Directional Controlling of Transmitted Light and Polarized Light Separation from a Monofilament Drawing Fiber Whose Cross-section is Triangle

Abstract

Control of light diffusion or direction of transmitted light were generated from polymer composites, consisting of single fiber and surrounded polymer matrix, using a fiber whose cross-section is triangle shape. Light diffusion property was drastically changed by following two ways, slight rotation of samples with respect to the direction of incident light, or little adjustment of refractive index of polymer matrix. If triangle fiber was used, spatial pattern of light diffusion was strongly dependent on incident light direction or refractive index ratio between fiber and polymer matrix, whereas, if circular fiber was used, they were relatively insensitive to incident light direction or refractive index ratio. In this research we also succeeded in polarization separation, by use of a monofilament birefringent fiber. The fabrication procedure was same except that fiber was birefringent. Since the light diffusion property was drastically influenced by the shift of refractive index, spatial patterns of light diffusion were quite different between two polarized light (axis of electric field are vertical each other) in birefringent fiber, thus polarized light was separated to different directions. In our samples, we could separate more than 95% of polarized light into two different directions.