Optical fiber, cable and connectors
Ulf L. Österberg
6.1.1 Light propagation
6.1.1.1 Rays and electromagnetic mode theory
Light is most accurately described as a vectorial electromagnetic wave. Fortunately, this complex description of light is often not necessary for a satisfactory treatment of many important engineering applications.
In the case of optical fibers used for tele- and data communication it is sufficient to use a scalar wave approximation to describe light propagation in single-mode fibers and a ray approximation for light propagation in multimode fibers.
For the ray approximation to be valid the diameter of the light beam has to be much larger than the wavelength. In the wave picture we will assume a harmonically ...
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