JPS61273503A - Luminous radiation body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inexpensively produce the titled body having the excellent visual property of an outgoing light by constituting at least a part of the clad layer with a material having a higher refractive index than that of the core material. CONSTITUTION:The titled body consists of a core 1 made of a transparent high polymer substance, a substance layer 2 having a lower refractive index than that of the core 1, and a substance layer 3 having a higher refractive index than that of the core 1. When the light propagated from the titled body having the clad material composed of the substance having the lower refractive index than that of the core material 1 is reached a part having a large refractive index of the clad layer, as the propagated light is radiated from the prescribed part, the titled body having the clad alternately constituted from the material 2 having the low refractive index and the material 3 having the high refractive index as shown in the figure has the excellent visual property of the outgoing light. The transparent high polymer constituting the core 1 is polymethylmethacrylate. The material 2 having the low refractive index of the clad layer is 2,2,2 trifluoroethylmethacrylate, and the material 3 having the high refractive index is polycarbonate. The titled body is produced from the prescribed materials by a melt-spinning method.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the structure of a light emitter for visually utilizing transmitted light such as illumination, decoration, and display.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when using optical fibers for lighting, decoration, displays, etc., the light transmitted by the optical fiber is emitted from the other end of the optical fiber, or a part of the cladding layer of the optical fiber is removed and the light is transmitted from the side of the optical fiber. A method of leaking light is adopted, and in particular optical fibers with large diameters made of transparent polymeric materials are inexpensive, and thin cladding layers made of low refractive index materials are easy to obtain. Therefore, it is widely used in this field.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

When using such an optical fiber, the light emitted from the end face of the optical fiber has an angular characteristic of the output light intensity distribution determined by the numerical aperture of the optical fiber, and its visibility from a wide range is poor, and it is difficult to use it as illumination light. In this case, there are drawbacks such as spot-like illumination.

On the other hand, optical fibers with a portion of the cladding layer removed require a lot of effort to remove the cladding layer, and the core layer is also scratched during the cladding layer removal process, resulting in poor light utilization efficiency. are doing.

The present invention aims to eliminate the drawbacks of such original fibers used for visual purposes such as illumination, decoration, and displays, and provides an inexpensive and simple optical transmission body with excellent visual characteristics of emitted light. We aim to provide the following.

[Means for solving problems]

Optical transmission bodies such as optical fibers are made of transparent core material (A)
The cladding layer (B) is coated with a material having a lower refractive index than the core. By replacing the material with substance (C), light is emitted from the replaced part.

The core material (A) used here is a transparent polymeric substance such as polymethyl methacrylate, and the low refractive index cladding material is a partially fluorinated compound of the core material polymer, silicone resin, or the like. Further, as the cladding material having a high refractive index, a polymer such as polystyrene, polycarbonate resin, or polyester resin is used.

The details of the present invention will be explained by examples based on the drawings.

The drawings show one embodiment of the light emitter according to the present invention, and do not show the entire structure of the light emitter.

1 and 2 are perspective views of a light emitter according to the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are cross-sectional views of another example according to the present invention. In the figure (1) is a core made of a transparent polymer material, (
2) shows a layer made of a material with a lower refractive index than the core, and (3) shows a layer made of a material with a higher refractive index than the core.

General C2: Light transmitted by an optical transmission body whose cladding material is a substance with a lower refractive index than the core material has a total reflection angle (θC) according to the relative refractive index difference (Δ), which is It is expressed by the following formula.

θC=Blood−1~rrad] Here, Δ is the refractive index of the core and η1. The refractive index of the cladding is η
2, Δ=(η7−訃)/2η:

Therefore, when η is smaller than η1, a total reflection angle exists, but when η is larger than η, Δ becomes negative and no total reflection angle exists. Therefore, when light transmitted by an optical transmission body whose cladding material is a substance with a lower refractive index than the core material reaches a portion of the cladding layer with a higher refractive index, the light is emitted from this portion.

The light emitter of the present invention is based on such a principle,
Figure 1 shows an example of a radiator in which a material with a low refractive index and a material with a high refractive index are alternately formed as the cladding, and in Figure 2, the cladding layer at the tip of the optical fiber is made of a material with a high refractive index. The optical transmission section leading to the tip end 22 is an example of a cladding layer having a low refractive index, similar to conventional optical fibers.

3 and 4 are examples in which a part of the cladding layer is made of a high refractive index material and the other part is made of a low refractive index material in the cross-sectional direction C2 of the optical fiber.

〔Example〕

A light emitting body having such a structure uses polymethyl methacrylate as the transparent polymer material serving as the core, and Bo! as the low refractive index material for the cladding layer. j2.2. Hayabusa) Using polycarbonate as the high refractive index material and polyfluoroethyl methacrylate, the melt spinning method (the cladding material supplied to the two-layer fiber production nozzle is alternated!: When spinning while switching, the core diameter is 980μ and the cladding thickness is 10μ). A light emitter was obtained, and leakage of transmitted light was confirmed from a portion having a cladding layer with a high refractive index.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to inexpensively and easily manufacture a light transmission body with excellent visual characteristics of emitted light.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are enlarged perspective views of respective light emitters showing embodiments of the present invention. 3 and 4 are enlarged cross-sectional views of respective light emitters showing other embodiments of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral (1) is a transparent polymer core, (2) is a low refractive index material, and (3) is a high refractive index material. Blue l plaster 2 eye blue 4th

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A core (A) made of a transparent polymeric material and a cladding layer (A) covering the core and made of a material having a lower refractive index than the core.
1. A light transmitting body having a structure B), wherein at least a part of the cladding layer (B) is formed of a substance (C) having a higher refractive index than the core. (2) The light emitting body according to claim 1, wherein a cladding layer made of a substance (C) having a higher refractive index than the core is formed at or near one end of the light transmitting body. (3) A patent claim in which the cladding layer is formed alternately of a material (B) having a refractive index lower than that of the core and a material (C) having a higher refractive index than the core in the longitudinal direction of the optical transmission body. The light emitter according to item 1.