透明な繊維状物質に光エネルギーを閉じ込め,光伝送を行う伝送路.光信号,光エネルギーは,境界面における全反射,あるいは屈折率勾配による蛇行を繰り返して伝送される.光通信用には,ガラスや石英ガラスの繊維が用いられている.高速度のローカルエリアネットワーク(LAN)などの伝送媒体として急速に利用が進んでいる.
この光ファイバは直径10μ程度のガラス繊維と,その回りの屈折率の小さいガラスからなるもので,光は中心のコアと呼ばれる部分と外側のクラッドと呼ばれる部分の間で全反射を繰り返しながら進む.通常のケーブルに比べて,損失が少なく,一度に大量のデータを送ることができる.
光信号を伝達できる繊維状の導波路からなる伝送媒体.
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出典:Wiktionary
出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/08/05 05:33 UTC 版)
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of very pure glass (silica) not much wider than a human hair that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so they can be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in tight spaces. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors and fiber lasers.
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