Refraction

Figure 7-13
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Critical Angle
Figure 7-14
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
Figure 7-15
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Figure 7-16
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Multimode Step-Index
Figure 7-17
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Multimode Graded-Index
Figure 7-18
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Single Mode
Figure 7-19
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
Fiber Construction
Figure 7-20
WCB/McGraw-Hill The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998
How a light ray reacts when it meets the interface of two
transmissive materials that have different indexes of refraction
can be explained with Snells law.
Snells law simply states












n
1
sin u
1
= n
2
sin u
2


Where n
1
= refractive index of material 1
(unit less)
n
2
= refractive index of material 2
(unit less)
u
1
= angle of incidence (degrees)
u
2
= angle of refraction (degrees
( n
1
> n
2
)

Refracted Ray
u
1

(angle of incidence)
( n
1
= n
2
)
Unrefracted
Ray
Normal
Medium n
1

Medium n
2

u
2

u
2

Incident ray
( n
1
< n
2
)
Figure 2.5 Refractive model for Snells law
Normal
Figure 2.6 Critical Angle
Refraction
n
2
less dense
u
1
=u
C

(minimum)
u
2

n
1
more dense
Incident ray
Refracted ray
(more to less dense)
When u
2
= 90 which result to sin u
2
= 1, then u
1
= u
C
,
Therefore,
Critical Angle :

u
C
=
|
|
.
|

\
|

1
2 1
sin
n
n

Total Internal Reflection



2 conditions necessary for TIR to occur:

1. The refractive index of the first medium is greater than
the refractive index of the second one (n1 > n2)

2. The angle of incidence, u
1,
is greater than or equal to the
critical angle,

u
c
: u
1
>
u
c

n
2
less dense
u
1
>u
C

n
1
more dense
Incident ray
Total Internal
Reflection of
Incident Ray
The Total Internal Reflection
2.5.3 Numerical Aperture

One of the properties of a fiber, which we need to know, is called the
Numerical Aperture. The numerical aperture is defined as:










2
2
2
1
n n NA =

A
NA u =
1
sin
Example 1

let medium 1 be glass and medium 2 be ethyl alcohol. For an angle of
incidence of 30 , determine the angle of refraction .









= =
= =
=

47 . 33 5514 . 0 sin
sin 5514 . 0 30 sin
36 . 1
5 . 1
sin sin
1
2
2
2 1
2
1
u
u
u u
n
n
n
1
(glass) = 1.5
n
2
(ethyl alcohol) = 1.36

Determine the critical angle for the fiber describe in Example 1
u
C
=
|
|
.
|

\
|

1
2
1
sin
n
n
|
.
|

\
|

5 . 1
36 . 1
sin
1
= 05 . 65
u
C
=

Determine the numerical aperture for the fiber describe in Example 1
( ) ( )
633 . 0
36 . 1 5 . 1
2 2
2
2
2
1
=
=
= n n NA