Optical Fiber

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SEM-II: Paper- I
UnitIII : Data Transmissions, Instrumentations Circuits&
Designs:
(a) Data Transmission Systems: Analog and Digital Transmissions,
Pulse Amplitude Modulation, Pulse Width Modulation, Time Division
Multiplexing, Pulse Modulation, Digital Modulation, Pulse Code
Format, Modems.
(b) Optical Fiber: Introduction to optical fibers, wave propagation and
total internal reflection, in optical fiber, structure of optical fiber, Types
of optical fiber, numerical aperture, acceptance angle, single and
multimode optical fibers, optical fiber materials and fabrication,
attenuation, dispersion, splicing and fiber connectors, fiber optic
communication system, fiber sensor, optical sources and optical
detectors for optical fiber.

Ref. 1) Optical Fiber Communications, Keiser, G. Mcgraw Hill, Int. Student Ed.
2)Electronic Communication Systems; 4th. Ed. Kennedy and Davis, (TataMcGraw.
Hill, 2004.

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 Losses / Attenuation in optical fiber

Losses in optical fiber result from attenuation in the

material itself and from scattering, which causes some
light to strike the cladding at less than the critical angle
Bending the optical fiber too sharply can also cause
losses by causing some of the light to meet the
cladding at less than the critical angle
Losses vary greatly depending upon the type of fiber
Plastic fiber may have losses of several hundred dB per
kilometer
Graded-index multimode glass fiber has a loss of about 24
dB per kilometer
Single-mode fiber has a loss of 0.4 dB/km or less
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Effect of Attenuation
A receiver in an optical system requires a minimum optical input power
to operate with a specific error probability. Attenuation reduces the
optical power available, degrading the error probability. Most system
specifications allow a maximum error probability of 1X10-9
 Types of Attenuation

1- Material Absorption losses

2- Scattering loss (Linear and nonlinear)
3- Bending loss
4- There are also losses at connectors and splices
5- Mode coupling losses and losses due to leaky modes

Material Absorption Losses:

Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the
material composition and the fabrication process for the fiber,
which results in the dissipation of some of the transmitted
optical power as heat in the waveguide.
Linear Scattering Losses
Scattering - Linear Scattering Losses
Scattering is a process whereby all or some of the
optical power in a mode id transferred into another
mode. Frequently causes attenuation, since the transfer
is often to a mode that does not propagate well. (also
called a leaky or radiation mode).

o Two major type:

1. Rayleigh
2. Mie scattering

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 Raleigh Scattering - most common form of
scattering
caused by microscopic non-uniformities making light rays partially
scatter
nearly 90% of total attenuation is attributed to Raleigh Scattering
becomes important when wavelengths are short - comparable to size
of the structures in the glass: long wavelengths are less affected than
short wavelengths
Raleigh scattering causes the sky to be blue, since only the short
(blue) wavelengths are significantly scattered by the air molecules.)

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 Mie Scattering
caused in inhomogeneities which are comparable in size
to the guided wavelength.
These result from the non-perfect cylindrical structure of
the waveguide and may be caused by fiber imperfections
such as irregularities in the core-cladding interface, core-
cladding refractive index differences along the fiber
length, diameter fluctuations, strains and bubbles.

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 Nonlinear Scattering Losses

Non linear scattering causes the power from one

mode to be transferred in either the forward or
backward direction to the same or other modes,
at the different frequency.

The most important types are;

1. Stimulated Brillouin
2. Raman scattering

Both are usually only observed at high optical

power density in long single mode fibers

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 Brillouin scattering occurs when light, passing through a
transparent medium interacts with that medium's periodic
spatial & temporal variations producing that
medium's refractive index
When beams of light (e.g. laser) travelling in a medium, such
as an optical fiber, the variations in the electric field of the
beam itself may induce acoustic vibrations in the medium
via electrostriction or radiation pressure. The beam may
display Brillouin scattering as a result of those vibrations,
usually in the direction opposite the incoming beam, a
phenomenon known as stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)

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Attenuation Due to Microbending and Macrobending
microbending - result of microscopic imperfections in the geometry of
the fiber
macrobending - fiber bending with diameters on the order of
centimeters (usually unnoticeable if the radius of the bend is larger than
10 cm)

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Microbending losses
 Splices and Connectors
A splice is a permanent connection and a connector is removable

In fiber-optic systems, the losses from splices and connections can

be more than in the cable itself
Losses result from:
Axial or angular misalignment
Air gaps between the fibers
Rough surfaces at the ends of the fibers

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 Fiber-Optic Connectors
Coupling the fiber to sources and
detectors creates losses as well,
especially when it involves
mismatches in numerical aperture or
in the size of optical fibers
Good connections are more critical
with single-mode fiber, due to its
smaller diameter and numerical
aperture

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 Optical fiber attenuation
The Attenuation depends on the Wavelength of the Light Beam.
The Transmission Windows refer to the Wavelength Regions that
offer low Optical Attenuation.
Single-mode fiber attenuation
Bending-induced attenuation
Bending effects on loss vs mode field diameter (MFD)
The loss (dB/km) can be approximated by the formula below
with in m;

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 Attenuation
Usually, attenuation is expressed in terms of decibels

Pout
z / 10 10 log
P( z ) Po10 Pin

z
where:
P(z) = Optical Power at distance z
from the input
Po = Input optical power
= Fiber attenuation coefficient, [dB/km]
= scattering + absorption + bending

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 Example 1

Given: Input Power = 1mW

Length = 1.3km
Attenuation Coefficient, = 0.6dB/km
Find: Output Power
Solution: P(z) = Po10-z/10
= 1mW10-0.61.3/10
= 836W = 0.6B/km
Pin = 1mW Pout = ?
1.3km

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 Problem 1

Given: Input Power = 1mW

Length = 2.6km
Attenuation Coefficient, = 0.6dB/km
Find: Output Power

= 0.6B/km
Pin = 1mW Pout = ?
2.6km

Answer:
Pout = 698W

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 Problem 2

Given: Input Power = 1mW

Output Power = 250W
Length = 2km
Find: Attenuation Coefficient,

=?
Pin = 1mW Pout = 250W
2km

Answer:
= 3dB/km

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 Dispersion

Different modes take a different amount of time

to arrive at the receiver. Result is a spread-out signal
Graded Index Fiber
prior discussion concerned with Step Index Fiber
GRIN fiber is designed so that all modes travel at nearly the same speed
GRIN fiber core has a parabolic index of refraction

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Dispersion

Dispersion - spreading of light pulses in a fiber

limits bandwidth
most important types
Intramodal or chromatic dispersion
material dispersion
waveguide dispersion
profile dispersion
Intermodal/multimode dispersion
polarization mode dispersion (PMD)

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 Dispersion
Dispersion in fiber optics results from the fact that in multimode
propagation, the signal travels faster in some modes than it would
in others
Single-mode fibers are relatively free from dispersion except for
intramodal dispersion

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 Dispersion
Graded-index fibers reduce dispersion by taking advantage
of higher-order modes

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Dispersion

One form of intramodal dispersion is called material

dispersion because it depends upon the material of
the core
Another form of dispersion is called waveguide
dispersion
Dispersion increases with the bandwidth of the light
source

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Types of Losses

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Thank You

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 Optical Couplers and Switches
As with coaxial cable and microwave
waveguides, it is possible to build
power splitters and directional
couplers for fiber-optic systems
It is more complex and expensive to
do this with fiber than with copper
wire
Optical couplers are categorized as
either star couples with multiple
inputs and outputs or as tees, which
have one input and two outputs

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 Coupler Construction

Optical couplers can be made in many different ways:

A number of fibers can be fused together to make a
transmissive coupler
A reflective coupler allows a signal entering on any fiber to
exit on all other fibers, so the coupler is bidirectional

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 Optical Switches and Relays
Occasionally, it is necessary to switch
optical signals from one fiber to another
The simplest type of optical switch moves
fibers so that an input fiber can be
positioned next to the appropriate output
fiber
Another approach is direct the incoming
light into a prism, which reflects it into the
outgoing fiber. By moving the prism, the
light can be switched between different
output fibers
Lenses are necessary with this approach
to avoid excessive loss of light

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Optical Emitters
Optical emitters operate on the idea that electromagnetic
energy can only appear in a discrete amount known as a
quantum. These quanta are called photons when the energy
is radiated
Energy in one photon varies directly with the frequency
Typical optical emitters include:
Light-Emitting Diodes
Laser Diodes

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Light-Emitting Diodes

An LED is form of junction diode that is operated with forward bias

Instead of generating heat at the PN junction, light is generated and
passes through an opening or lens
LEDs can be visible spectrum or infrared

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Laser Diodes
Laser diodes generate coherent, intense light of a
very narrow bandwidth
A laser diode has an emission linewidth of about 2
nm, compared to 50 nm for a common LED
Laser diodes are constructed much like LEDs but
operate at higher current levels

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Laser Diode Construction

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 Optical Detectors
The most common optical detector used with fiber-optic systems is
the PIN diode
The PIN diode is operated in the reverse-bias mode
As a photodetector, the PIN diode takes advantage of its wide depletion
region, in which electrons can create electron-hole pairs
The low junction capacitance of the PIN diode allows for very fast switching

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 Avalanche Photodiode
The avalanche photodiode (APD) is also operated in the reverse-
bias mode
The creation of electron-hole pairs due to the absorption of a photon
of incoming light may set off avalanche breakdown, creating up to
100 more pairs
This multiplying effect gives an APD very high sensitivity

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