Does Light Travel Through Fiber Optic Cable Generate EMF?

[Sayagain]

Does light traveling through a fiber optic cable generate any sort of detectable electromagnetic field? Please forgive the stupid question. It’s something that popped into mind recently and google hasn’t adequately answered for me. I’m not a scientist or physicist.

 

[mfb]

Light is an electromagnetic field.
Outside the fiber, not counting the ends of it: No, unless the fiber is broken (or unless you use so much light that it warms up and emits more infrared radiation).

 

[Sayagain]

Thanks. I was curious if photons traveling along fiber optics behaved like electrons tracking along a metal wire. I was thinking about undersea cables and started wondering if fiber optic cables would be detectable by sea creatures such as sharks. No particular reason, just something that popped into my head this evening.

 

[davenn]

Thanks. I was curious if photons traveling along fiber optics behaved like electrons tracking along a metal wire

forget photons
treating the light in the fibre with classical physics is all your need
treat the light as a wave with all the usual reflection and refraction properties

 

[sophiecentaur]

Thanks. I was curious if photons traveling along fiber optics behaved like electrons tracking along a metal wire.

There is no parallel here. Electrons have a charge and it is the moving charge that creates the external field. Photons have no charge (or mass) so they do not behave in the same way.

 

[Sayagain]

Thank you. It makes perfect sense to me now.