Scientists and engineers who can design and operate optoelectronic components and systems are in demand in the photonics industry. Optical fiber links are crucial to all parts of telecommunications systems, from the global Internet and increasingly in local area networks. One of the challenges facing educationalists particularly in this area, is to design practical experiments at an appropriate level that provide students with the opportunity to investigate basic principles, characteristics, and design of optical waveguides. However, optical equipment can be very expensive and our goal here is to create an advanced experiment, suitable for use in an upper level undergraduate laboratory, balanced against the constraints of a typical academic teaching budget.
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