Sun light transmission through silica optical fibers for lighting: an experimental study

Abstract

The process of sunlight transmission through optical fibers has received considerable interest from the scientific community in recent times. The interdisciplinary emerging field has found many applications in the field of solar lighting, solar furnace, three dimensional solar cells etc. Most of the optical fiber based solar lighting systems have employed plastic fibers as the light transmission media and the use of silica fibers in such systems has not been given much attention. Further, the actual measured data/values of the light emanating from the output ends of fibers in such systems are rarely reported. In the present study, merits and demerits of employing silica and plastic fibers in transmitting sun light are discussed. A silica optical fiber based solar lighting system has been developed and after installing it on an indigenously fabricated sun tracker, its performance has been measured and reported. Based on experimental and simulated results, multimode silica fibers could turn out to be better light transmission media than the plastic fibers, particularly for the case when light has to be transported over longer distances. The findings reported herein stress the need for tailor made customized solar lighting design for different buildings.