Fiber optics are used as a means of transmitting information over long distances because the conduction loss of light through optical fibers is much lower than the loss of electricity conducted through wires.
Short for optical fiber, optical fiber is a fiber made of glass or plastic that serves as a light-conducting tool. A transmitting device at one end of the fiber uses a light-emitting diode or a beam of laser light to transmit pulses of light into the fiber, and a receiving device at the other end of the fiber detects the pulses using a photosensitive element.
Extended Information:
The main types of optical fibers:
The main types of optical fiber:
1, quartz fiber: quartz (glass) series of optical fibers, with low consumption, broadband characteristics, has been widely used in cable television and communication systems.
2, infrared fiber: as the field of optical communications developed by the quartz series of optical fiber operating wavelength, although used in a shorter transmission distance, can only be used for 2 μm. Infrared fiber is mainly used for light energy transmission, for example: temperature measurement, thermal image transmission, laser scalpel medical and so on.
3, composite optical fiber: characterized by multi-component glass than the softening point of quartz glass is low and the core and cladding of the refractive index of the refractive index difference is very large, mainly in the medical business of fiber-optic endoscopy.
4, plastic clad fiber: compared with quartz fiber, with a thick core, high numerical aperture characteristics. Plastic clad fiber is easy to combine with light-emitting diode LED light source, the loss is also smaller. Therefore, plastic clad fiber is very suitable for LAN and short-distance communication.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Optical Fiber