INTRODUCTION

FIBER OPTICS:

The most electronic communication was carried by copper cables,

whether twisted pairs, coaxial cables or copper waveguides.
Communication was accomplished by sending electrical signals
through the copper cables or waveguides.
In recent years, a new medium has been introduced: Optical fibers.
In optical fiber communication, light signals replace electrical signals.
This branch of science is called fiber optics.
An optical fiber itself is one of the most important components in any
optical system. The transmission characteristics of optical fiber plays
major role in determining the performance of the entire system.
Fundamental properties of optical fiber are light propagation
mechanism, fabrication process, material choice and various losses
material choice and various losses along the fiber length.
An optical fiber is an extremely thick strand of ultra pure glass
designed to transmit optical signals from the optoelectronic source to
the optoelectronic detector.
It consists of essentially three regions:
1. A solid cylindrical region of diameter 8-100 micro meter called
the core.
2. A coaxial cylindrical region of diameter normally 125 micro
meter called the cladding.
3. The outer most layer, surrounding one or a bundle of cladded
fiber, is the jacket.

The refractive index of the core is kept greater than that of the
cladding.

BASIC OPTICAL LAWS AND DEFINATIONS

The propagation of light can be analyzed in detail using
electromagnetic wave theory.
Light falls in the general category of electromagnetic waves, much
like radio waves.
The behaviour of light is sometimes easier to explain by using ray
tracings
The propagation of light in a fiber can be described in terms of rays.
Light is a transverse, electromagnetic wave that can be seen by
humans. The wave nature of light was first illustrated through
experiments on diffraction and interference.
Light has dual nature, which indicates that light radiation has particle
as well as wave properties. There is conception that light always
travels at the same speed.
The fact is simply not true. The speed of light depends upon the
material or medium through which it is moving.
In free space light travels at its maximum possible speed i.e., 3*10^8
m/s.
When light travels through a material it exhibits certain behaviour
explained by laws of reflection, refraction.

REFLECTION :

When a light ray is incident on a reflecting surface, the ray bounces

back like a handball when it hits a wall.
A reflecting surface is one that is highly polished, opaque and coated
with special reflective materials.
The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the
angle of reflection.
The incident ray is the line AO, the reflected ray is OB and ON is the
normal to the reflecting surface.
The incident and reflected angles, 1 and 2, respectively, are those
between the rays and the line perpendicular to the surface.

INCIDENT AND REFLECTED RAYS

The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the
angle of reflection. the incident ray is the line AO, the reflected ray is
OB and ON is the normal to the reflecting surface.
The incident and reflected angles, and respectively, are those
1
2,
between the rays and the line perpendicular to the surface

=
2

A direct result of this law is the fact that if is 90, is 90 and the
1
2
reflected ray is in line with the incident ray.

REFRACTION AND SNELLS LAW :

The refracted ray is broken that is, the angle is not equal to .
2
1
The relation between and is given by Snells law of refra
1
2

INCIDENT AND REFRACTED RAYS

INCIDENT AND REFRACTED

RAYS
When a ray travels across a boundary between two materials with
different refractive indices n and n , both refraction and reflection
1
2
takes place. The case where n > n ; that is where the light travels
1
2
from high to low refractive index materials.
The refracted ray is broken that is, the angle is not equal to .
2
1
The relation between and is given by Snells law of refraction.
1
2

REFRACTIVE INDEX
The amount of refraction or bending that occurs at the interface of
two materials of different densities is usually expressed as refractive
index of two materials. Refractive index is also known as index of
refraction and is denoted by n.
Based on the material density, the refractive index is expressed as the
ratio of the velocity of light in free space to the velocity of light in the
dielectric material (substance).
Refractive index (n) = speed of light in air /speed of light in medium
=c/v
Typical values of n are: n = 1 for air, n=1.33 for water, n=1.50 for
glass and n = 2.42 for diamond .

TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION

When light travels from a medium with higher refractive index to a
medium with a lower refractive index and it strikes the boundary at
more than critical angle, all light will be reflected back to the incident
medium. This phenomenon is called Total Internal Reflection.

TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF OPTICAL FIBER :

An optical fiber is a transparent rod, usually made of glass or clear

plastic through which light can propagate.

The light signals travel through the rod from the transmitter to the
receiver and can be easily detected at the receiving end of the rod,
provided the losses in the fiber are not excessive.
The structure of the modern fiber consists of an optical rod core
coated with a cladding.
The core and the cladding have different refractive indices and hence
different optical properties The refractive index of the core is always
greater
than
that
of
the
cladding
(i.e.)
n1 > n2.

The light travels within the core by the principle of total internal
reflection
An unclad fiber and a clad rod through which the light travels.
With the unclad rod, only a small portion of the light energy is kept
inside; most of the light leaks to the surroundings.
The clad fiber is a much more efficient light carrier.
The losses of the light as it travels through the fiber are
much smaller for the clad fiber than for the unclad one.
The thickness of the core of a typical glass fiber is
nearly 50 m and that of cladding is 100 200 m.
The overall thickness of an optical fiber is nearly 125
200 m.
Thus an optical fiber is small in size and light weight
unlike a metallic cable.

Propagation characteristics of optical fiber :

Meridinal rays and Skew rays :

The light rays, during the journey inside the optical

fiber through the core, cross the core axis. Such light
rays are known as meridinal rays.
The passage of such rays in a step index fiber is
Similarl, the rays which never cross the axis of the core
are known as the skew rays.
Skew rays describe angular helices as they progress
along the fiber. They follow helical path around the axis of fiber.
A typical passage of skew rays in a graded index fiber is shown in the
following Fig.

MERIDINAL RAYS AND SKEW RAYS

The skew rays will not utilize the full area of the core and they travel
farther than meridinal rays and undergo higher attenuation.

ACCEPTANCE ANGLE:
A meridinal ray A is to be incident at an angle a in the
core cladding interface of the fiber.
The ray enters the fiber core at an angle a to the fiber
axis.
The ray gets refracted at the air core interface at
angle c and enters into the core cladding interface
for transmission The ray B entered at an angle greater
than a and eventually lost propagation by radiation.
This angle a is called as acceptance angle, defined as the maximum
value of the angle of incidence at the entrance end of the fiber, at

which the angle of incidence at the core cladding surface is equal to

the critical angle of the core medium.

ACCEPTANCE CONE:

The imaginary light cone with twice the acceptance angle as the
vertex angle, is known as the acceptance cone.
NUMERICAL APERTURE;
Numerical aperture (NA) of the fiber is the light collecting efficiency
of the fiber and is a measure of the amount of light rays can be
accepted by the fiber.

ACCEPTANCE ANGLE

A ray of light is launched into the fiber at an angle

acceptance angle for the fiber as shown.
a
Applying Snells law of refraction at A,

In the triangle ABC,

or

is less than the

From the above two equations

When the total internal reflection takes place, = and = .

c
1
a
Therefore,

Also, at B, applying the Snells law of refraction, we get

From the above equation, we get

This is called the numerical aperture (N.A). The numerical aperture is

also defined as the sine of the half of the acceptance angle

In terms of refractive indices n and n , where n is the core index

1
2
1
and n the cladding index .
2
The half acceptance angle is given by
a

From the above equations, we get

FIBER ATTENUATION MEASUREMENTS

Fiber attenuation measurements technique have been developed in
order to determine the total fiber attenuation of the relative
contributions of both absorption losses and scattering losses.
1.Cut Back or Differential Method
A commonly used technique for determining the total fiber
attenuation per unit length is the cut-back or differential method.

Diagram shows a typical experimental set up for measurements of

spectral loss to obtain the obstacle attenuation spectrum for the fiber.
It consists of a white light source usually tungsten halogen or xenon
arc lamp.

The focussed light is mevhanically chopped at a low frequency of

afew hundred hurtz.
This enables the lock in amplifier at the receiver to perform phase
sensitive detection.
The chopped light is then fed through a monochromatic, which
utilizes a prism