PHYSICS

PROJECT

OPTIC
FIBRES

Submitted By

Name: Pragadish Arjun V

 Class: XII

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks to my Physics master Mr.

KVSS. Sarma for his guidance and his support in completion of this
project.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the Principal, Vice-Principal

and the Administrative Officer for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that PRAGADISH ARJUN V

Reg. No. 18615699 of Class XII of

NARAYANA E-TECHNO SCHOOL, Thubarahalli, Marathahalli has

successfully completed his/ her project report in Physics on the topic
“Optical Fibres” for the partial fulfilment of AISSCE as prescribed by
the CBSE in the year 2024-2025.

Viva voce held on:

Registration No:

Signature of the principal

Signature of the Internal Signature of the External Examiner

 CONTENTS

Introduction

 Applications of Optical Fibres

 Structure of Optical Fibres
 Principle of Operation
 Types of Optical Fibres
 Pros of Optical Fibres
 Cons of Optical Fibres
 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION

An optical fibre (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fibre that carries light along its length. Fibre
optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and
application of optical fibres. Optical fibres are widely used in fibre-optic communications,
which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than
other forms of communications. Fibres are used instead of metal wires because signals travel
along them with less loss, and they are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibres 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 fibres are used for a variety of other
applications, including sensors and fibre lasers.

Joining lengths of optical fibre is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable. The ends
of the fibres must be carefully cleaved, and then spliced together either mechanically or by
fusing them together with an electric arc. Special connectors are used to make removable
connections.
 APPLICATIONS OF OPTICAL FIBRES

Optical fibre communication

Optical fibre 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 fibre 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 fibre can be modulated at rates as high as 111
gigabits per second, although 10 or 40 Gb/s is typical in deployed systems.

Each fibre can carry many independent channels, each using a different wavelength of light
(wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)). The net data rate (data rate without overhead
bytes) per fibre is the per-channel data rate reduced by the FEC overhead, multiplied by the
number of channels.

Fibre is also immune to electrical interference; there is no cross-talk between signals in different
cables and no pickup of environmental noise. Non-armoured fibre cables do not conduct
electricity, which makes fibre a good solution for protecting communications equipment located
in high voltage environments such as power generation facilities, or metal communication
structures prone to lightning strikes. They can also be used in environments where explosive
fumes are present, without danger of ignition.

Although fibres can be made out of transparent plastic, glass, or a combination of the two, the
fibres used in long-distance telecommunications applications are always glass, because of the
lower optical attenuation.

Copper Fiber

Electrical Noise susceptible unless Immune

Bonded-pair and/or
shield

Spark hazard Hazardous No spark hazard

Durablity lower, but can be High

improved with the light
jacketing

cost Lower higher

Both multi-mode and single-mode fibres are used in communications, with multi-mode fibre
used mostly for short distances, up to 550 m (600 yards), and single-mode fibre used for longer
distance links. Because of the tighter tolerances required to couple light into and between
single-mode fibres (core diameter about 10 micrometres), single-mode transmitters, receivers,
amplifiers and other components are generally more expensive than multi-mode components.
Fibre optic sensors

Fibres have many uses in remote sensing. In some applications, the sensor is itself an optical
fibre. In other cases, fibre is used to connect a non-fibreoptic sensor to a measurement system.
Depending on the application, fibre 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 fibre by using different wavelengths of light for each sensor, or by sensing
the time delay as light passes along the fibre through each sensor. Time delay can be
determined using a device such as an optical time-domain reflectometer.

Extrinsic fibre optic sensors use an optical fibre cable, normally a multi- mode one, to transmit
modulated light from either a non-fibre 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 fibre 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.

Other uses of optical fibres

Optical fibre is also used in imaging optics. Acoherent bundle of fibres 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 borescope) are
used for inspecting anything hard to reach, such as jet engine interiors.

In spectroscopy, optical fibre bundles are used to transmit light from a spectrometer to a
substance which cannot be
placed inside the spectrometer itself, in order to analyse its composition. A spectrometer
analyses substance by bouncing light off of and through them. By using fibres, a spectrometer
can be used to study objects that are too large to fit inside, or gasses, or reactions which occur in
pressure vessels.

Fibres 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 fibres are used to route sunlight from the roof to other parts of
the building. Optical fibre illumination is also used for decorative applications, including signs,
art, and artificial Christmas trees. Swarovski boutiques use optical fibres to illuminate their
crystal showcases from many different angles while only employing one light source.
 STRUCTURE OF OPTICAL FIBRES

The three basic elements of a fibre optic cable are the core, the cladding and the coating.
 Core: This is the light transmission area of the fibre, either glass or plastic. The larger the
core, the more light that will be transmitted into the fibre.

 Cladding: The function of the cladding is to provide a lower refractive index at the core
interface in order to cause reflection within the core so that light waves are transmitted
through the fibre.

Coating: Coatings are usually multi-layers of plastics applied to preserve fibre strength, absorb
shock and provide extra fibre protection. These buffer coatings are available from 250 microns
to 900 microns.
 PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

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 fibres to confine light in the core. Light travels along the fibre 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 fibre within a certain range of angles can travel down the
fibre without leaking out. This range of angles is called the acceptance cone of the fibre. The
size of this acceptance cone is a function of the refractive index difference between the fibre's
core and cladding.

In simpler terms, there is a maximum angle from the fibre axis at which light may enter the
fibre so that it will propagate, or travel, in the core of the fibre. The sine of this maximum angle
is the Numerical Aperture (NA) of the fibre. Fibre with a larger NA requires less precision to
splice and work with than fibre with a smaller NA. Single-mode fibre has a small NA.
 TYPES OF OPTICAL FIBRES
Single Mode Cable

Single Mode cable is a single stand (most applications use 2 fibres) of glass fibre with a
diameter of 8.3 to 10 microns that has one mode of transmission. Single Mode Fibre with a
relatively narrow diameter, through which only one mode will propagate typically 1310 or
1550nm. Carries higher bandwidth than multimode fibre, but requires a light source with a
narrow spectral width. Synonyms mono-mode optical fibre, single-mode fibre, single-mode
optical waveguide, uni-mode fibre.

Single Modem fibre is used in many applications where data is sent at multi-frequency (WDM
Wave-Division-Multiplexing) so only one cable is needed (single-mode on one single fibre)

Single-mode fibre gives you a higher transmission rate and up to 50 times more distance than
multimode, but it also costs more. Single-mode fibre has a much smaller core than multimode.
The small core and single light-wave virtually eliminate any distortion that could result from
overlapping light pulses, providing the least signal attenuation and the highest transmission
speeds of any fibre cable type.

Single-mode optical fibre is an optical fibre in which only the lowest order bound mode can
propagate at the wavelength of interest typically 1300 to 1320nm.
Multi-Mode Cable

Multi-Mode cable has a little bit bigger diameter, with a common diameter in the 50-to-100-
micron range for the light carry component (in the US the most common size is 62.5um). Most
applications in which Multi-mode fibre is used, 2 fibres are used (WDM is not normally used
on multi-mode fibre). POF is a newer plastic-based cable which promises performance similar
to glass cable on very short runs, but at a lower cost.

Multimode fibre gives you high bandwidth at high speeds (10 to 100MBS-Gigabit to 275m to
2km) over medium distances. Light waves are dispersed into numerous paths, or modes, as they
travel through the cable's core typically 850 or 1300nm. Typical multimode fibre core diameters
are 50, 62.5, and 100 micrometres. However, in long cable runs (greater than 3000 feet [914.4
meters), multiple paths of light can cause signal distortion at the receiving end, resulting in an
unclear and incomplete data transmission so designers now call for single mode fibre in new
applications using Gigabit and beyond.
 PROS OF USING OPTICAL FIBRES

Extremely High Bandwidth: No other cable-based data transmission medium offers the
bandwidth that fibre does. The volume of data that fibre optic cables transmit per unit time is far
great than copper cables.

Longer Distance: In fibre optic transmission, optical cables are capable of providing low power
loss, which enables signals can be transmitted to a longer distance than copper cables.

Resistance to Electromagnetic Interference: In practical cable deployment, it's inevitable to

meet environments like power substations, heating, ventilating and other industrial sources of
interference. However, fibre has a very low rate of bit error (10 EXP-13), as a result of fibre
being so resistant to electromagnetic interference. Fibre optic transmission is virtually noise
free.

Low Security Risk: Data or signals are transmitted via light in fibre optic transmission.
Therefore, there is no way to detect the data being transmitted by "listening in" to the
electromagnetic energy "leaking" through the cable, which ensures the absolute security of
information.

Small Size: Fibre optic cable has a very small diameter. For instance, the cable diameter of a
single OM3 multimode fibre is about 2mm, which is smaller than that of coaxial copper cable.
Small size saves more space in fibre optic transmission.
 CONS OF USING OPTICAL FIBRES

Fragility: Usually optical fibre cables are made of glass, which lends to they are more fragile
than electrical wires. In addition, glass can be affected by various chemicals including hydrogen
gas (a problem in underwater cables), making them need more cares when deployed
underground.

Difficult to Install: It's not easy to splice fibre optic cable. And if you bend them too much,
they will break. And fibre cable is highly susceptible to becoming cut or damaged during
installation or construction activities. All these make it difficult to install.

Attenuation & Dispersion: As transmission distance getting longer, light will be attenuated
and dispersed, which requires extra optical components like EDFA to be added.

Cost Is Higher Than Copper Cable: Despite the fact that fibre optic installation costs are
dropping by as much as 60% a year, installing fibre optic cabling is still relatively higher than
copper cables. Because copper cable installation does not need extra care like fibre cables.
However, optical fibre is still moving into the local loop, and through technologies such as
FTTx (fibre to the home, premises, etc.) and PONs (passive optical networks), enabling
subscriber and end user broadband access.
 CONCLUSION

Fibre optic transmission is widely used for data transmission and is increasingly being used in
place of metal wires because of its efficiency and high transmission capacity. We have seen the
fibre optic cables have replaced traditional copper twisted-pair cable or coaxial cable. As the
use and demand for great bandwidth and fast speed, there is no doubt that fibre optic
transmission will bring more opportunities and be continuously researched and expanded to
cater for future demands.