Optical fiber

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An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass or plastic fiber that carries light along its length. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers. 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. Fibers are used 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.

Light is kept in the core of the optical fiber by total internal reflection. 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 fibers are used for most communication links longer than 550 metres (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. Special connectors are used to make removable connections.

For more information about Optical fiber, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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News tagged with fiber optics

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New nano color sorters from Molecular Foundry

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

Nov 12, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (4) | 0

Berkeley Lab researchers have engineered a new class of bowtie-shaped devices that capture, filter and steer light at the nanoscale. These "nano-colorsorter" devices act as antennae to focus and sort light ...

Mobile microscopes illuminate the brain

Biology / Other

Nov 03, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- By building a tiny microscope small enough to be carried around on a rats' head, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, have found a way to ...

Research continues on secure, mobile, quantum communications

Technology / Engineering

Oct 27, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

Researcher Dr. David H. Hughes of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y. is leading a team investigating long-distance, mobile optical links imperative for secure quantum communications capabilities in theater.

Search results for fiber optics

Water droplets direct self-assembly process in thin-film materials

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

14 hours ago | 5 / 5 (4) | 2

You can think of it as origami - very high-tech origami. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon structures from thin films by coupling ...

IBM scientists create rapid disease diagnostic chip (w/ Video)

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

Nov 19, 2009 | 5 / 5 (11) | 0

IBM scientists have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on an innovative silicon chip, that requires less sample volume, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use, and can test for ...

NASA Provides Venerable Hubble Hardware to Smithsonian

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two key instruments from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have a new home in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington after being returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis ...

Crashing the size barrier

Physics / General Physics

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (15) | 6

Like surfers on monster waves, electrons can ride waves of plasma to very high energies in a very short distance. Scientists have proven that plasma acceleration works. Now they're developing it as a way to ...

Nokia N900 now available in US

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

Nokia today announced that the highly anticipated Nokia N900 is now on sale in the United States and shipping to consumers who jumped on the opportunity to be among the first to pre-order the Maemo-powered ...

China Joins Thirty Meter Telescope Project

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (6) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has joined the Thirty Meter Telescope Project (TMT). As an Observer, China will participate in planning the ...

Ticking stellar time bomb identified (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (9) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova," says Patrick Woudt, from the University ...

Building a more versatile laser

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (19) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. ...

Invisibility visualized: German team unveils new software for rendering cloaked objects

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or completely cloaked object would look like in real life can now get their wish -- virtually. A team of researchers at the ...