Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)

• It is a reflective device composed of an optical fiber that contains a

modulation of its core refractive index over a certain length.
• The grating reflects light propagation through fiber, when its
wavelength corresponds to modulation periodicity
• The reflected wavelength is called Bragg wavelength (λB)
 Fiber Grating
• Fiber grating is made by periodically changing
the refraction index in the glass core of the
fiber.

Glass core

Glass cladding Plastic jacket Periodic refraction index change

(Gratings)
 Fiber Bragg Gratings

l l
Incident light transmitted light

Bragg grating
Reflected light
λbragg = 2 neff Λ
l Λ  grating period

3
 Characteristics of FBG
• It is a reflective type filter
– Not like to other types of filters, the demanded
wavelength is reflected instead of transmitted
• It is very stable after annealing
– The gratings are permanent on the fiber after proper
annealing process
– The reflective spectrum is very stable over the time
• It is transparent to through wavelength signals
– The gratings are in fiber and do not degrade the
through traffic wavelengths, very low loss
• It is an in-fiber component and easily integrates to
other optical devices
 Types of Fiber Gratings
TYPES CHARACTERS APPLICATIONS
Simple reflective Creates gratings on the fiber that Filter for DWDM,
gratings meets the Bragg condition stabilizer, locker
Long period Significant wider grating periods that Gain flattening filter,
gratings couples the light to cladding dispersion
compensation
Chirped fiber A sequence of variant period gratings Gain flattening filter,
Bragg gratings on the fiber that reflects multiple dispersion
wavelengths compensation
Slanted fiber The gratings are created with an angle Gain flattening filter
gratings to the transmission axis
 Dispersion Compensation
Solution: Recompress the optical pulses using a
chirped grating
Dispersion Compensation Filter

circulator

Dispersed
pulse

Chirped FBG
Comparison of DCF and FBG

9
 Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)
• PMD is the broadening of a pulse due to the time delay (in
picoseconds) of one of the two polarization components.

Fiber

Cross-section of optical fiber

Ideal Practical
Cladding
Fast axis
Core
Slow axis

10
Birefringence
Propagation of pulses in 2.5 Gb/s & 10 Gb/s
system
Effect of PMD in 2.5 Gb/s & 10 Gb/s system
Increase in Bit Error Rate(BER)

Reduce the bandwidth

Cross talk

More disturbance in very high speed optical

networks

Degrades the overall system performance

Polarization Maintaining Fiber
• The above figure shows the evolution of polarization
over one beat length of a birefringent fiber
• The state of polarization changes over one-half of the
beat length from linear to elliptic, elliptic to circular,
circular to elliptic, and then back to linear but is rotated
by 90 degree from the incident linear polarization
• The process is repeated over the remaining half of the
beat length such that the initial state is recovered at z =
LB and its multiples
• The beat length is typically1 m but can be as small as 1
cm for a strongly birefringent fiber with Bm =10-4
l
B 
LB
 Electrical PMD compensation

• It is a type of post compensation technique in which PMD effects are

equalized in receiver side by using a transversal filter
• The filter splits received the electrical signal x(t) into a number of branches
using multiple tapped delay lines and then combines the output as

N  total number of taps;   delay time; cm tap weight for the mth tap
• The effect of PMD could be identified by measuring “eye” closure at receiver
• Based on that measurement, an error signal would be generated to compensate
PMD induced effects
 Optical PMD compensation

• Optical PMD compensation should be done on fiber link by using various

delay lines.
• PMD distorted signal is separated into two components along the PSPs using a
Polarization Controller (PC) followed by a Polarization Beam Splitter (PBS)
• The two polarization components are then combined after introducing an
adjustable delay in one branch through a variable delay line
• A feedback loop is still needed to obtain an error signal that is used to adjust
the polarization controller in response to environmental changes in fiber PSPs.
• The effective performance of PMD compensator is depends on the ratio
L/LPMD
• The main drawback of this technique is it compensates only first order PMD
effects
An LED operating at 850 nm has a spectral width of 45 nm. What is the pulse
spreading in ns/km due to material dispersion in a silica fiber ? What is the
pulse spreading when a laser diode having a 2 nm spectral width is used ?
 An LED operating at 850 nm has a spectral width of 45 nm. What is the pulse
spreading in ns/km due to material dispersion in a silica fiber ? What is the
pulse spreading when a laser diode having a 2 nm spectral width is used ?

(| Dmat ( λ ) | at 850 nm = 80 ps / (nm.km) )

• Solution:

• L = 1 km

• σmat = σλ L | Dmat ( λ ) | = 3.6 ns / km for LED

• σmat = σλ L | Dm at ( λ ) |= 0.16 ns / km for LD

Calculate the waveguide dispersion at 1320 nm in units of
ps /(nm . km) for a single mode fiber with core and cladding
diameters of 9 μm and 125 μm, respectively. Let the core index n1
= 1.48 and the relative index difference Δ = 0.22 %.
Calculate the waveguide dispersion at 1320 nm in units of
ps /(nm . km) for a single mode fiber with core and cladding
diameters of 9 μm and 125 μm, respectively. Let the core index n1
= 1.48 and the relative index difference Δ = 0.22 %.

Solution:

• Dwg (λ ) = - n2 Δ V d2 (Vb)
c λ dV2
Calculate the waveguide dispersion at 1320 nm in units of
ps /(nm . km) for a single mode fiber with core and cladding
diameters of 9 μm and 125 μm, respectively. Let the core index n1
= 1.48 and the relative index difference Δ = 0.22 %.

Solution:

• Dwg (λ ) = - n2 Δ V d2 (Vb)
c λ dV2

• n2 ≈ n1 ( 1 - Δ ) = 1.477

V = 2 π a n1( 2 Δ ) 1/2 = 2.103

λ

• Dwg (λ ) = - 1.477 x 0.0022 x 0.20 = - 1.64 ps / (nm. km )

3 x 105 x 1320
Origin of dispersion and
nonlinearities
 Nonlinear Effects in Optical
Fibers
• The response of glass to optical radiation is nonlinear
P
   0   NL

 
where NL   0  2  2   (3) 3  .... E

 The second-order and third-order susceptibilities of glass are

relatively small (10-12 and 10-20 respectively)
 But, in the presence of large enough electric field (106 V/cm) these
terms become significant.

 The nonlinear terms enable frequency mixing

 Second-order nonlinearity => three wave mixing (w3=w1+w2)
 Third-order nonlinearity => four-wave mixing (w4=w1+w2-w3)
 Nonlinear Effects in Optical Fibers
• At high optical powers, optical fibers become nonlinear
– In the case of WDM systems, nonlinear effects can become important
even at moderate powers and bit rates
• There are two categories of nonlinear effects:
• The first arises due to the interaction of light waves with phonons
(molecular vibrations) in the silica
– The two main effects in this category are stimulated Brillouin
scattering (SBS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS).
• The second set of nonlinear effects arises due to the dependence of the
refractive index on the intensity of the applied electric field, which in turn
is proportional to the square of the field amplitude
– The most important nonlinear effects in this category are self-phase
modulation (SPM), Cross Phase Modulation (XPM) and four-wave
mixing (FWM)
Fiber Nonlinear Effects
 Fiber Nonlinearity
• Four Wave Mixing (FWM)
Nonlinear interaction among three different optical waves will lead to
the generation of fourth wave
• Self Phase Modulation (SPM)
Self induced phase shift experienced by an optical field during its
propagation in optical fibers
• Cross Phase Modulation (XPM)
Nonlinear phase shift of an optical field induced by a co-propagating
field at a different wavelength or polarization
• Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
Scattering of light from vibrating silica molecules
• Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
Scattering of light from acoustic waves
 Problems
• A long single-mode optical fiber has an attenuation of 0.5 dB/km when
operating at a wavelength of 1.3 µm. The fiber core diameter is 6 µm and the
laser source bandwidth is 600 MHz. Compare the threshold optical powers for
stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering within the fiber at the wavelength
specified.
 Problems
• A long single-mode optical fiber has an attenuation of 0.5 dB/km when
operating at a wavelength of 1.3 µm. The fiber core diameter is 6 µm and the
laser source bandwidth is 600 MHz. Compare the threshold optical powers for
stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering within the fiber at the wavelength
specified.

PB ,th  4.4 10 3  d 2  l2   dB  B

PR ,th  5.9 10 2  d 2  l2   dB

 Problems
• A long single-mode optical fiber has an attenuation of 0.5 dB/km when
operating at a wavelength of 1.3 µm. The fiber core diameter is 6 µm and the
laser source bandwidth is 600 MHz. Compare the threshold optical powers for
stimulated Brillouin and Raman scattering within the fiber at the wavelength
specified.

PB ,th  4.4 10 3  d 2  l2   dB  B  80.3mW

PR ,th  5.9 10 2  d 2  l2   dB  1.38W