Why is total internal reflection used in surgery?
1 Answer
Why is total internal reflection used in surgery
Light rays use total internal reflection to travel along the fibres. In order for this to be achieved, the light ray must hit the walls of the fibre at a minimum angle of 82°, which is the critical angle for light travelling from glass to plastic. Since the fibres are very narrow, this is usually not a problem.
Light is guided to the area under investigation by non-coherent fibre optic bundles (bundles where the optical fibres are not lined up at both ends). However, the image must be transmitted back by a coherent fibre optic bundle (a bundle where the optical fibres are lined up at both ends of the fibre so that an image can be transmitted). In order to produce a clear image, the shaft contains up to 10 000 fibres!
