Four different dye-doped polymer optical fibers (POFs) have been fabricated following a two-step fabrication process of preform extrusion and fiber drawing, using poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as host material and dye derivatives from perylene and naphtalimide as active dopants. The side illumination technique (SIT) has been employed in order to determine some optical properties of the fabricated fibers, such as the side illumination coupling efficiency, optical loss coefficients, and their performance under solar simulator excitation. The aim of this work is to investigate the performance of the manufactured fibers for fluorescent lighting applications, specially targeting on fluorescent fiber based solar concentrators.

This work reports on a diameter dependence analysis of the performance as luminescent solar concentrators of three self-fabricated polymer optical fibers (POFs) doped with a hybrid combination of dopants. The works carried out include the design and self-fabrication of the different diameter fibers; an experimental analysis of the output power, of the output irradiance and of the fluorescent fiber solar concentrator efficiency; a comparison of the experimental results with a theoretical model; a study of the performance of all the fibers under different simulated lighting conditions; and a calculation of the active fiber length of each of the samples, all of them as a function of the fiber core diameter. To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first analysis of the influence of the POF diameter for luminescent solar concentration applications. The results obtained offer a general perspective on the optimal design of solar energy concentrating systems based on doped POFs and pave the way for the implementation of cost-effective solar energy concentrating devices.

The emission properties of a graded-index thermoplastic polymer optical fiber and a step-index thermosetting one, both doped with rhodamine 6G, have been studied. The work includes a detailed analysis of the amplified spontaneous emission together with a study of the optical gains and losses of the fibers. The photostability of the emission of both types of fibers has also been investigated. Comparisons between the results of both doped polymer optical fibers are presented and discussed.