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Optical Fibres
Optical Fibres
BY SAGAR AGRAWAL
What are Optical fibres
At a particular angle of incidence, the ray will not enter the second medium
This is called the critical angle, at which the refracted ray travels along the boundary
between two medium
Sin(theta c) = n2/n1
Beyond the critical angle, total internal reflection occurs, and this is when the beam is
reflected entirely back into the first medium with the same angle of reflection as the angle
of incidence.
Total internal reflection is used in this way to transmit light/EM signals through optical
fibres.
Difference between standard optical fibre and step index optical fibre (or graded
index optical fibre)
Optical Fibre is a thin glass or plastic fibre that transmits light or infrared radiation
Rays travel through the glass but are trapped inside by repeated internal reflection
A step index optical fibre has a centre core with a uniform refractive index, while the
cladding has a smaller, different refractive index.
By choosing a suitable material for the core and cladding, only certain wavelengths of
light or infrared radiation can travel through the step index fibre by TIR
Pros and Cons of graded index multi – mode
fibre
Pros:
1. Allows the use of non-coherent light sources (e.g. LED)
2. Reduced dispersion compared to Step Index Multi-Mode fibre (STMMF)
Cons:
3. Lower bandwidth compared with STSMF
4. Higher power loss compared with STSMF
Pros and cons of Step index Single-mode
Fibre
Pros:
1. Only one mode allowed due to diffraction/interference effects
2. Allow use of high power laser source
3. Lower dispersion, therefore higher bandwidth
4. Low loss
Cons:
1. Expensive
Definitions and examples
Occurs when rays inside an optical fibre take slightly different paths.
Rays taking longer paths take longer to travel through the optical fibre, so the pulse
broadens.
Modal dispersion is significant in multimode fibres, as these are broad enough to allow
rays to take different paths
This is why monomode fibres are usually used in communications, as they have a very
narrow core so do not allow light rays to take single paths, so little pulse broadening
occurs, and a higher bandwidth is available.
What else to consider