APPASAHABE BIRNALE PUBLIC

SCHOOL

Physics
Project on
Optical fiber and
its application

Submitted by: DAMODAR MALI

Grade: 12th
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that DAMODAR MALI, student
of Class XII, has completed the project titled

“Optical Fiber and its Applications” under the

guidance of subject teacher Mr. Pradip Shirote
during the academic year 2022-23 towards partial
fulfillment of credit for the Physics practical
evaluation, and submitted satisfactory report, as
compiled in the following pages, under
supervision.

(Teacher’s Signature)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The project could have never been possible

without the support of various sources. It is
extremely impossible to thank every
individual who has helped me in completing
this project. Some people have helped in the
basic formularization and there were sources
that helped me in giving the ideas
a physical form/shape. I am extremely
grateful to my mentor, Mr Pradip shriote
for his invaluable guidance in the project
right from the beginning. His vital support
helped the project to take a logical and
suitable shape. I take this opportunity to
thank the School authorities, for extending
their full support and cooperation in the
project.Last but not the least; I would like to
thank everyone who has offered a helping
hand when required.
 Important Terms

 Optical Fiber : An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or

plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Optical
fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications,
which permits transmission over longer distances and at
higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of
communications.
 Refraction: Refraction is the change in direction of a wave
due to a change in its speed. This is most commonly
observed when a wave passes from one medium to another.
 Reflection: Reflection is the change in direction of a wave
front at an interface between two different media so that the
wave front returns into the medium from which it
originated. Common examples include the reflection of light
, sound and water waves.
 Scattering: Scattering is a general physical process where
some forms of radiation, such as light, sound, or
deviate from a straight trajectory by one or
more localized non- uniformities in the
medium through which they pass.
  Attenuation: is the gradual loss in intensity of any kind of flux
through a medium. For instance, sunlight is attenuated by dark
glasses, and X-rays are attenuated by lead.

 Total Internal Reflection: Total internal reflection is an

optical phenomenon that happens when a ray of
light strikes a medium boundary at an angle larger than a
particular critical angle with respect to the normal to the
surface.
If the refractive index is lower on the other side
of the boundary and the incident angle is greater
than the critical angle, no light can pass through and
all of the light is reflected
 Optical Fiber Cable (OFC)

Optical Fibers are used in communication instead of metal wires

because signals travel along them with less loss, and they are also
immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for
illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so they can be used to
carry
images, thus allowing viewing in tight spaces. Specially designed
fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors
and fiber lasers.

This causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers

which support many propagation paths or transverse modes are
called
multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those which can only support a
single
mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF).

Multi-mode fibers generally have a larger core diameter, and are

used for short-distance
communication links and for applications where high power must be
transmitted. Single-mode fiber are used for most communication
links
longer than 550 meters (1,800 ft).

Joining lengths of optical fiber is more complex than joining

electrical wire or cable. The ends of the fibers must be carefully
cleaved, and then spliced together either mechanically or by fusing
them together with an electric arc.
 Applications
Optical fiber communication
Optical fiber can be used as a medium for telecommunication and
networking because it is flexible and can be bundled as cables. It is
especially advantageous for long-distance communications, because
light propagates through the fiber with little attenuation compared
to electrical cables. This allows long distances to be spanned with
few repeaters.
Additionally, the per-channel light signals propagating in the fiber
can be modulated at rates as high as 111 gigabits per second,
although 10 or 40Gb/s is typical in deployed systems. Each fiber can
carry many independent channels, each using a different wavelength
of light (wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)).
For short distance applications, such as creating a network within an
office building, fiber-optic cabling can be used to save space in cable
ducts.
This is because a single fiber can often carry much more data than
many electrical cables. Fiber is also immune to electrical
interference; there is no cross-talk between signals.
Although fibers can be made out of transparent plastic, glass, or a
combination of the two, the fibers used in long-distance
telecommunication applications are always glass, because of the
lower optical attenuation.
Both multi-mode and single-mode fibers are used in
communications, with multi-mode fiber used mostly for short
distances, up to 550m (600 yards), and single-mode.
 Fiber optic sensors
Fibers have many uses in remote sensing. In some applications, the
sensor is itself an optical fiber. In other cases, fiber is used to
connect anon-fiber optic sensor to a measurement system.
Depending on the application, fiber may be used because of its
small size, or the fact that no electrical power is needed at the
remote location, or because many sensors can be multiplexed along
the length of a fiber by using different wavelengths of light for each
sensor, or by sensing the time delay as light passes along the fiber
through each sensor.
Optical fibers can be used as sensors to measure strain,
temperature ,pressure and other quantities by modifying a fiber so
that the quantity to be measured modulates the intensity, phase,
polarization, wavelength or transit time of light in the fiber. Sensors
that vary the intensity of light are the simplest, since only a simple
source and detector are required.

A particularly useful feature of such fiber optic sensors is that they

can, if required, provide distributed sensing over distances of up to
one meter. Extrinsic fiber optic sensors use an optical fiber cable,
normally a multi- mode one, to transmit modulated light from either
a non-fiber optical sensor, or an electronic sensor connected to an
optical transmitter.
A major benefit of extrinsic sensors is their ability to reach places
which are otherwise inaccessible. An example is the measurement of
temperature inside aircraft jet engines by using a fiber to transmit
radiation into a radiation pyrometer located outside the engine.
Extrinsic sensors can also be used in the same way to measure the
internal temperature of electrical transformers, where the extreme
electromagnetic fields present make other measurement techniques
impossible.
Extrinsic sensors are used to measure.
Other uses of optical fibers
Fibers are widely used in illumination applications. They are
used as light guides in medical and other applications where
bright light needs to be shone on a target without a clear line-
of-sight path. In some buildings, optical fibers are used to
route sunlight from the roof to other parts of the building (see
non-imaging optics).
Optical fiber illumination is also used for
decorative applications, including signs, art, and artificial
Christmas trees. Swarovski boutiques use optical fibers to
illuminate their crystal showcases from many different angles
while only employing one light source .Optical fiber is also used
in imaging optics.

A co herent bundle of fibers is used,

sometimes along with lenses, for a long, thin imaging device
called an endoscope, which is used to view objects through a
small hole. Medical endoscopes are used for minimally invasive
exploratory or surgical procedures (endoscopy). Industrial
endoscopes (see fiberscope or bore scope) are used for
inspecting anything hard to reach, such as jet engine interiors.
In spectroscopy, optical fiber bundles are used to transmit light
from a spectrometer to a substance which cannot be placed
inside the spectrometer itself, in order to analyze its
composition.

A spectrometer analyzes substances by bouncing

light off of and through them. By using fibers, a spectrometer.
 Principle of Operation

An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide (non conducting

waveguide) that transmits light along its axis, by the process of total
internal reflection. The fiber core is surrounded by a cladding layer

 Index of Refraction ( Refrective Index)

The index of refraction is a way of
measuring the speed of light in a material.
Light travels fastest in a vacuum, such as
outer space. The
actual speed of light in a vacuum is about 300 million meters
(186thousand miles) per second.Index of refraction is calculated by
dividing the speed of light in a vacuum by the speed of light in some
other medium
The index of refraction of a vacuum is therefore 1, by definition . The
typical value for the cladding of an optical fiber is 1.46. The core
value is typically 1.48. The larger the index of refraction, the slower
light travels in that medium.

From this information, a good rule of thumb is that signal using

optical fiber for communication will travel at around 200million
meters per second.
Or to put it another way, to travel 1000kilometres in fiber, the signal
will take 5 milliseconds to propagate.
Thus a phone call carried by fiber between Sydney and New York, a
12000kilometre distance, means that there is an absolute minimum
delay of 60milliseconds (or around 1/16th of a second) between
when one caller speaks to when the other hears.
 Total Internal Reflection

When light travelling in a dense medium hits a boundary at a steep

angle (larger than the "critical angle" for the boundary), the light will
be completely reflected. This effect is used in optical fibers to confine
light in the core. Light travels along the fiber bouncing back and forth
off of the boundary. Because the light must strike the boundary with
an angle greater than the critical angle, only light that enters the
fiber within a certain range of angles can travel down the fiber
without leaking out.

This range of angles is calledthe acceptance cone of the fiber. The

size of this acceptance cone is a function of the refractive index
difference between the fiber's core and cladding.In simpler terms,
there is a maximum angle from the fiber axis at which light may
enter the fiber so that it will propagate, or travel, in the core of the
fiber. The sine of this maximum angle is the numerical aperture (NA)
of the fiber.

Fiber with a larger NA requires less precision to splice and work with
than fiber with a smaller NA. Single-mode fiber has a small NA.
 Types of optical Fibers

 Single mode fiber

Fiber supporting only one mode is called single-mode or mono-mode
fiber. The behaviour of larger-core multi-mode fiber can also be
modeled using the wave equation. which shows that such fiber
supports more than one mode of propagation (hence the name).

The results of such modeling of multi- mode fiber approximately

agree with the predictions of geometric optics, if the fiber core is
large enough to support more than a few modes.

 Multi Mode Fiber

In a multi-mode fiber, rays of light are guided along the fiber core
by total internal reflection. Rays that meet the core-cladding
boundary at a high angle (measured relative to a line normal to the
boundary), greater than the critical angle for this boundary, are
completely reflected.
The critical angle (minimum angle for total internal reflection) is
determined by the difference in index of refraction between the core
and cladding materials.
Rays that meet the boundary at a low angle are refracted from the
core into the cladding, and do not convey light and hence
information along the fiber. The critical angle determines the
acceptance angle of the fiber ,often reported as a numerical
aperture.

A high numerical aperture allows light to propagate down the fiber in

rays both close to the axis and at various angles, allowing efficient
coupling of light into the fiber.

However, this high numerical aperture increases the amount of

dispersion as rays at different angles have different path lengths and
therefore take different times to traverse the fiber.
 Bibliography

Books:
 Physics (Part 1&2) - Textbook for Class XII ;
NationalCouncil of Educational Research and
Training
 Encyclopedias

Websites:
Image Courtesy: www.google.com/images
www.wikipedia.org
Source and other Information:
www.google.com www.wikipedia.
org
THANK YOU