Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this paper is to study the characteristics of different biological cells and materials that act as optical fibers and simulation of an optical fiber mimicking their characteristics. Methods/Statistical analysis: For the simulation procedure we suitably choose materials for optical fibers. The study was initiated with SM800 core and silica cladding. The entire simulation has been done using optical fiber toolbox OFT2.1 available in MATLAB R2014a. The operating wavelength has been taken as 400-2000 nm. We have tried here to simulate and design an optical fiber similar to the characteristics of Muller cells which are the living optical fibers in vertebrate retina. Findings: A number of electrical and optical field intensity patterns have been simulated by varying different wavelengths in the whole range i.e. 400-2000 nm and also by keeping the diameter of the optical fiber identical to that of Muller cells for the sake of maintaining similarity. After plotting the graph we found that the intensity increases with increase in wavelength Thus due to inversion property of Muller cells the optical intensity pattern got inverted in our designed fibre like it is in the Muller cell as compared to the normal available trend valid for physical optical fibres. We perceive the red light more efficiently as compared to the blue light. It has also been found that the intensity remains almost uniform in the visible range. After the visible range intensity has changed abruptly. As we know in the visible range Muller cells behave most efficiently for transmitting images, our simulated fibre also serves the purpose similar to that. Application/Improvements: This study of optical fiber can potentially be applied to improve the imaging quality of different biomedical and optical instruments, mainly operating within the visible optical frequency ranges.

Keywords: Biological Cells, Image Processing, Intensity, Optical Fiber, Wavelength