Optical fibres guiding light

Optical fibres behave as wave guides for light. The original ones were made of glass but now polymeric materials are mostly used as they are cheaper than glass and metal wires. 

Extrinsic. Many of the traditional bioassays are based on optical measurements, but these are solution assays without immobilised reagents. Optical biosensors are concerned with interrogation of reactions at surfaces, but often the reagents are the same the optical fibres acting, in the extrinsic mode as light guides to transmit information to and from a remote target reaction at its terminus. 

The guiding properties of the embedded optical fibres were then assessed using a cut-back measurement set-up. Light was inject into a portion of fibre and its intensity at the output measured with respect to the length of the fibre, and the penalty in terms of attenuation was then compared between embedded and non embedded fibres. 

Specific optical fibres could be designed to collect light. One study (Nakamura, 1992) describes a structure based on multiple light guides and one collector. The system described in Fig. 21.5 is composed of satellite optical fibres connected to a single lightguide. Satellite... 

One of the best ways to guide the light is to use an optical fibre. An optical fibre is composed of a core coated by a cladding having a lower refractive index. 

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