Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Alan G Hulme-Lowe

Vivien L Bell

Patricia M Savu

Roger H Appeldorn

Stefan A Babirad

Ian J Ferguson

Michael C Lea

Simone Franco

Andrew C Jackson

Alistair S Dodds

An optical fibre has a light emitting region. In the light emitting region are reflecting surfaces, at least one of which has a cross sectional area less than that of the fibre. Light striking the reflecting surfaces will be reflected out of the fibre.

Illumination devices and optical fibres for use therein

An optical recording element in which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light, the element comprising, as a recording medium, a dye, which is not capable of being isomerized due to light, dissolved or dispersed in a binder, the binder comprising a thermally cured organic material composed of non-metallic elements only, and having a cross-linked three-dimensional network structure. The thermally cured binder provides improved stability to repeated read.

Recording medium for optical data storage

An optical fibre comprising a core coated with a cladding composition having a lower refractive index than the core, said cladding composition comprising a fluorinated mono-acrylate, a polyfunctional cross-linking acrylate being difunctional or higher, and a photoinitiator, said cladding composition comprising less than 0.3% by weight of a mono- or polyfunctional thiol and being cured or cross-linked.

Polymer claddings for optical fibre waveguides

A polymeric tetra-aryl polymethine dye of the general formula ##STR1## in which: A comprises a conjugated chain of carbon atoms having an equal number of double and single bonds,

Polymeric polymethine dyes and optical data storage media containing same

An optical data storage element in which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light comprising, as a recording medium a dye dissolved or dispersed in a binder in which at least 25% by weight of the binder comprises a polymer in which at least 50% of the units have the general formula: ##STR1## in which: R.sup.1 to R.sup.8 are independently selected from hydrogen, an alkyl group of up to 12 carbon atoms, an aromatic group of up to 12 carbon atoms, halogen, ether, carboxylic acid, ketone, nitro, amino and hydroxy groups of any two adjacent groups of R.sup.1 to R.sup.8 may comprise the necessary atoms to complete a carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring, and there are at least 10 units of formula (I) within the polymer chain. The dye-polymer system possesss high sensitivity acceptable CNR and particularly good stability to repeated read.

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Bishop's Stortford, United Kingdom

Alan G Hulme-Lowe