ABSTRACT
Electromagnetics plays a key role in modern optical telecommunications systems. This chapter examines the electromagnetic phenomena peculiar to fiber optic communications. In the mid-1960s, guided propagation in a glass fiber was proposed as a strategy for overcoming the many problems of optical atmospheric propagation for telecommunications. Fiber communications utilize carrier wavelengths in the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The most commonly used light sources in optical communication are the light-emitting diode and the laser diode. An important property of light sources used in fiber-optic communications is its spectral width. This is the range of wavelengths over which it emits significant amounts of power. The chapter describes properties of traveling waves, emphasizing traveling pulses as in an optical digital communication system. Reflection of light at a plane boundary is one of the classical problems in optics. Results from the analysis of this problem explain the operation of numerous optical components.
