Introductory chapter : application of optical fiber for sensing
1. Introduction The history of the use of optical fiber for sensing applications began with two different, but interrelated, discoveries: laser light and optical fibers. The first laser was built in 1960 by T. H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on the theoretical work by C. H. Town...
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| Formato: | Parte de libro |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
IntechOpen
2021
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| Acceso en línea: | https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/12556 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | 1. Introduction
The history of the use of optical fiber for sensing applications began with two
different, but interrelated, discoveries: laser light and optical fibers. The first laser
was built in 1960 by T. H. Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on the
theoretical work by C. H. Townes and A. L. Schawlow. A laser provides a source
of an intense coherent light, highly collimated, and quasi-monochromatic; its
potential for data transfer was immediately envisaged. Naturally, first experiments
involved the transmission of the laser beam through the air. However, a communication
channel cannot be practically sustained propagating freely through
the air, owing to atmospheric attenuation and weather influence. Researchers also
conducted experiments by transmitting the laser beam through glass fibers, which
soon became the preferred medium for transmission of light. First, optical fibers
were not practical to sustain a communication channel mainly due to the presence
of impurities in the fiber material, resulting in very high transmission losses
(>1000 dB/km), until Corning presented at the beginning of the 1970s optical
fibers with (in comparison) very lower transmission losses, with only a few dB/km.
Today, typical transmission losses are below 0.2 dB/km. This represents an extraordinary
improvement as compared with electrical signal transmission through
coaxial cables, not to mention the wider bandwidth available, which is several
orders of magnitudes higher. |
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