Light Guide Systems for the Ultraviolet Region of the Spectrum

Whereas diverse and highly refined fiber optics have long been in technical use for the conduction of visible light, traditional but expensive silica glass lenses and prisms have had to be utilized until quite recently for the transmission of ultraviolet light. The reason for this was the lack of suitable materials. UV light cannot be transported to any technically useful extent either with pure glass‐glass (core and sheath materials) light guides or with plastic‐plastic light guides. UV light guides for wavelengths down to 200 nm can be produced by combination of a silica glass as the core material with a tetrafluoroethylene‐hexafluoropro pylene copolymer or methylpolysiloxane as the sheath material. Fiber optics of this type constitute a new aid for medical technology, medicine, and many technical and scientific fields, whose range of applications cannot yet be fully envisaged.