Abstract
One of the most important and exciting applications of lasers lies in the field of communication. Since optical frequencies are extremely large compared to radio waves and microwaves, a light beam acting as a carrier wave is capable of carrying far more information in comparison to radio waves and microwaves. Light wave communications using hair-thin optical fibers as transmission media has become ubiquitous with the ever increasing demand for higher and higher speeds of communication. In this chapter, we will discuss briefly the concept of carrier wave communication which uses electromagnetic waves as carriers of information and then discuss some basic features of optical fibers and their application to light wave communication.
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Notes
- 1.
Charles Kao was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 2009 for for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.
References
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Ghatak, A., and Thyagarajan, K. (1998), Introduction to Fiber Optics. Cambridge University Press, UK.
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Thyagarajan, K., Ghatak, A. (2011). Light Wave Communications. In: Lasers. Graduate Texts in Physics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6442-7_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6442-7_17
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