In this paper, I will discuss Fiber Optics. I will give background history of fiber optics. ... I will also discuss technological applications in the area of Fiber Optics. Lastly, I will discuss the founding of Fiber Optics and my personal interpretation of Fiber Optic technology.
Introduction
I will start off by defining the term fiber optics. An optical fiber is a very thin strand of glass or plastic capable of transmitting light from one point to another. Optical fiber can also be called an
optical waveguide, since it is a device that guides light. ... There are generally three types of construction: glass core/cladding, glass core with plastic cladding, or all-plastic fiber. Optical fibers typically have an additional outside coating, which surrounds and protects the fiber. Commonly available glass fiber diameters range from 8 micron core/125 micron cladding to 100 micron core/140 microns cladding, whereas plastic fibers range from 240 micron core/250 micron cladding to 980 micron core/1,000 micron cladding. ...
The principles behind fiber optics show that fiber optics work on the principle of total internal reflection. ... In the case of fiber optics, light is reflected from the optical fiber core-cladding interface in such a way that it moves down the core of the fiber. ... This picture essentially corresponds to an optical fiber in cross-section. Light introduced to the fiber at the critical angle will reflect off the interface, and propagate down the fiber (Sterling, 1997). ...
Historical Perspective
The beginning of fiber optic history lies in the nineteenth century. ... There are many contributors who played a part in the invention of fiber optics. ... Maiman was an American physicist and inventor of the solid-state laser, which made fiber optics telecommunications practical. ... Kapany, the Indian-born co inventor of the fiberscope who developed the first practical glass-coated glass fiber and invented the term fiber optics. ... Daniel Colladon made great strides in the field of fiber optics. ...
Present Standing of the Subject
Optical fibers were first used in medicine in the late 1950s when fiber optic bundles were added to endoscopes (optical instruments used to examine the inside of hollow organs or tubes in the body). ... 64-centimeter) wide optical fiber carrying the same amount of data. ...
The technology of fiber optics spans across many areas and its uses are still being discovered everyday. The uses for fiber optic technology has spanned from laboratories to modern homes, offices and factories. ... Robert Spinrad, director of systems technology at Xerox states: The optics boom is just starting to explode. Optics in the 21st century will be what electronics represents in the 20th century (Spinrad, 1986). ... The first advances of fiber optics has created such conveniences as fiber-optic telephone lines,
laser printers, hot-selling compact disc players, credit cards bearing holograms and laser price-tag scanners in supermarkets and department stores (Spinrad, 1986). ... Fiber-optic links are allowing major corporations to install networks of private video hookups and connect office buildings into a new kind of optical city. ... AT&T is a giant in the field; its Bell Laboratories, with a research budget of some $2 billion annually, now conducts more research in optics than in its original core pursuit of electronics. ... Transmission is accomplished principally by sending beams of voice and data signals via laser along hair-thin filaments of ultra pure glass fiber. ... To profit from that efficiency, telephone companies around the world are laying optical fiber cables as rapidly as possible. ... and Europe with a 3,700 nautical-mile undersea fiber that permitted 38,000 simultaneous phone calls or data transmissions, compared with just 9,000 for a conventional coaxial cable. The advantages of fiber optics loom even larger for computer data and video signal transmission. ...
The enormous transmission capacity of optical fiber has encouraged corporations such as McDonalds, Citicorp and Merrill Lynch to install private fiber-optic lines to conduct video conferences, connect computers or operate low-cost telephone networks. Fiber-optic cables, hooked directly to consumers homes, are providing reception of almost limitless numbers of cable-TV channels and to many families today. A joint venture of French communications companies broke new ground by stringing fiber- optic cables to the homes of 1,500 telephone customers in the southern town of Biarritz and setting up an experimental two-way video system in which customers see one another while they chat (Gale Group, 2003).
Another growing area of optics is holography, which is the production of three-dimensional
pictures using low-powered lasers. ...
Future Relevance of the Subject
In the future, fiber optics will definitely have a larger role in the military and even more advances with the military.
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