# Optical fibres

An optical fibre is a thin strand of high-quality glass. Light can be transmitted through it over very large distances.

The optical fibre makes use of the 'total internal reflection' of light.

## Total internal reflection and the critical angle

When a ray of light leaves a denser medium, it moves away from the normal.

As can be seen from the above diagram, as the inside the material increases, the increases, to a point at which it leaves the material at 90˚.

The minimum angle at which total internal reflection occurs is known as the critical angle (for Perspex this is about 43˚). At any angle greater than the , total internal reflection occurs and the light ray obeys the rules for reflection (ie angle of incidence = angle of reflection).

If the angle of incidence is increased any more, then the ray does not exit glass into the air, but is reflected inside the glass. As none of the light refracts into the air, the ray has been inside the material.

Very little light is absorbed in the glass. Light travels from one end to the other of an optical fibre by total internal reflection, even when the fibre is bent.

Optical fibres are used in telecommunications because they can carry enormous amounts of information in light pulses trapped inside them. This information is carried at very high speed (approximately $$2 \times 10^{8}m\,s^{-1}$$) along an optical fibre cable.

Fibre optic communication can transmit much more data at once than electrical cables.