INTRODUCTION

Optical fiber is basically a solid glass rod light travels like an electromagnetic wave total internal reflection Core and cladding refractive index of the core must be greater than the refractive index of the cladding.

RAY MODEL

MERIDIONAL RAYS - the rays will always cross the axis of the fiber. It gives high optical intensity at the center of the core of the fiber

SKEW RAYS - rays essentially will spiral around the axis of fiber. It has low optical intensity at the center and high intensity towards the rim of the fiber.

MERIDIONAL RAYS

A ray is launched from outside (air) at an angle 0, from the axis of the fiber The ray makes an angle 1 with the axis of the fiber inside the core

Let the ray make an angle 1 with core -cladding interface. Let 2 be the angle of refraction in the cladding Now as we increase the launching angle 0 , the angle 1 also increases

Applying Snells law at the launching point and at the core-cladding interface for the maximum launching angle 0max,

0max is called the numerical apperture

Acceptance angle

Acceptance angle is the maximum angle at which the core of the fiber will take in light that will be contained within the core

It is designated as
It is given by d formula

Skew rays

Skew rays are transmitted without passing through the ber axis They greatly outnumber meridional rays and follow helical path They propagate only in the annular region near the outer surface of the core.

dispersion

In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency

It causes distortion for both digital and analog transmission along optical bers It has to be small since the data rate is inversely proportional to the pulse broadening

Conclusion

The ray model of light is more generic and explicitly explains the path taken by light. It also explains phenomena like sunbeams coming through holes in clouds