Design and fabrication of extruded retroreflective polymer fibers

Extruded polymer fibers with submillimeter diameters are considered for tailored optical and near-IR properties. Retroreflection of light is demonstrated. Simulated and measured reflection spectra are compared and found to agree. Additional simulations suggest that retroreflection from gold coated 12-pointed star fibers could exceed retroreflection from microbeads on t-shirt. Finally, a novel, robust, extruded retroreflective fiber with performance approaching microbeads is presented. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America