is maintained in the part forward of the appliance, by which this part is formed to the funnel shape. Then, the luminous fluxes advancing therein are made further finder as the outside diameter is made smaller in this part. The connection to the optical fiber is made possible if the diameter of this part is further reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[Industrial application] This unit is used for collecting, collecting,
Convergence, mixing, branching, combining, etc. For this reason, it is used in the fields of light condensing, transmitting, lighting, and optical fiber from sunlight or artificial light emitting sources.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, one system has been assembled by using a lens or a prism for condensing, converging, or converting parallel light. For this reason, there have been problems such as optical axis alignment, fixing, light loss due to connection, and increase in volume.

[0003]

To collect light, concentrate it, transmit it, use it for illumination, or combine it with an optical fiber, or split it, requires a lens system for each application, which is complicated. It is composed of parts. For this reason, development of a simple component has been desired.

[0004]

This component comprises a so-called graded index optical fiber in which a transparent material having a high refractive index is placed on the central axis and has a lower refractive index toward the outer periphery. This is a transparent cylindrical body having the same effect, and one end of which has a funnel-shaped outer shape whose one end is narrowed while maintaining the original refractive index distribution. The distribution of the refractive index may be continuous or stepwise.

[0005]

It is well known that the light passing through the materials having different refractive indices distributed as described above gradually converges to the central axis as the light travels. The optical path of this component is further narrowed and converged, because the outer diameter of one end thereof is gradually reduced. It can be called funnel action on light. Also, the degree of convergence to light can be said to be related to the area ratio of both ends.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, the scattered points represent the difference in the refractive index inside the component (1) of the present invention. This indicates that the closer to the central axis, the higher the refractive index. now,
Regarding the optical path of the incident light beam (5), it is incident on the medium refractive index portion (3) outward, but as it travels inside the main component (1), the low refractive index portion ( 4). Therefore, the light is gradually refracted in the direction of the central axis having a high refractive index. Then, after passing through the central axis portion and further proceeding in the opposite direction, the light reaches the middle refractive index portion (3) again, and the optical path is changed in the central axis direction. This is based on the same principle as the graded-index optical fiber, as described above. However, the components of the present invention
The point from here is that the outer diameter is gradually reduced while maintaining the same refractive index distribution to form a funnel shape. At this point, the luminous flux traveling inside becomes narrower as its outer diameter becomes narrower. If this portion is further reduced to the same outer diameter as the optical fiber, connection with the optical fiber becomes possible. There is no restriction on the size of the head part, and large ones may be used for daylighting, such as sunlight, and it is possible to make the narrowed part longer, and the thinner the part, the stronger the flexibility. You get it. The narrowing may be a dome-shaped curved surface or a conical flat surface. Small ones are used to split, combine,
Mixing becomes possible.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the main component, wherein a density difference between scattered points represents an internal refractive index difference, and a central axis portion has a higher refractive index.

FIG. 3 shows three main components (1), light (8), (9),
(10) are collected, and these lights are further transmitted to the fourth main unit (1).
This is a two-stage configuration in which the light is incident on 1). With this configuration, 1) a wide lighting surface can be secured. 2) Light from various light sources can be collected. 3) Light from different light sources can be mixed and combined. 4) When light is incident on the outgoing light side (narrow surface), it is diffused and can be used as light from a wide surface.

[0007]

As described above, the present invention can fulfill many functions while being a simple part. To summarize this, 1) daylighting and focusing. 2) High brightness of light.
3) Parallel light beam conversion. 4) Mixing light from different light sources. 5)
Reversing these functions by changing the exit port to the entrance port.
6) Doubling of these functions by using a plurality. 7) Since the one end of the head part is elongated, it is flexible and can be used by bending this part. This is not possible with components using lens systems. 8) Coupling with optical fiber.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a cross section and an optical path of a main component.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the main component.

FIG. 3 is an example in which main components are combined.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main part 2 High refractive index part 3 Medium refractive index part 4 Low refractive index part 5, 6 Incident light 7 Outgoing light 8, 9, 10 Incident light 11 Main part 12 Outgoing light 13 Narrow part of main part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transparent cylinder having an effect similar to that of a so-called graded index optical fiber, which is arranged so that the refractive index of light gradually decreases toward the outside from the central axis. A funnel-shaped component that is narrowed in the axial direction while maintaining the original refractive index distribution.