Fiber Optics Fundamentals

The science of fiber optics deals with the transmission or guidance of light (rays or waves) along
transparent fibers of glass, plastic, or a similar medium. The phenomenon responsible for the
fiber or light-pipe performance is the law of total internal reflection.

Total Internal Reflection

A ray of light, incident upon the interface between two transparent optical materials having
different indices of refraction, will be totally internally reflected (rather than refracted) if

(1) the ray is incident upon the interface from the

direction of the more dense material and

(2) the angle made by the ray with the normal to the
interface is greater than some critical angle, the
latter being dependent only on the indices of
refraction of the media (see Figure 1)
.
Rays may be classified as meridional and skew.Meridional rays are those that pass through the
axis of a fiber while being internally reflected. Skew rays are those that never intersect the fiber
axis although their