COUPLING MEANS FOR LIGHT SOURCE AND OPTICAL FIBER BUNDLE

摘要

PURPOSE: To suppress the loss of light from a light source by tapering the internal cavity of a sleeve from a relatively large diameter at a position distant from a specific plane to a relatively small diameter on the specific plane. CONSTITUTION: A bundle of optical fibers is arranged in the sleeve 50 and internal cavity 52 of the coupling means. Several optical fibers 18 are formed of a compression deformable materials. The input ends of optical fibers 18 where the light from the light source is received are arranged in the specified plane 67. Then the cavity is tapered from the relatively large diameter at the position in the 2nd plane distant from the specified plane 67 to the relatively small diameter on the specified plane. Consequently, the cavity filling rate of the optical fibers 18 in the area of the relatively small diameter becomes larger than that on the 2nd plane.