Fibre optics has been fabricated from materials that transmit light and are made from a bundle of very thin glass or plastic fibres enclosed in a tube. One end is at a source of light and the other end is a camera lens, used to channel light and images around the bends and corners. There is a highly transparent core of glass, or plastic encircled by a covering called “cladding”. Light is stimulated through a source on one end of the fibre optic and as the light travels through the tube, the cladding is there to keep it all inside. A fibre optic light source can carry light over mass distances, ranging from an inch to over 100 miles.

There are two kinds of fibre optics. The single-mode fibre optic is used for high speed and long distance transmissions because they have extremely tiny cores and they accept light only along the axis of the fibres. Tiny lasers send light directly into the fibre optic where there are low-loss connectors used to join the fibres within the system without substantially degrading the light signal. Then there are multi-mode which have much larger cores and accept light from a variety of angles and can use more types of light sources. Multi-mode fibre optics also use less expensive connectors, but cannot be used over long distances.

Fibre optics is widely used in communication systems. They are far superior to systems using traditional copper cables. Fibre optic communication systems are installed in large networks of fibre optic bundles all around the world and even under the oceans.