Patent ID: 8798421

Claim:
A polymer fiber, comprising: a core formed of a polymer material; and an arrangement of discrete concentric layer pairs surrounding the core, each layer pair comprising a first layer of a first polymer material having a first refractive index and a second layer of a second polymer material having a second refractive index different from the first refractive index, the concentric layer pairs having cross-sectional thicknesses selected for reflecting light at a selected visible wavelength, a cross-sectional dimension of the core being at least ten times an average of the selected thicknesses of the first and second layers, and wherein at least one of the first and second polymer materials is birefringent; and wherein thicknesses of the layers of the first polymer material and the layers of the second polymer material are selected so that the fiber reflects visible light within a selected portion of the visible spectrum in a first polarization state and incident perpendicular to a fiber longitudinal axis and transmits visible light in the first polarization state that lies outside the selected portion of the visible spectrum and incident perpendicular to the fiber longitudinal axis.