Introduction
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* What is meant by optical fibers. Optical fibers are the technology used to transmit light carrying information and sound through strands of ultra-pure glass, finer than a human hair. *Components of optical fibers. Optical fibers consist of a core made of glass, usually pure silicon dioxide, and a reflective layer to reduce the refractive index, which is also practically made of silicon dioxide, but with parts of boron or germanium, in addition to a protective layer. *Mechanism of manufacturing optical fibers. A large piece of shaped glass is heated, the center of which is pure glass and the outside is the sheath. Then it is pulled into the form of a cable by wrapping the molten material over a wheel at a speed of up to 1600 meters/minute and with a diameter equivalent to the diameter of a human hair. - The wheels on which the cable passes should be spaced at certain distances, which helps cool the cable before it is wrapped inside the cylinder. *Mechanism of operation of optical fibers. We find that optical fiber technology requires to activate it well to benefit from it to the maximum benefit of developing the systems and applications that traditional telephones operate with, and for this reason new systems have been applied to telephones to be compatible with this technology, and these applications are represented as follows. - The new telephone systems electronically cut the audio waves of the human voice into samples according to the wave capacity and translate them into binary computer language. Then these symbolic signals are converted by small laser devices (or luminous diodes) into infrared light pulses that flash through the fibers within parts of a thousandth of a second. - At the receiving end, the process is reversed, as the symbolic code of the light pulses is decoded and converted into electrical signals that enable them to be reshaped into audible sounds. * Stages of development of optical fiber technology. - The idea of using light as a sound transmitter was started by the scientist "Alexander Graham Bell" using what he called the optical telephone, which is a device that used oscillating mirrors to transmit sound over a light beam instead of a copper wire, but the experiment failed because the device was crude and poorly performing. However, this experiment was the beginning of other experiments that did not stop. - With the invention of the laser in 1960, scientists believed that they had put their hands on the key to inventing the modern optical telephone, but in fact, although the laser device was able to produce a thin and intense beam of light and could be modified to transmit a huge amount of information, this was not the whole solution, but it was part of the solution, as the problem was the weather (atmospheric air), which is always characterized by fluctuations that would affect the path of the laser beam and make it unstable and unsafe, and thus the process of transmitting information would not be completed in the ideal required manner. Accordingly, it was necessary to find a medium to transmit the light carrying information in a safe manner. - In 1966, the medium that would transmit light was discovered by Dr. Charles Kao, who proposed the idea of transmitting beams of radiation carrying messages through thin glass fibers, confirming his theory that the fibers should be free of impurities and cracks to ensure efficient transmission. However, at that time, there were no means available to manufacture such ultra-pure glass fibers. The purest fibers that could be manufactured contained so many impurities that the signals that traveled through them completely disappeared after traveling a distance of less than 10 meters. To achieve long-distance communications using these poor cables, it was necessary to place boosters (signal amplification devices) along the entire distance every few feet of the cable, which made it impossible to produce them economically. - But in 1970, a company was able to manufacture fiber that was good enough to carry light over a distance of about a mile without boosters. In the early eighties, fiber optic cables were developed that only needed to amplify their signal once every four miles. - In the late eighties, cables were produced that were considered one of the greatest achievements in the field of fiber optics. They were called TAT-8 and were used in the marine connection between New Jersey in America across the ocean to European countries. - Then, many operations followed to connect the marine connections between different countries around the world using fiber optic cables until the present time. - At the level of a single country, the scope of using fiber optics has expanded to include various vital fields in it.
* Uses of optical fibers. - Telephone conversations There are tens of thousands of people around the world exchanging their conversations over optical fiber telephone cables that transmit their voices in the form of flowing streams of light pulses. This provides an effective solution to the problem of crowded and exhausted communication lines. - Medical field. There are doctors who use optical fibers to examine and treat deep organs of the body, which saves them the costs and pain of dangerous surgeries. - Engineering field. Engineers and mechanics who examine the hideouts of extremely sensitive engineering mechanisms such as nuclear reactors or jet engines are now able to connect very fine fibers filled with light to the lens of their eyes and peer deeply into even the most difficult places to reach. - Military institutions. Military institutions and security services use night vision binoculars and telescopes made of these chips that can magnify starlight hundreds of thousands of times. - Traffic signals. Fiber optics were used in traffic intersection signals, as these units were considered brighter than regular lamps or neon lights and more efficient in energy consumption. - Cars Fiber optics are used to serve some parts of the car. For example, the light emitted from a single bulb can be used to illuminate the warning signals on the instrument panel that warn you about opening the door or raising the parking brake. - Spacecraft in science fiction movies. We notice that those dazzling lights that we see in spacecraft with a thousand windows and windows in science fiction movies (the movie Spacecraft Galactica) are emitted by a single lamp. A single light source is fixed inside the model of the vehicle and its light is diffused to the other windows via fiber optics. * Advantages of optical fibers compared to copper wires. - We find that a single pair of fibers (encased in a protective layer) is less than one inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, but it can hold 672 telephone calls at once, while we find that a copper cable with a diameter of 3 inches (7.5 cm) and includes 18,000 wires can only carry 900 calls. Thus, comparing fibers with copper wires, we find that fibers are superior to a much higher degree when transmitting conversations. Thus, increasing the capacity of optical fibers to expand will contribute to providing an effective solution to the problem of crowded and exhausted communication lines. - Since fibers carry light, they do not radiate electromagnetic signals, and therefore they are immune to electrical interference (jamming) as well as call entanglement (telephone line interference). - It is also possible to make repairs while continuing to operate the device. Thus, the process of transferring conversations and information will proceed smoothly and efficiently. - The slender fiber optic cables can be easily placed inside the pipes alongside the currently extended cables, which allows for a great deal of service expansion without the need to bear the additional high costs of new installations. * The extent of the future impact of fiber optics on the telephone. - We find that fiber optics have contributed to a huge leap in the development of the communications system, and therefore it is not unlikely that fiber optics will contribute in the near future to a qualitative leap in the functions of the telephone, as it is expected that the telephone will have other roles other than transferring calls between people, such as waking the person up automatically, turning on the lights, turning on the television and safety systems or turning them off at pre-programmed times, closing or opening doors, as well as turning on the gas oven or turning off the clothes dryer, reading the electricity meter and delivering mail to your home. The phone may become an integrated device for shopping and purchasing all your needs of goods while you are at home, and with the help of call detection devices, it will be able to reach you wherever you are as if the call was from the phone of friends in the neighboring apartment. |
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