OPTICAL FIBRE

The optical fibre is a cylindrical, long, thin transparent structure made of glass and
plastic, which is designed to guide the light wave from one end to another. The light
inside the fibre is guided on the principle of Total Internal Reflection (TIR).

The basic structure of an optical fiber consists of three parts the

core, the cladding, and the coating or buffer
The innermost region is called the core, the light in the fibre travels only in
the core.

The core is surrounded by cladding, which is responsible for keeping the

light inside the core.

The refractive index of core (n1) is greater than of cladding (n2).

The outermost region is called buffer or sheath, which protects the core and
cladding from external abrasions
 Total Internal Reflection

When the ray of light is passed from denser medium to the rarer medium and the angle of incidence is
greater than the critical angle the incident light is reflected back in the denser medium this
phenomenon is called TIR.

When the angle of incidence is increased angle of reflection also increases and for a particular angle of incidence, the
refracted ray travels along the interface of two mediums. This angle of incidence is known as Critical angle (θC )
Acceptance angle
Acceptance angle is defined as the maximum angle of incidence at the interface of air medium and
core medium for which the light ray enters into the core and travels along the interface of core and
cladding.

Numerical Aperture
Numerical aperture is defined as the light gathering capacity of an optical fiber and it is
directly proportional to the acceptance angle.

Acceptance Cone
A cone obtained by rotating a ray at the end face of an optical fibre, around the fibre axis
with acceptance angle is known as acceptance cone.
DERIVATION FOR NUMERICAL APARTURE
Step index fiber
The transmitted optical signal will cross the fiber axis
during every reflection at the core cladding boundary.
The shape of propagation of the optical signal is in
zigzag manner.
Graded index fiber
In graded index fibers, the refractive index of the core medium
is varying in the parabolic manner such that the maximum
refractive index is present at the center of the core
V - normalize frequency of the fiber
 Optical fiber communication system

An optical fiber communication system mainly consists of the following parts as shown in figure.

1. Encoder
2. Transmitter
3. Wave guide.
4. Receiver.
5. Decoder
Encoder
Encoder is an electronic system that converts the analog information like voice, figures, objects etc., into binary data.

Transmitter
It contain two parts, they are drive circuit and light source.
1. Drive circuit supplies the electric signals to the light source from the encoder in the required form.
2. The light source converts the electrical signals into optical form.

Wave guide
It is an optical fiber which carriers information in the form of optical signals over distances with the help of repeaters.

Receiver.
It consists of three parts; they are photo detector, amplifier and signal restorer
1. The photo detector converts the optical signal into the equivalent electric signals and supply to hem to amplifier
2. The amplifier amplifies the electric signals as they become weak during the long journey through the wave guide
over longer distance
3. The signal restorer deeps the electric signals in a sequential form and supplies to the decoder in the suitable way

Decoder
It converts electric signals into the analog information.
 LOSSES IN OPTICAL FIBERS

Radiative loss or bending loss

Radiative loss occurs in fibers due to bending of finite radius of curvature in optical fibers

The types of bends are

a. Macroscopic bends b. Microscopic bends
 Macroscopic bends
If the radius of the core is large compared to fiber diameter, it may
cause large-curvature at the position where the fiber cable turns at the
corner.

At these corners the light will not satisfy the condition for total
internal reflection and hence it escapes out from the fiber. This is
called as macroscopic losses.

Microscopic bends
Micro-bends losses are caused due to non-uniformities
or micro bends inside the fiber as shown.

This micro bends in fiber appears due to non-uniform pressures

created during the cabling of the fiber or even during the
manufacturing itself.

This is lead to losses of light by leakage through the fiber.

 Advantages of Fiber optic communication:-

1. Enormous bandwidth The information carrying capacity of a transmission system is directly proportional to
the frequency of the transmitted signals. In the coaxial cable transmission the bandwidth range is up to
around500MHZ
2. Low transmission loss:- The transmission loss is very low in optical fibers (i.e. 0.2 dB / Km ) than compare
with the convectional communication system. Hence for long distance communication fibers are preferred.
3. Electric isolation Since fiber optic materials are insulators, they do not exhibit earth and interface
problems. Hence communicate through fiber even in electrically danger environment.
4. Signal security The transmitted signal through the fiber does not radiate, unlike the copper cables, a
transmitted signal cannot be drawn from fiber without tampering it. Thus the optical fiber communication
provides 100% signal security.
5. Low cost Since optical fibers made up of silica which is available in abundance, optical fibers are less
expensive.
6. Small size and less weight The size of the fiber ranges from 10μm to50μm , which is very small. The space
occupied by the fiber cable is negligibly small compared to convectional electrical cables. Optical fibers are
light in weight.
7. Immunity cross talk Since the optical fibers are dielectric wave guides, they are free from any
electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference.