TOPIC:

Basic optical laws and definitions/Ray theory

transmission

Presented by
Mrs. N.Beaula,
Asst. Prof. / ECE,
ACEW.
1)Refractive index /index of refraction:
The refractive index of a medium is defined as the ratio of
the velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in
the medium.
n=c/v
c=speed of light wave in free space(3x108m/s).
v=velocity of light in non conducting medium.
n=1.00 for air , n=1.33 for water,1.45 for silica glass,2.45 for
diamond.
 2)Reflection and Refraction
 When a light ray
encounters a boundary
separating two different
media , part of ray is
reflected back in to first
medium and the
remainder is bent
(refracted) as it enters
the second material.

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 At interface by Snell’s law
n1 sinφ1 =n2 sinφ2

φ1=angle between the incident ray and the normal

to the surface is known as angle of incidence.
φ2=angle between the refracted ray and the
normal to the surface is known as angle of
refraction.
 As the angle of incidence φ1 becomes larger,
refracted angle φ2 approaches π/2. Beyond this
point no refraction is possible and the light rays
become totally internally reflected.
 Critical angle φc –if the angle of incidence φ1 is
increased,a point will eventually be reached where
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 When the light ray in air is parallel to glass surface,
then φ2=90 o so that sin φ2= 1.
The critical angle is sin φc = n2/n1

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3) Total internal reflection

When the light ray is incident on the interface between two

medium having different indices at an angle greater than critical
angle, the light gets totally internally reflected within the medium
of higher refractive index.
 If the light hits the interface at any angle larger than th critical
angle, it will not pass through to the second medium at all.
 Instead, all of it will be reflected back into the first medium, a
process known as total internal reflection.

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4)Critical angle

When the angle of incidence (Φ 1 ) is progressively increased, there will be

progressive increase of refractive angle (Φ2). At some condition of (Φ1),
the refractive angle (Φ2) becomes to the normal. When this happens the
refracted light ray travels along the interface. The angle of incidence (Φ1) at
the point at which the refractive angle (Φ2) becomes 90° is called the
critical angle. It is denoted by Φc.

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5)Acceptance angle
In an optical fiber, a light ray undergoes its first refraction at the air-core interface.
The angle at which this refraction occurs is crucial because this particular angle
will dictate whether the subsequent internal reflections will follow the principle of
Total Internal Reflection. This angle, at which the light ray first encounters the
core of an optical fiber is called Acceptance angle.

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6)Numerical aperture

 Numerical Aperture is a characteristic of any optical

system. For example, photo-detector, optical fiber, lenses
etc. are all optical systems.
 Numerical aperture is the ability of the optical system to
collect all of the light incident on it, in one area.

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CONT...

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CONT..
Numerical aperture (NA), shown in above
Figure, is the measure of maximum angle at
which light rays

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7)Skew rays

 In a multimode optical fiber, a bound ray that travels in a

helical path along the fiber
 It is not parallel to the fiber axis
 It does not lie in a meridional plane
 It does not intersect the fiber axis is known as a Skew Ray

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Skew rays(CONT..)

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  Skew rays are rays that travel through an optical fiber without
passing through its axis
 Skew rays are those rays which follow a helical path but they
are not confined to a single plane. Skew rays are not confined
to a particular plane so they cannot be tracked easily
 Analyzing the meridional rays is sufficient for the purpose of
result, rather than skew rays, because skew rays lead to
greater power loss
 Skew rays propagate without passing through the center axis
of the fiber
 The acceptance angle for skew rays is larger than the
acceptance angle of meridional rays

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  Skew rays are often used in the calculation of light acceptance
in an optical fiber. The addition of skew rays increases the
amount of light capacity of a fiber. In large NA fibers, the
increase may be significant.
 The addition of skew rays also increases the amount of loss in a
fiber. Skew rays tend to propagate near the edge of the fiber
core. A large portion of the number of skew rays that are
trapped in the fiber core are considered to be leaky rays.
 Leaky rays are predicted to be totally reflected at the core-
cladding boundary. However, these rays are partially refracted
because of the curved nature of the fiber boundary. Mode
theory is also used to describe this type of leaky ray loss.

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 THANK YOU

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