About This Special Issue
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of extruded glass or plastic, . It can function as a waveguide, to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. Power over Fiber (PoF) optic cables can also work to deliver an electric current for low-power electric devices. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. ptical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications or acoustic sensor. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with a lower index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by total internal reflection. This causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those that only support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF). Multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter, and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters (3,300 ft).