Fiber Optics

FEATURES OF OPTICAL FIBERS

It is light in weight.
It is smaller in size and is flexible, so that it can bend to

any position.
It is nonconductive, non-radiative and non-inductive.
It has high bandwidth and low loss.
There is no short circuiting as in metal wires.
There is no internal noise/cross talks.
It can withstand to any range of temperature and moisture
condition.
There is no need to ground and hence no voltage problem
occurs.
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History
Guiding of light by refraction, the
principle that makes fiber optics possible,
was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon
and Jacques Babinet in Paris in the early
1840s.
J o h n Tyn d a l l i n c l u d e d a d e m o n s t r a t i o n o f
i t i n h i s p u b l i c l e c t u r e s i n L o n d o n, 1 2
y e a r s l a t e r.
Tyn d a l l a l s o w r o t e a b o u t t h e p r o p e r t y o f
total internal reflection in an introductory
book about the nature of light in 1870:
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Daniel
Colladon
first
described this light fountain
or light pipe in an 1842
article titled On the reflections
of a ray of light inside a
parabolic liquid stream.
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In 1964, Correctly and

systematically theorized the lightloss properties for optical fiber, and

pointed out the right material to use
for such fibers silica glass with
high purity. This discovery earned

The Honorable Sir

Charles Kuen Kao the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009

Definition

Optical fiber is a very thin and flexible

medium having a cylindrical shape
consisting of three sections:

1. Core 8-10 m
2. Cladding 125 m
3.a. Buffer 250 m
b. Jacket 400 m

Fiber Composition

An optical fiber consists of 3 distinct parts:

1) the core
2) the cladding
3) the sheath (jacket or coating).
The core and cladding act as an optical wave-guide.
In optical fiber the refractive index of core is
slightly higher than the refractive index of cladding.
Core - it is a transmission area of fiber.
- typical core diameters range from 8 to 10 m
Cladding - it surrounds the core and has a different
index of refraction than the core.
- it defines the optical boundary of the core and
makes sure that total internal reflection occurs at
the core outer skin.
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Principle of Optical fiber

The light launched inside the core

through its one end propagates to the other

end due to total internal reflection at
the core and cladding interface. This is the
principle of optical fiber.

Total Internal
Reflection
Fiber for light beam propagation

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Refraction
of
Light
Light travels at approximately 3x10 m/s in free
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space and slower in a material denser than free

space. This reduction in speed as it passes from
free space into a denser material results in
refraction of the light.
Fig. 2 shows the light is bent at the interface. The
degree to which the ray is bent depends on the
index of refraction n of the denser material.
n is defined as the ratio between speed of light in
free space and speed of light in given material.
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Index of refraction

how a light ray

passing from
material 1 to
material 2 is
refracted in
material 2 when A1
is less than the
critical angle.
(< c)

the condition that

exists when A1 is at
the critical angle and
angle A2 is at 90. The
light is directed along
the boundary
between the 2
materials. (= c)

that any light ray

incident at an angle
greater than A1 of
will be reflected
back into material 1
with A2 equal to A1.
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Total Internal Reflection of Light

Total internal reflection forms the basis for light propagation in optical fibers.

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The cone thus form is called acceptance cone

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Numerical Aperture
The acceptance angle for a fiber defines its numerical aperture (NA)

NA sin i

NA

1 2
1
n1 n22
n
n

n1 n2 n1 n2 1n

2 n12

1 2
n1 n22
n
n1 n2
n1

The NA is related to the critical angle of the waveguide

and is defined as:

n
NA 1 2
n

n1 n2
n1

NA sin i 1 n12 n22

n

Telecommunications optical fiber n1~n2,

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Types of Optical Fibers

Optical fibers can be classified based on either the modes
they support or the refractive index profile of the fiber.
Mode of Propagation
Mode simply means path from which light is
propagated.
If there is only one path for light to take down the
cable, it is called single mode.
If there is more than one path, it is called multimode.

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Index Profile
It is a graphical representation of the value of

the refractive index across the fiber.

The refractive index is plotted on the horizontal

axis and the radial distance from the core axis is

plotted on the vertical axis.

There are 2 basic types of index profiles:

step and graded

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A step-index fiber has a

central core with a

uniform refractive index.
The core is surrounded by
an outside cladding with
a uniform refractive index
less than that of the
central core.

In a graded-index fiber

there is no cladding and

the refractive index of
the core is non-uniform; it
is highest at the center
and decreases gradually
with distance toward the
outer edge.
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Single-Mode Step-Index
Fiber
It has a central core that is sufficiently small so that there is

essentially only one path that light may take as it

propagates down the cable.
The refractive index of the cladding is slightly less than that
of the central core and is uniform throughout the cladding.
Consequently, all light rays follow approximately the same
path down the cable and take approximately the same
amount of time to travel the length of the cable.

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Multi-mode
Step-Index
Fiber

The light rays that strike the core/cladding interface at

an angle greater than the critical angle are propagated
down the core in a zigzag fashion, continuously
reflecting off the interface boundary.
There are many paths that a light ray may follow as it
propagates down the fiber. As a result, all light rays do
not follow the same path and hence do not take the
same amount of time to travel the length of the fiber.

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Multimode Graded-Index Fiber

Index of
refraction

The index of refraction gradually changes across the core

Modes that travel further also move faster
This reduces modal dispersion so the bandwidth is greatly

increased
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Step-index and Graded-index

Step index multimode was developed first,

but rare today because it has a low bandwidth

(50 MHz-km)
It has been replaced by graded-index
multimode with a bandwidth up to 2 GHz-km

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Attenuation

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Advantages of Optical Fibre

Enormous bandwidth
Electrical isolation
Immunity to interference and cross talk
Signal security
Small size and weight
Low transmission loss
Ruggedness and flexbility
Low cost

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Application of Optical Fibers

Telecommunications
Local Area Networks
Cable TV
CCTV
Optical Fiber Sensors
Medicine ( Medical Endoscopy)

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Thanking You.

11/20/16

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