Encyclopedia > Optical path length

  Article Content

Optical path length

In telecommunication, the term optical path length has the following meanings:

1. In a medium of constant refractive index, n , the product of the geometric distance and the refractive index.

2. In a medium of varying refractive index, the integral of n δs , where δs is an element of length along the path, and n is the local refractive index.

Note: Optical path length is proportional to the phase shift that a lightwave undergoes along a path.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Quioque, New York

... population is spread out with 22.3% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 16.9% who are 65 years of age or older. Th ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 36.2 ms