Now Everywhere on this Earth hair-thin optical fibers carry vast huge quantities of information from one place to another place. There are so many desirable properties of optical fibers for carrying the information. They have enormous information-carrying capacity, are low cost, and possess immunity from the many disturbances that can afflict electrical wires, wireless communication links. The superiority of optical fibers for carrying information from place to place is leading to their rapidly replacing older technologies. Optical fibers have played a key role in making possible the extraordinary growth in world-wide communications that has occurred in the last 25 years, and are vital in enabling the proliferating use of the Internet.
Light is channeled through these fibers. Not only light but everything associated with light, images for example, also get transmitted from one end of the fiber optic to the other end. Bends and turns in the fibers pose no hindrance in this transmission.
The core of fiber optic materials is made of glass or plastic and it is highly transparent. This core is covered with a covering known as ‘cladding’. When light enters from one end and travels through the length of the fiber optic, this ‘cladding’ does not allow it to scatter outside the material.
The ‘cladding’ reflects all the light from inside the surface of the fiber optic. So, even if a bundle inside the fiber optic is not straight, the image is not affected. Fiber optics are capable of carrying light and other information over a wide range of distance. The distance may vary from a few centimeters to many hundred kilometers.
Fiber optics are primarily of two types. The single-mode fiber optic and the Multi-mode fiber optics.
Single Mode Fiber Optic
It is suitable for transmissions over long distance that happen at tremendous speed. They are capable of this because their core is very small and they have the property of accepting light only in the direction of the axis of the fibers. Small lasers are used to send light into fibers. The fibers are joined with low-loss connectors so that there is very less distortion of the light signal.
Multi Mode Fiber Optic
In multi-mode fiber optic materials the cores are big and they also can accept light from a variety of angles and can also function with a variety of light sources. The connectors are used within the materials for fiber are not very expensive. It is done because these fiber optic materials are not meant for long distance transmission only short distance transmission.
