In: Physics
A glass tube filled with water is used to guide light along its length. What is the NA of the guiding system? Refractive Index of glass and water is 1.5 and 1.33 respectively.
A glass tube filled with water is used to guide light along its length.
Here, the refractive index of the glass tube (1.5) > refractive index of water (1.33).
We know, to guide light along its length there should be a total internal reflection at the core-cladding interface of this guiding system. For which the refractive index of core (n1) > refractive index of the cladding layer (n2),
where, numerical aperture (NA) is defined as,
However, in the above metioned guiding system, the refractive index of core layer (water) is less than the refractive index of the cladding layer (glass tube). So, the NA is not possible to determine in this system.