Transmitting visible light via optical fiber

[snowlion]

Hi,

A colleague of mine at work has this idea of using a focusing lens to focus the visible light into a optical fiber and guide it to some destination, e.g. room with no windows.

I have no experience in optics, or in QED (only some "layman" knowledge of monochromatic light and its interactions with surfaces/electrons). Is it possible to guide the "chaotic" visible light down the fiber? What are the affects on light intensity, energy, reflections, refractions and so on, when performing such an experiment?

Cheers!

 

[cosmik debris]

Yes, this is possible, you may have seen some of those fibre-optic lamps in shops. They have hundreds of fibres like a flower thing. Doctors and spys also use these things for looking into your body of through a keyhole depending on their occupation.

 

[sophiecentaur]

You can buy 'light pipes' for feeding daylight into internal rooms but I believe they use large diameter reflective conduits rather than optical fibres. This could be because it is a cheaper solution for channelling light over short distances where the low loss of optical fibres doesn't have much advantage.

 

[snowlion]

Thanks for your replies!