An optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles

Abstract

The present invention discloses an optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles, belonging to the field of lighting technology. The system includes a laser light source module, a coupling module, a transmission optical fiber, and a terminal accessory. The laser light source module is used to provide pump light, the coupling module is used to couple the pump light into the transmission optical fiber, and the terminal accessory includes a substrate and upconversion particles. The present invention organically combines upconversion particles with optical fiber lighting technology, overcomes the problem of excessive loss in optical fiber lighting, greatly improves the transmission efficiency, saves costs, and improves the product grade.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of lighting, and particularly to an optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles. Background Art

[0002] As a special form of light conduction, optical fiber lighting has irreplaceable advantages over other lighting methods: it realizes the separation of optoelectronics, has no risk of electric leakage, and can be safely used in places such as underwater or by the pool. In places with fire hazards or explosive gases, it is also a safe lighting method. In the lighting of ancient cultural relics in museums, etc., it can avoid damage to exhibits caused by infrared and ultraviolet rays in the light, and has a long service life. Optical fiber conduction lighting has broad market application prospects and is a relatively emerging field at present.

[0003] However, the biggest problem with current optical fiber lighting is the low transmission efficiency. Ordinary visible light has large losses when transmitted in optical fibers, cannot be transmitted over long distances, and is more expensive and costly compared to near-infrared laser systems. On the other hand, currently, the mainly used optical fiber lighting method is excited by phosphors, with high transmission losses. In recent years, the research and use of upconversion particles have become more and more extensive. It can generate higher-frequency laser light from lower-frequency light, and the conversion efficiency is also constantly improving in research. The present invention considers applying a near-infrared light source and upconversion particles to the optical fiber lighting system to achieve low-loss, long-distance, and low-cost optical fiber lighting. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Based on this, the present invention provides an optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles, which can improve the light transmission efficiency, greatly increase the transmission distance, and has a lower cost.

[0005] The present invention provides an optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles. It includes: a laser light source module, a coupling module, a transmission optical fiber, and a terminal accessory. The laser light source module is used to provide pump light, the coupling module is used to couple the pump light into the transmission optical fiber, and the terminal accessory is connected to the transmission optical fiber and includes a substrate and upconversion particles.

[0006] In an optional embodiment, the laser light source module is a pump laser in the near-infrared wavelength range.

[0007] In an optional embodiment, the laser light source module is preferably a 980nm InGaAs diode laser system.

[0008] In an optional embodiment, the coupling module is a discrete element combination type or an all-fiber type reflective or planar optical waveguide coupler, and the laser emitted by the laser light source module is coupled into the transmission optical fiber through the coupling module.

[0009] In an alternative embodiment, the transmission optical fiber is a common glass optical fiber, a plastic optical fiber or a microstructure optical fiber.

[0010] In an alternative embodiment, the terminal accessory is connected to the end of the optical fiber in the shape of a bottle cap. In an alternative embodiment, the upconversion particles are dispersedly coated on the substrate for converting the near-infrared light from the laser light source module into visible light.

[0011] In an alternative embodiment, the substrate is a micro-nano structured enhancement chip for improving the conversion efficiency of the upconversion particles.

[0012] In an alternative embodiment, the enhancement chip is composed of a micro-nano periodic structure.

[0013] In an alternative embodiment, the substrate is in a parabolic shape, a planar shape or a free-form surface combining the two. Compared with the prior art, the fiber optic lighting system provided by the present invention has a novel form and mature technology. Combining the uniqueness of upconversion nanoparticles, it converts the light from a near-infrared laser system into visible light that can be used for lighting, with very low loss during the transmission process. Then, by using the enhancement chip to improve the conversion efficiency of the upconversion nanoparticles, low-loss, long-distance and low-cost fiber optic lighting can be achieved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Figure 1 It is a schematic structural diagram of a light ray lighting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of a terminal accessory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 3 It is an example diagram of the emission spectrum of upconversion particles. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0017] Next, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0018] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being "connected" to another element or an element is referred to as being "connected to" another element, it can be directly connected to the other element or there may also be an intermediate element.

[0019] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the technical field to which this invention belongs. The terms used in the description of the present invention herein are for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the present invention.

[0020] Please refer to Figure 1 , 1 is a laser light source module, 2 is a coupling module, 3 is a transmission optical fiber, 4 is a terminal accessory, 5 is a substrate, and 6 is an upconversion particle.

[0021] In the present invention, the laser light source module 1, the coupling module 2, the transmission optical fiber 3, and the terminal accessory 4 are connected in sequence according to the optical path. The terminal accessory 4 includes a substrate 5 and an upconversion particle 6. The laser light source module 1 is used to provide pump light, which is coupled into the transmission optical fiber 3 through the coupling module 2. The near-infrared light passing through the transmission optical fiber 3 is incident on the inner surface of the terminal accessory 4, and the upconversion particle 6 can excite visible light that can be used for illumination.

[0022] The laser light source module 1 selects a pump laser in the near-infrared wavelength range. In this embodiment, an InGaAs diode laser system with a wavelength of 980 nm is selected. In other embodiments, laser light sources with near-infrared wavelengths such as 808 nm and 915 nm can also be selected.

[0023] The coupling module 2 is used to couple the laser emitted by the laser light source module 2 into the transmission optical fiber 3, and can be selected as a discrete component combination type, an all-fiber type reflective type, or a planar optical waveguide coupler.

[0024] The transmission optical fiber 3 is an ordinary glass optical fiber or a plastic optical fiber, and no special illumination optical fiber is required. In this embodiment, a hollow microstructure optical fiber is preferably used, and low-loss light guiding of near-infrared light is realized in the air core by constructing a cladding structure.

[0025] The terminal accessory 4 is connected to the end of the optical fiber in the shape of a bottle cap.

[0026] The upconversion particle 6 is dispersedly coated on the substrate 5 and is used to convert the near-infrared light from the laser light source module into visible light.

[0027] In this embodiment, the upconversion particles 6 are preferably NaYF4:Yb / Er. The near-infrared light from the transmission optical fiber 3 can excite red and green light. The basic process of luminescence is a process in which an ion reaches a higher excited state from the ground state through consecutive multi-photon absorption. First, an ion in the ground state E1 of the luminescence center absorbs a photon with an energy of φ1 and jumps to the intermediate metastable state E2 energy level. If the vibrational energy of the photon exactly matches the energy interval between the E2 energy level and the higher excited state energy level E3, then the ion at the E2 energy level jumps to the E3 energy level by absorbing the photon energy, thus forming two-photon absorption. If the requirement of energy matching can be met, the ion at the E3 energy level may jump to a higher excited state energy level, thus forming three-photon or even four-photon absorption. As long as the number of particles at this high energy level is large enough to form population inversion, then higher-frequency laser emission can be achieved and upconversion luminescence appears. The spectral diagram that appears is as Figure 3 shown.

[0028] The substrate 6 is an enhanced chip with a micro-nano structure, which is used to improve the conversion efficiency of the upconversion particles. In this embodiment, the chip is composed of a periodic lattice of silicon clusters. Each individual silicon cylinder acts as a dielectric resonator, supporting both the electric dipole (ED) mode and the magnetic dipole (MD) mode at the same time. The electric and magnetic dipole resonances of the enhanced chip can enhance the local excitation field and quantum efficiency of UCNPs respectively. In this embodiment, the substrate 6 is in a parabolic shape, a planar shape or a free-form surface combining the two. The enhanced chip can act as an antenna array and can modify the radiation direction of the upconversion particles, so that emission can be collected more effectively.

[0029] The technical features of the above-described embodiments can be combined arbitrarily. For the sake of brevity of description, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, it should be considered as the scope recorded in this specification.

[0030] The above-described embodiments only represent several implementation manners of the present invention. Their descriptions are relatively specific and detailed, but they should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be noted that for those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the concept of the present invention, several deformations and improvements can still be made, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention patent should be subject to the appended claims.

Claims

1. An optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles, characterized in that, it includes: a laser light source module, a coupling module, a transmission optical fiber, a terminal accessory. The laser light source module is used to provide pump light. The coupling module is used to couple the pump light into the transmission optical fiber. The terminal accessory is connected to the transmission optical fiber and includes a substrate and upconversion particles. The substrate is a micro-nano structured enhanced chip, and the chip is composed of a periodic lattice of silicon clusters. Each single silicon cylinder acts as a dielectric resonator.

2. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1, characterized in that: the laser light source module is a pump laser in the near-infrared wavelength range.

3. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1, characterized in that: the coupling module is a discrete component combination type or all-fiber type reflective or planar optical waveguide coupler, and the laser emitted by the laser light source module is coupled into the transmission optical fiber through the coupling module.

4. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1, characterized in that: the transmission optical fiber is a common glass optical fiber or a plastic optical fiber or a microstructured optical fiber.

5. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1, characterized in that: the terminal accessory is connected to the end of the optical fiber in the shape of a bottle cap.

6. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1 or 5, characterized in that: the upconversion particles are dispersedly coated on the substrate and are used to convert the near-infrared light from the laser light source module into visible light for lighting.

7. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1 or 5 or 6, characterized in that: the substrate is a micro-nano structured enhanced chip, which is used to improve the conversion efficiency of the upconversion particles.

8. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1 or 7, characterized in that: the enhanced chip is mainly composed of a micro-nano periodic structure.

9. The optical fiber lighting system based on upconversion particles according to claim 1 or 7, characterized in that: the substrate is in a parabolic shape or a planar shape or a free-form surface combining the two.

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