Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A step-index optical fibre has a core of refractive index and a cladding of refractive index . It is long and light enters it from air. Find the numerical aperture, which is , the acceptance angle , and the critical angle at the boundary of core and cladding. A short pulse enters with rays at many angles. The ray along the axis takes the shortest path. The steepest trapped ray, which meets the boundary at the critical angle, takes the longest. Find the difference between their travel times.
Snell's law is , with the angles measured from the normal. The critical angle for light that goes from to a smaller is . Light is totally reflected when the angle of incidence is larger than . In a material, .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. , and .
Step 1. The numerical aperture. .
Step 2. The acceptance angle. .
Step 3. The critical angle in the fibre. , so .
Step 4. The two paths. The ray along the axis travels . The steepest trapped ray makes the angle with the axis, so its path is longer by the factor . Its path is .
Step 5. The time difference. The speed in the core is . The difference of the paths is . So .
Answer: , , and .
What it means. A pulse that is short when it goes in is about longer after . Pulses that follow each other more closely than this run together. A thinner core, or a core whose index changes smoothly, cuts this spreading.
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