Optical fibre made of plastic

10-Nov-05

Conventionally made of glass or silica, optical fibres are expensive to produce, fragile and not very flexible - which limits their application. Australian researchers have developed optical fibre made of plastic rather than glass - a technique which is set to revolutionise the use and manufacture of the technology around the globe. A way to make polymer optical fibres that can perform competitively with silica while being far easier and cheaper to make has been developed. Optical fibres are thin rods of glass which reflect and carry light and are wrapped in low density plastic and cabling. They are used widely in communications, and as an instrument in micro surgery. Making plastic fibre optics was not easy, due to the material's lack of transparency, its reflection rate and a higher light absorption index than glass. But the team used a microstructured pattern around an air core to overcome the problem. A pattern of concentric rings around the core reflects light of particular frequencies back so it cannot escape the core. As the light travels through air rather than the polymer, the problem of the transparency of the polymer is overcome.