The dramatic reduction in transmission loss of optical fibers coupled with equally important developments in the area of light sources and detectors have brought about a phenomenal growth of the fiber optic industry during the past two decades. Indeed, the birth of optical fiber communications coincided with the fabrication of low-loss optical fibers and operation of room temperature semiconductor lasers in 1970. Since then, the scientific and technological progress in the field has been so phenomenal that optical fiber communication systems find themselves already in the fifth generation within a span of about 25 years. Broadband optical fiber amplifiers coupled with wavelength division multiplexing techniques and soliton communication systems are some of the very important developments that have taken place in the past few years, which are already revolutionizing the field of fiber optics. Although the major application of optical fibers has been in the area of telecommunications, many new related areas such as fiber optic sensors, fiber optic devices and components, and integrated optics have witnessed considerable growth. In addition, optical fibers allow us to perform many interesting and simple experiments permitting us to understand basic physical principles.

With the all-pervading applications of optical fibers, many educational institutions have started courses on fiber optics. At our Institute, we have a threesemester M.Tech. program on Optoelectronics and Optical Communications (jointly run by the Physics and Electrical Engineering Departments) in which we have an extensive coverage of the theory of optical fibers and optical fiber communications and also many experiments and projects associated with it.