Applications of Total Internal Reflection

Applications of Total Internal Reflection

Fibre Optics

1. Total internal reflection is also used in optical fibres. An optical fibre consists of an inner core of high refractive index glass and surrounded by an outer cladding of lower refractive index.
2. When light is introduced into the inner core at one end, it will propagate along the fibre in a zigzag path undergoing a series of total internal reflections.
3. Optical fibres are useful for getting light to inaccessible places. They are used in many important practical applications. This includes fibre optic diagnostic tools in medicine and fibre optic cables in telecommunications.
4. An endoscope is an instrument made of a fibre optic cable. It is used by doctors to see the inside of the human body such as the stomach and the duodenum.
5. In telecommunications, copper cables are now replaced by fibre optic cables in the telephone system.
6. Multiple signals can be sent at high speeds through bundles of fibres by using flashes of light from a laser.

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Periscope

1. Prisms are used in the construction of a periscope. The image seen through a periscope is upright and the same size as the object.
2. The first prism rotates the image by 90° and the second prism rotates it back to normal.

Prism

1. Images produced by total internal reflection are brighter than those produced by mirrors.
2. When light rays strike the inside surface of a right-angled glass prism with an angle of incidence, i that is greater than the critical angle, c (42° for glass), total internal reflection occurs.
3. A 45745° prism is capable of bending light rays through 90°.
4. This makes them useful to be used as a reflector.

Reflector

1. Reflectors that are fixed at the bending of roads and the cat’s eye reflectors on the dividing lines of road lanes are important to drivers at night.
2. They reflect the light rays from the headlamps of a car j back to the driver.
3. This makes the bend and the lanes visible at night.
4. The prism inside the reflector reflects the incident light j by total internal reflection.

Single-lens Reflex Camera

1. A single-lens reflex (SLR) camera has a pentaprism which is used to reflect the incoming light to the! viewfinder.
2. This allows the photographer to actually see the light j which is entering the lens of the camera.

Binoculars

1. A 45°/45° prism can cause light rays to bend through 180° when the light is incident at right angles onto the hypotenuse of the prism as shown in Figure.
   
2. This property of prisms makes them useful in the construction of binoculars.
3. Two prisms are arranged to bend the light rays from an object through 360°.
4. A pair of binoculars is much more compact than a telescope.