Motivation

The use of fiber optics has grown exponentially over the past few decades as we have increased our understanding of the properties of light, and increased our ability to utilize its properties for communication.  Fiber optics are used in telecommunications, local area networks (LANs) and factory automation to name a few examples.  There are many advantages to fiber optic cables over conventional conducting cables.  They can transmit much more information per wire than conducting wires.  Explorations into the properties of fiber optics has led to new applications and more efficient utilizations of the technology both in industry and around the home. 

Fiber optic cables utilize the property of total internal reflection to transmit information.  When used properly, light directed into one end of the cable will emerge from the opposite end of the cable in an intelligible form.  Signal loss tends to be much less than in conventional cables, due to less intrinsic resistance.

  (Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com)

This diagram of a fiber optic cable shows its components:  the core, the cladding and the buffer.  Light travels almost exclusively within the core.

  (Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com)

In this experiment, we explored the characteristics of a single-mode fiber in a multi-mode regime.

Theory