Light tube
architectural element that transmits light for the purpose of illumination
Light tubes (also known as solar pipes, tubular skylights or sun tunnels) are structures that transmit or distribute natural or artificial light for the purpose of illumination and are examples of optical waveguides.
In their application to daylighting, they are also often called tubular daylighting devices, sun pipes, sun scopes, or daylight pipes. They can be divided into two broad categories: hollow structures that contain the light with reflective surfaces; and transparent solids that contain the light by total internal reflection. Principles of nonimaging optics govern the flow of light through them.
Types
IR light tubes
Manufacturing custom designed infrared light pipes, hollow waveguides and homogenizers is non-trivial. This is because these are tubes lined with a highly polished infrared reflective coating of gold, which can be applied thick enough to permit these tubes to be used in highly corrosive atmospheres. Carbon black can be applied to certain parts of light pipes to absorb IR light (see photonics). This is done to limit IR light to only certain areas of the pipe.
While most light pipes are produced with a round cross-section, light pipes are not limited to this geometry. Square and hexagonal cross-sections are used in special applications.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Light tube” as architectural element that transmits light for the purpose of illumination. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q210215. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Light tube” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.