Waveguide (optics)

As fiber optic transparent components such as fibers, tubes or rods are referred to, the light transport over short or long distances. The light pipe is achieved by reflection on the boundary surface of the light pipe either by total reflection because of a lower refractive index, the medium surrounding the optical fiber, or by reflection of the interface.

The principal representative of the optical fiber mainly used in communications technology, which takes its name from the there essential role of wave properties of light. Since the optical waveguide frequently consist of glass fibers, these will also referred to as fiber optic cables or fiber optic cable. In addition to data transfer, they are also used in fiber-optic sensors, imaging and lighting purposes such as in endoscopes, for flexible transport of laser radiation, and the lighting installations or for decoration. To the optical waveguides includes the based parts or all of the synthetic fibers such as plastic optical fibers and the hard clad silica optical fiber.

More light guides are planar optical waveguide structures ( PLWL ) which find use in components for integrated optics, such as switches and the switches for optical communications. The light guides are also photoconductive components made of plastics such as PMMA or polycarbonate, for ads or backlight (Edge Lit display). Furthermore, so-called light pipes are used for building lighting with natural sunlight.

The parallelfaserige mineral ulexite is an example of a naturally occurring light guide.

History

In 1870 John Tyndall attempted to tackle light selectively into and through a water jet. Mid-1950s were primarily used for illumination of internal organs in medical optical conductor. After the development of the laser, it was possible from mid-1960 to use optical fiber as an optical waveguide for transmitting messages.