Fiber optic lamp
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
- one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber;
an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, and wherein said exciting means produces an electric field and where said emitting material is responsive to said electric field to emit optical energy;
a holding means wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers.
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Abstract
A fiberoptic lamp includes one or more optical fibers which include an emitting material so that optical energy given off by the emitting material will be transmitted by the fibers. The lamp has a housing which holds the fibers and an exciting device where energy given off by the exciting device causes the emitting material of the fibers to emit optical energy. This eliminates the need to channel the energy of the exciting device or the optical power emitted by the emitting material into apertures or ends of optical fibers and improves the efficiency of the lamp.
84 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, and wherein said exciting means produces an electric field and where said emitting material is responsive to said electric field to emit optical energy; a holding means wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, where said optical fiber comprises a central core, an outer cladding and an interface layer between said core and said cladding, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber, where said emitting material exists within or upon said core or said cladding and said interface layer comprises said emitting material; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, where said exciting means is an irradiating means responsive to electrical energy and producing a radiation for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power; a holding means, wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers and wherein said holding means is a housing defining therein a cavity.
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- 4. The apparatus of claim 4, where said emitting material is a luminescent material.
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12. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, where said exciting means is an irradiating means responsive to electrical energy and producing a radiation for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power; a holding means consisting of a housing defining therein a cavity, wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers, where said housing is further provided with heat dissipating means compressed of heat-conductive elements on the outside of said housing to allow for heat dissipation into the surrounding environment. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, where said exciting means is an irradiating means responsive to electrical energy and producing a radiation for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power; a holding means, wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers, and wherein said holding means is a housing defining therein a cavity, where said housing is further provided with a cooling material existing within said cavity which provides increased heat conductivity throughout the volume of said cavity, said cooling material being transparent to said radiation. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, where said exciting means is an irradiating means responsive to electrical energy and producing a radiation for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power; a holding means, wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers, and where said holding means is a housing defining therein a cavity, and where the end of said fiber or fibers within said housing is reflective with respect to said optical energy.
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20. An apparatus for producing optical power in an optical fiber, comprising:
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one or more optical fibers of a type suitable for transmitting optical power, said optical fibers including an emitting material which emits optical power when excited such that the optical power given off by said emitting material will be transmitted by said optical fiber; an exciting means for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power, said emitting material and said exciting means being such that the optical power is emitted in a non-lasing mode, where said exciting means is an irradiating means responsive to electrical energy and producing a radiation for exciting said emitting material into emission of optical power and where said irradiating means comprises one or more electric filaments or electric discharge electrodes in a discharge container which is cylindrical with said electrodes at each end; a holding means, wherein said optical fibers and said exciting means are held such that the effect of the exciting means is to excite said emitting material into emission of optical power which is transmitted by said optical fibers, where said holding means is a housing defining therein a cavity, and where said housing is provided with a reflective means on the inner wall of said housing, or where said housing is transparent to said radiation and is provided with a reflective means on the outer wall of said housing, said reflective means serving to reflect said radiation. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification