SYNTHESIS AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES ANALYSIS OF A NEW POLYMERIC OPTICAL FIBER FOR SIDE LIGHTING

A new plastic optical fibre (POF) for lighting having good optical properties (transmission and diffusion) was developed. The plastic optical fibre was prepared using butylmethacrylate and acrylate monomers by bulk radical polymerisation. The possibility of increasing scattering loss which does not depend on the wavelength in an optical fibre for lighting application was described. A heterogeneous structure which increases the scattering light is generated during the reactive processing by the introduction of particles in the system. The strong contribution of the light scattering induced by the PMMA particles was described. The techniques used to determine the optical properties were light scattering and transmission. The present study illustrates the control of optical properties by the chemical composition of the POF.