Book Description:
An optical fiber is a glass or plastic fiber designed to guide light along its length by confining as much light as possible in a propagating form. In fibers with large core diameter, the confinement is based on total internal reflection. In smaller diameter core fibers, (widely used for most communication links longer than 200 meters) the confinement relies on establishing a waveguide. Fiber optics is the overlap of applied science and engineering concerned with such optical fibers. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communication, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher data rates than other forms of wired and wireless communications. They are also used to form sensors, and in a variety of other applications.

The term optical fiber covers a range of different designs including graded-index optical fibers, step-index optical fibers, birefringent polarization-maintaining fibers and more recently photonic crystal fibers, with the design and the wavelength of the light propagating in the fiber dictating whether or not it will be multi-mode optical fiber or single-mode optical fiber. Because of the mechanical properties of the more common glass optical fibers, special methods of splicing fibers and of connecting them to other equipment are needed. Manufacture of optical fibers is based on partially melting a chemically doped preform and pulling the flowing material on a draw tower. Fibers are built into different kinds of cables depending on how they will be used.

This new book presents the latest research in the field.

Table of Contents:
Preface

Short Communication: Ignition with Optical Fiber Coupled Laser Diode, pp. 3-11;
(Shi-biao Xiang, Wei-huan Ji, Xu Xian and Chang-gen Feng)

Research and Review Studies

Chapter 1 - Evanescent Field Tapered Fiber Optic Biosensors (TFOBS): Fabrication, Antibody Immobilization and Detection, pp. 15-49;
(Angela Leung, Raj Mutharasan and P. Mohana Shankar)

Chapter 2 - New Challenges in Raman Amplification for Fiber Communication Systems, pp. 51-81;
(P.S. Andre, A.N. Pinto, A.L.J. Teixeira, B. Neto, S. Stevan Jr., Donato Sperti, F. da Rocha, Micaela Bernando, J.L. Pinto, Meire Fugihara Ana Rocha and M. Facão)

Chapter 3 - Fiber Bragg Gratings in High Birefringence Optical Fibers, pp. 83-117;
(Rogério N. Nogueira, Ilda Abe and Hypolito J. Kalinowski)

Chapter 4 - Applications of Hollow Optical Fibers in Atom Optics, pp. 119-159;
(Heung-Ryoul Noh and Wonho Jhe)

Chapter 5 - Advances in Physical Modeling of Ring Lasers,
pp. 161-185;
(Vittorio M. N. Passaro and Francesco De Leonardis)

Chapter 6 - Investigation of Optical Power Budget of Erbium-Doped Fiber, pp. 187-203;
(Hideaki Hayashi, Setsuhisa Tanabe and Naoki Sugimoto)

Chapter 7 - Recent Developments in All-Fibre Devices for Optical Networks, pp. 205-229;
(Nawfel Azami and Suzanne Lacroix)

Chapter 8 - Advances in Optical Differential Phase Shift Keying and Proposal for an Alternative Receiving Scheme for Optical Differential Octal Phase Shift Keying, pp. 231-256;
(M. Sathish Kumar, Hosung Yoon and Namkyoo Park)

Chapter 9 - A New Generation of Polymer Optical Fibers, pp. 257-277;
(Rong-Jin Yu and Xiang-Jun Chen,)

Chapter 10 - Dissipative Solitons in Optical Fiber Systems,
pp. 279-300;
(Mario F. S. Ferreira and Sofia C. V. Latas)

Chapter 11 - Bright-Dark and Double-Humped Pulses in Averaged, Dispersion Managed Optical Fiber Systems, pp. 301-313;
(K.W. Chow and K. Nakkeeran)

Chapter 12 - Dynamics and Interactions of Gap Solitons in Hollow Core Photonic Crystal Fibers, p. 315-333;
(Javid Atai and D. Royston Neill)

Chapter 13 - Multiwavelength Optical Fiber Lasers and Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Ring Lasers, pp. 335-353;
(Byoungho Lee and Ilyong Yoon)

Chapter 14 - Aging and Reliability of Single-Mode Silica Optical Fibers, pp. 355-368;
(M. Poulain, R. El Abdi, and I. Severin)

Index