Fiber Optics: Physics and Technology

This book tells you all you want to know about optical fibers: Their structure, their light-guiding mechanism, their material and manufacture, their use.

It began with telephone, then came telefax and email. Today we use search engines, music downloads and internet videos, all of which require shuffling of bits and bytes by the zillions. The key to all this is the conduit: the line which is designed to carry massive amounts of data at breakneck speed. In their data carrying capacity optical fiber lines beat all other technologies (copper cable, microwave beacons, satellite links) hands down, at least in the long haul; wireless devices rely on fibers, too.

Fedor Mitschke, a German physicist, was involved in pioneering work on fiberoptic solitons at Bell Laboratories in 1985-1986. He has held teaching positions at universities in Hannover, Munich, Münster, and Rostock (all in Germany).

Since 1997 he holds the chair for optics at the Institute of Physics at Rostock University. This book grew out of lectures he gave at Hannover, Münster, Rostock, and as visiting professor in Luleå.