Basic optical laws and definition

• Refractive index : 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.
 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.
• 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 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 –light ray in air is parallel to the
surface .
When the light ray in air is parallel to glass surface,
then φ2=90 o so that sin φ2= 1
critical angle is sin φc = n2/n1
Typical structure of optical fiber
 classification
• Step index:-refractive index of core is
uniform and undergoes an abrupt change
at the cladding boundary.
• Graded index:-core refractive index varies
as a function of radial distance from the
center of the fiber.
• Step and graded index again divided in to
single mode and multimode.
Step index
• Decreasing core index n(r) with radial distance
from a maximum value of n1 at the axis to a
constant value n2 beyond the core radius a in
the cladding.
• Index variation
n1 (1-2∆(r/a)α )1/2 r < a (core)
n(r) =
n1 (1-2∆)1/2 = n2 r≥ a(cladding)
• ∆ is the relative refractive index difference.
• α is the profile parameter which gives
characteristic refractive index profile of the
fiber core.
• When α = ∞ step index profile
α = 2 parabolic profile
α = 1 triangular profile
Refractive index profile and ray transmission
in multimode graded index fibers
 Advantages
• Less intermodal dispersion when compared to
multimode step intermodal dispersion.