Plastic optical fibers

Abstract

A plastic optical fiber comprising a core which comprising a transparent polymer (1); and said cladding comprises a transparent copolymer (2) comprising about 20 to 99% by weight of a comonomer (A) selected from the group consisting of fluoroalkylacrylates, fluoroalkylmethacrylates or a mixture thereof; 0.05 to 10% by weight of a comonomer (B) comprising at least one vinyl monomer having at least one hydrophilic radical, wherein said core polymer (1) and said cladding copolymer (2) have refractive indices n.sub.1 and n.sub.2, respectively, and which satisfy the relationship: (n.sub.1 -n.sub.2 .gtoreq.0.01); and optionally, 79.95% or less of at least one vinyl monomer (C) which is different from comonomers (A) and (B), thereby attenuating the refractive index of said cladding copolymer. The plastic optical fiber has an excellent light transmitting property, thermal resistance and bonding between the core and cladding constituents thereof.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.