EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

MODULE II
FABRICATION OF FIBRES& OPTICAL SOURCES

2.1 FIBRE MATERIALS

For the fabrication of Optical fiber;

1. Two materials with slightly different refractive index for making of core and
cladding are required
2. These materials should be transparent to light in the operating wavelength range
of around 800-1,600 nm.
3. The materials should have low attenuation.
4. These materials should have low Intrinsic and scattering losses.
5. The materials must allow the making of long, thin, and flexible fibers.
6. The materials should be cheap and abundant.

Most of these requirements are met by glasses and plastic polymers.

Optical fibers require a high-index core and a low-index cladding, but the refractive
index of pure silica is uniform. 50 fiber cannot be fabricated from pure silica. To change
the refractive index of silica, dopant should be added. Thus in silica fibers, both core and
cladding are made of silica, differentiated by different doping levels. Most dopants,
when added, increase the refractive index of silica. So, doped silica can be used as core
material. The most common core dopant material is germanium, with pure silica
forming the cladding. A few materials like fluorine reduce the refractive index of silica,
so they can form the cladding on the pure silica core.

Another material used for optical fiber fabrication is plastic. It is lightweight,

inexpensive, flexible, has large NA. and is easy no handle, but has much higher
attenuation. The best plastic fiber has a loss of approximately 50 dB/km At shorter
wavelengths, the loss is less as compared to the near-infrared region Therefore, these
fibers have limited applications. Different dopant materials are added in the fabrication
of low-loss, long wavelength optical fibers For example

1. Heavy-metal fluorides (e.g., zirconium and beryllium fluoride)

2. Chalcogenide glasses (e.g., arsenic/sulfur).
3. Crystalline materials (e.g., silver bromide and silver chloride).

2.1.1.GLASS FIBERS

Optical fibers are made up of oxide glasses. The most common of which is silica (Si02)
Glass composed of pure silica is referred to as silica glass, fused silica, or vitreous silica.
The glass is made by fusing mixtures of metal oxides, sulfides, or selenides.

Some of its desirable properties are as follows:

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1. A resistance to deformation at high temperatures.

2. A high resistance to breakage from thermal shock because of its low thermal
expansion
3. Good chemical durability.
4. A high transparency in both the visible and infrared regions of 1nterest to many
fiber-optic systems.
In order to produce two similar materials having slightly different indices of
refraction for the core and the cladding, fluorine or various oxides are commonly
added to the silica (see Table 2.1).

Core Cladding
SiO2 B2O3-SiO2
GeO2-SiO2 SiO2
P2O5-SiO2 SiO2
Table 2.1: Various dopants used to make core & cladding of various fibers

These dopants can be classified into two basic groups: dopants Which increase
the refractive index and dopants Which decrease the refractive index. For
example, B203 and fluorine dopants decrease a materials refractive index,
whereas GeO2 and P205 will increase a material’s refractive index

Figure 2.1: Refractive index as a function of dopant materials and their concentration.

2.1.2 HALIDE GLASS FIBERS

The absorption of silica rises rapidly at longer wavelengths. The materials that are
transparent in this range are zirconium fluoride (ZrF4) and barium fluoride (BaF2) with
some other components added to form the glass compound. It has been found that
fluoride glasses have extremely low transmission losses at wavelengths in the range of
0.2-8 pm. Fluoride glasses belong to a general family of halide glasses in which the
anions are from elements in Group VII of the periodic table, namely fluorine, chlorine,
bromine, and iodine. These fibers are used in erbium doped fiber amplifiers because of
their desirable optical characteristics.

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2.1.3 CHALCOGENIDE GLASS FIBERS

Chalcogenide glass has high optical non-linearity, and so it is used in applications such
as all-optical switches and fiber lasers. Chalcogenide glass fibers contain arsenic,
germanium, phosphorus, sulfur, selenium, or tellurium. Theoretically, the minimum
attenuation for these materials has been estimated at l dB/m.

2.1.4 ACTIVE GLASS FIBERS

When the rare-earth elements are incorporated into a normally passive glass, it results
in the material having new optical and magnetic properties. These new properties allow
the material to perform amplification, attenuation, and phase retardation on the light
passing through it. Two commonly used materials for fiber lasers are erbium and
neodymium.

2.1.5 PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBERS

Plastic fibers are generally used for short haul (up to 100 m) applications because they
give rise to high attenuation of the optical signal. However, their mechanical strength is
high. Plastic fibers are lighter and lower in cost than glass. Their operating temperature
can go up to 125°C. For example, plastics can be used in medical applications and in
some sensors where only shorter fiber lengths are needed. In addition, the mechanical
flexibility of plastic allows these fibers to have large cores. These factors permit its use
in inexpensive, economically attractive systems. The following are examples of some of
the compounds used in plastic fibers:

1. A polysterene core/methyl methacrylate cladding.

2. A polymethyl methacrylate core/copolymer cladding.

2.2 FABRICATION OF OPTICAL FIBERS

The methods of preparing the extremely pure optical glasses generally fall into two
major categories which are:

(a) Conventional glass refining techniques in which the glass is processed in the molten
state (melting methods) producing a multicomponent glass structure;

(b) Vapour-phase deposition methods producing silica-rich glasses which have melting
temperatures that are too high to allow the conventional melt process.

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2.2.1 LIQUID-PHASE (MELTING) TECHNIQUES

The first stage in this process is the preparation of ultrapure material powders which
are usually oxides or carbonates of the required constituents. These include oxides such
as SiO2, Be02, B202 and A203, and carbonates such as Na2CO, K2CO3, CaCO3, and BaCO3,
which will decompose into oxides during the glass melting. Very high initial purity is
essential and purification accounts for a large proportion of the material cost.. The
purification may therefore involve combined techniques of fine filtration and
coprecipitation. followed by solvent extraction before recrystallization and final drying
in a vacuum to remove any residual OH ions .

The next stage is to melt these high purity, powdered. low-melting point glass materials
to form a homogeneous, bubble-free multicomponent glass. A refractive Index variation
may be achieved by either a change in the composition of the various constituents or by
ion exchange when the materials are in the molten phase. The melting of these
multicomponent glass systems occurs at relatively low temperatures between 900 and
1300 °C. and may take place in a silica crucible. However, contamination can arise
during melting from several sources including the furnace environment and the
crucible.

Fig 2.2 Glass making Furnace for production of High purity silica glasses

Silica crucibles can give dissolution into the melt which may introduce inhomogeneities
into the glass, especially at high melting temperatures. A technique for avoiding this

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involves melting the glass directly into a radio-frequency (RF approximately 5 MHz)
induction furnace while cooling the silica by gas or water now, as shown in Figure 2.3
.The materials are preheated to around 1000°C where they exhibit sufficient ionic
conductivity to enable coupling between the melt and the RF held. The melt is also
protected from any impurities in the crucible by a thin layer of solidified pure glass
which forms due to the temperature difference between the melt and the cooled silica
crucible.

Fig 2.3 : High purity melting using RF induction furnace.

In both techniques the glass is homogenized and dried by bubbling pure gases through
the melt, while protecting against any airborne dust particles either originating in the
melt furnace or present as atmospheric contamination. After the melt has been suitably
processed, it is cooled and formed into long rods (cane) of multicomponent glass.

FIBER DRAWING

An original technique for producing fine optical fiber waveguides was to make a
preform using, the rod in tube process. A rod of core glass was inserted into a tube of
cladding glass and the preform was drawn in a vertical muffle furnace. This technique
was useful for the production of step index fibers with large core and cladding
diameters where the achievement of low attenuation was not critical as there was a
danger of including bubbles and particulate matter at the core-cladding interface.

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Indeed, these minute perturbations and impurities can result in very high losses of
between 500 and 1000 dB km‘l after the fiber is drawn .

Fig: Optical fiber from a preform

Subsequent development in the drawing of optical fibers (especially graded index)

produced by liquid-phase techniques has concentrated on the double-crucible method.
In this method the core and cladding glass in the form of separate rods is fed into two
concentric platinum crucibles, as illustrated in Figure.

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Fig: The double crucible method for fiber drawing

The assembly is usually located in a muffle furnace capable of heating the crucible
contents to a temperature of between 800 and 1200°C. The crucibles have nozzles in
their bases from which the clad fiber is drawn directly from the melt, as shown in
Figure. Index grading may be achieved through the diffusion of mobile ions across the
core-cladding interface within the molten glass. It is possible to achieve a reasonable
refractive index profile via this diffusion process, although due to lack of precise control
it is not possible to obtain the optimum near-parabolic profile which yields the
minimum pulse dispersion .Hence graded index fibers produced by this technique are
subsequently less dispersive than step index fibers, but do not have the bandwidth-
length products of optimum profile fibers.

2.2.2 VAPOR-PHASE DEPOSITION TECHNIQUES

Vapour-phase deposition techniques are used to produce silica-rich glasses of the

highest transparency and with the optimal optical properties. The starting materials are
volatile compounds such as SiCl4, GeCl4, SiF4. BCl3, 02, BBr3, and POCl3, which may be
distilled to reduce the concentration of most transition metal impurities to below one
part in 109. giving negligible absorption losses from these elements. Refractive index

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modification achieved through the formation of dopants from the nonsilica starting
materials. These vapour phase dopants include TiO2, GeO2,P2O5,Al2O3,B2O3,and F.

Gaseous mixtures of the silica-containing compound, the doping material and oxygen
are combined in a vapour phase oxidation reaction where the deposition of oxides
occurs. The deposition is usually onto a substrate or within a hollow tube and is built up
as a stack of successive layers Hence the dopant concentration may be varied gradually
to produce a graded Index profile or maintained to give a step index profile. In the case
of the substrate that directly results in a solid rod or preform whereas the hollow tube
must be collapsed to give a solid preform from which the fiber may be drawn.

 OUTSIDE VAPOR-PHASE OXIDATION PROCESS

This process which uses flame hydrolysis stems. The best known technique of this type
is often referred to as the outside vapour-phase oxidation (OVPO) or the outside
vapour-phase deposition (OVD) process. In this process the required glass composition
is deposited laterally from a ‘soot’ generated by hydrolyzing the halide vapors in an
oxygen-hydrogen flame. Oxygen is passed through the appropriate silicon compound
(i.e. SiCl4) which is vaporized, removing any impurities. Dopants such as GeCl4 or TiCl4
are added and the mixture is blown through oxygen-hydrogen flame .

SiCl4+2H2O SiO2+ 4HCl

SiCl4 + O2 SiO2+2Cl2

GeCl4+O2 GeO2+2Cl2

TiCl4+ O2 TiO2+2Cl2

The silica is generated as a fine soot which is deposited on a cool rotating mandrel. The
flame of the burner is reversed back and forth over the length of the mandrel until a
sufficient number of layers of silica (approximately 200) are deposited on it. When this
process is completed the mandrel is removed and the porous mass of silica soot is
sintered (to form a glass body).

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Fig: (a).Soot deposition (b) Preform sintering ( C) Fiber drawing

VAPOUR AXIAL DEPOSITION

VAD uses an end-on deposition onto a rotating fused silica target. The vaporized
constituents are injected from burners and react to form silica soot by flame hydrolysis.
This is deposited on the end of the starting target in the axial direction forming a solid
porous glass preform in the shape of a boule. The preform which is growing in the axial
direction is pulled upwards at a rate which corresponds to the growth rate. It is initially
dehydrated by heating with SOCl2 using the reaction:

H2O + SOCl2 2HCl+ SO2

and is then sintered into a solid preform in a graphite resistance furnace at an elevated
temperature of around 1500 °C. Therefore, in principle this process may be adapted to
draw fiber continuously, although at present it tends to be operated as a batch process
partly because the resultant preforms can yield more than 100 km of fiber .

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Fig: VAD Process

MODIFIED CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION

The MCVD process is also an inside vapor-phase oxidation (IVPO) technique taking
place inside a silica tube, as shown in Figure. However, the vapor-phase reactants
(halide and oxygen) pass through a hot zone so that a substantial part of the reaction is
homogeneous (i.e. involves only one phase; in this case the vapor phase). Glass particles
formed during this reaction travel with the gas flow and are deposited on the walls of
the silica tube. The tube may form the cladding material but usually it is merely a
supporting structure which is heated on the outside by an oxygen-hydrogen flame to
temperatures between 1400 and 1600 °C. Thus a hot zone is created which encourages
high-temperature oxidation reactions. These reactions reduce the OH impurity
concentration to levels below those found in fibers prepared by hydride oxidation or
flame hydrolysis.

The hot zone is moved back and forth along the tube allowing the particles to be
deposited on a layer-by-layer basis giving a sintered transparent silica film on the walls
of the tube. The film may be up to 10 pm in thickness and uniformity is maintained by
rotating the tube. A graded refractive index profile can be created by changing the
composition of the layers as the glass is deposited. Usually, when sufficient thickness
has been formed by successive traverses of the burner for the cladding, vaporized
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chlorides of germanium (GeCl4) or phosphorus (POCl3) are added to the gas flow. The
core glass is then formed by the deposition of successive layers of germanosilicate or
phosphosilicate glass. The cladding layer is important as it acts as a barrier which
suppresses OH absorption losses due to the diffusion of OH ions from the silica tube into
the core glass as it is deposited. After the deposition is completed the temperature is
increased to between 1700 and 1900 °Cr The tube is then collapsed to give a solid
preform which may then be drawn into fiber at temperatures of 2000 to 2200 °C.

Fig: (a) deposition (b) collapse to produce preform (c) fiber drawing.

This technique is the most widely used at present as it allows the fabrication of fiber
with the lowest losses. Apart from the reduced OH impurity contamination the MCVD
process has the advantage that deposition occurs within an enclosed reactor which
ensures a very clean environment. Hence, gaseous and particulate impurities may be
avoided durin g both the layer deposition and the preform collapse phases. The process
also allows the use of a variety of materials and glass compositions.

PLASMA-ACTIVATED CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (PCVD)

This method, involves plasma-induced chemical vapor deposition inside a silica tube, as
shown in Figure. The essential difference between this technique and the MCVD process
is the stimulation of oxide formation by means of a non-isothermal plasma maintained
at low pressure in a microwave cavity (2.45 GHz) which surrounds the tube. Volatile
reactants are introduced into the tube where they react heterogeneously within the
microwave cavity, and no particulate matter is formed in the vapor phase.

The reaction zone is moved backwards and forwards along the tube by control of the
microwave cavity and a circularly symmetric layer growth is formed. Rotation of the

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tube is unnecessary and the deposition is virtually 100% efficient. Film deposition can
occur‘at temperatures as low as 500 °C but a high chlorine content may cause
expansivity and cracking of the film. Hence the tube is heated to around 1000 °C during
deposition using a stationary furnace.

Fig: The apparatus used in PCVD Process

The high deposition efficiency allows the composition of the layers to be accurately
varied by control of the vapor-phase reactants. Also, when the plasma zone is moved
rapidly backwards and forwards along the tube, very thin layer deposition may be
achieved, giving the formation of up to 2000 individual layers. This enables very good
graded index profiles to be realized .which are a close approximation to the optimum
near-parabolic profile. Finally, the PCVD method also lends itself to large-scale
production of Optical fibers with preform sizes that would allow the preparation of over
200 km of fiber.

2.3 PHOTONIC CRYSTAL FIBRE

A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is made up of a periodic structure of capillaries filled with
air and arranged in a hexagonal lattice as shown in Fig.

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It has been shown that light can propagate in crystal Structure defects. By removing one
or more capillaries, the defect is created. PCF combines the properties of optical fibers
and photonic crystals. The traditional fiber is proved as the best choice for many
telecom and non-telecom applications. However, there are many constraints in the
design of their structures (e.g., limited core diameter for single-mode fiber, limited
choice for fiber material, mode cut-off wavelength, etc.). But, in the case of PCF we have
high flexibility in the design. We can vary the parameters, such as type of lattice, lattice
pitch, refractive index of glass, number of air holes, their shape and diameter, etc. By
varying these parameters we can design a single-mode fiber, which can be operated in
all wavelength ranges, where there is no cutoff wavelength.

By varying the structure, the desired dispersion characteristics can be obtained. It is

possible to design a PCP with zero, low, or anomalous dispersion in the visible
wavelength range. There are two guiding mechanisms in a PCF:

1. Index guiding (such as in a traditional optical fiber).

2. Photonic bandgap mechanism.

2.3.1 INDEX-GUIDED PCF

Although the principles of guidance and the characteristics of index-guided PCFs are
similar to those of conventional fiber, there is greater index contrast since the cladding
contains air holes with a refractive index of 1 in comparison with the normal silica
cladding index of 1.457 which is close to the germanium-doped core index of 1.462. A
fundamental physical difference, however, between index-guided PCFs and
conventional fibers arises from the manner in which the guided mode interacts with the
cladding region. Whereas in a conventional fiber this interaction is largely first order
and independent of wavelength, the large index contrast combined with the small
structure dimensions cause the effective cladding index to be a strong function of
Wavelength. For short wavelengths the effective cladding index is only slightly lower
than the core index and hence they remain tightly confined to the core. At longer
wavelengths, however, the mode samples more of the cladding and the effective index
contrast is larger. This wavelength dependence results in a large number of unusual
optical properties which can be tailored. For example, the high index contrast enables
the PCF core to be reduced from around 8 um in conventional fiber to less than 1 pm,
which increases the intensity of the light in the core and enhances the nonlinear effects.

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Fig: Two index guided photonic crystal fibers .The dark areas are air holes and white areas are
silica.
Two common index-guided PCF designs are shown diagrammatically in Figure. In both
cases a solid-core region is surrounded by a cladding region containing air holes. The
cladding region in Figure (a) comprises a hexagonal array of air holes while in Figure
(b) the cladding air holes are not uniform in size and do not extend too far from the
core. It should be noted that the hole diameter d and hole to hole spacing or pitch ᴧ are
critical design parameters used to specify the structure of the PCF. For example, in a
silica PCF with the structure depicted in Figure (a) when the air fill fraction is low (i.e.
d/ ᴧ < 0.4), then the fiber can be single-moded at all wavelengths This property, which
cannot be attained in conventional fibers, is particularly significant for broadband
applications such as wavelength division multiplexed transmission .

As PCFs have a wider range of optical properties in comparison with standard optical
fibers, they provide for the possibility of new and technologically important fiber
devices. When the holey region covers more than 20% of the fiber cross-section, for
instance, index-guided PCFs display an interesting range of dispersive properties which
could find application as dispersion-compensating or dispersion-controlling fiber
components .In such fibers it is possible to produce very high optical nonlinearity per
unit length in which modest light intensities can induce substantial nonlinear effects.
For example, while several kilometers of conventional fiber are normally required to
achieve 2R data regeneration .;it was obtained with just 3.3 m of large air-filling fraction
PCF .In addition, filling the cladding holes with polymers or liquid crystals allows
external fields to be used to dynamically vary the fiber properties. The temperature
sensitivity of a polymer within the cladding holes may be employed to tune a Bragg
grating written into the core [Ref. 83]. By contrast, index-guided PCFs with small holes
and large hole spacings provide very large mode area (and hence low optical
nonlinearities) and have potential applications in high-power delivery (e.g. laser
welding and machining) as well as high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers . Furthermore,
the large index contrast between silica and air enables production of such PCFs with
large multi-moded cores which also have very high numerical aperture values (greater
than 0.7). Hence these fibers are useful for the collection and transmission of high
optical powers in situations where signal distortion is not an issue. Finally, it is apparent
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that PCFs can be readily spliced to conventional fibers, thus enabling their integration
with existing components and subsystems.

2.3.2 PHOTONIC BANDGAP FIBERS

Photonic bandgap (PBG) fibers are a class of micro structured fiber in which a periodic
arrangement of air holes is required to ensure guidance. This periodic arrangement of
cladding air holes provides for the formation of a photonic bandgap in the transverse
plane of the fiber. As a PBG fiber exhibits a two-dimensional bandgap, then wavelengths
within this bandgap cannot propagate perpendicular to the fiber axis (ie. in the
cladding) and they can therefore be confined to propagate within a region in which the
refractive index is lower than the surrounding material. Hence utilizing the photonic
bandgap effect light can ,for example. be guided within slow-index, air-filled core region
creating fiber properties quite different from those obtained without the bandgap.
Although. as with index-guided PCFs. PBG fibers can also guide light in regions with
higher refractive index, it is the lower index region guidance feature which is of
particular interest. In addition. a further distinctive feature is that while index-guiding
fibers usually have a guided mode at all wavelengths;PBG fiber only guide in certain
wavelength bands, and furthermore it is possible to have wavelengths at which higher
order modes are guided while the fundamental mode is not.

Two important PBG fiber structures are displayed in Figure. The honeycomb fiber
design shown in Figure (a). A triangular array of air holes of sufficient size as displayed
in Figure (b). however. provides for the possibility. unique to PBG fibers, of guiding
electromagnetic modes in air. In this case a large hollow cone has been defined by
removing the silica around seven air holes in the center of the structure. These fibers.
which are termed air-guiding or hollow-core PBG fibers, enable more than 98% of the
guided mode held energy to propagate in the air regions . The fabrication of hollow-core
fiber with low propagation losses, however, has proved to be quite difficult. with losses
of the order of 13 dB km-1 .

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2.4 FIBRE CABLES

{Assignment}

2.4 OPTICAL SOURCES

2.4.1 LIGHT EMITTING DIODES(LED)

A light-emitting diode (LED) is essentially a pn junction diode. When carriers are

injected across a forward-biased junction, it emits incoherent light. Most of the
commercial LEDs are realized using a highly doped n and a p junction. To understand
the principle, let us consider an unbiased pn+ junction (Fig. (a) shows the pn+ energy
band diagram). The depletion region extends mainly into the p-side. There is a potential
barrier from EC on the n-side to Ec on the p-side, called the built-in voltage, V0. This
potential barrier prevents the excess free electrons on the n+ side from diffusing into
the p-side.

Fig: (a) pn+ energy band diagram Unbiased Fig(b): pn+ under biased condition

When a voltage V is applied across the junction as shown in Fig. (b), the built-in
potential is reduced from Vo to (V0- V). This allows the electrons from the n+ side to get
injected into the p-side. Since electrons are the minority carriers in the p-side, this
process is called minority carrier injection. However, the hole injection from the p-side
to n+ side is very less and so the current is primarily due to the flow of electrons into
the p-side.

The recombination of the holes and minority carriers injected in the p-side results in
spontaneous emission of a light photon of energy Eg = hυ as shown in Fig. (c ). This
spontaneous emission process is called as injection electroluminescence, because the
optical emission takes place due to injection of electrons.

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Fig (C) : Carrier recombination results in spontaneous emission

The reabsorption of emitted photons is avoided by properly designing the LED

structure. The wavelength of the light emitted, and hence the color, depends on the
band gap energy of the materials forming the pn junction.

The emitted photon energy is approximately equal to the bandgap energy of the
semiconductor. The following equation relates the wavelength and the bandgap energy:

where h is Planck’s constant, c is the speed of the light, and Eg is the bandgap energy.
Substituting the values of h and c gives

Where is written in µm and Eg in eV .Thus, a semiconductor with a 2 eV bandgap emits

light at about 620 nm in the red. A 3 eV bandgap material would emit at 414 nm in the
violet.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT RECOMBINATION

The recombination can be classified into the following two kinds:

1. Direct recombination.

2. Indirect recombination.

Direct Recombination

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In direct bandgap materials, the minimum energy of the conduction band lies directly
above the maximum energy of the valence band in momentum space energy. Figure
shows the electron energy (E)-momentum (k) plot of a direct bandgap material. In this
material, free electrons at the bottom of the conduction band can recombine directly
with free holes at the top of the valence band, as the momentum of the two particles is
the same. This direct transition of electron from the conduction band to the valence
band provides an efficient mechanism for photon emission and the average time the
minority carrier remains in a free state before recombination, that is, the minority
carrier lifetime is short (10-8 to 10-10 s). This is known as direct recombination. Direct
recombination occurs spontaneously

Fig: Direct Bang gap & Direct recombination

Indirect Recombination

In the indirect bandgap materials, the minimum energy in the conduction band is
shifted by a k-vector relative to the valence band. The k-vector difference represents a
difference in momentum. Due to this difference in momentum, the probability of direct
electron-hole recombination is less and relatively slow (10-2 to 10-4).

For electron-hole recombination to take place, it is essential that the electron loses
momentum such that it has a momentum value corresponding to the maximum energy
of the valence band. In these materials, additional dopants (impurities) are added which
form very shallow donor states. These donor states capture the free electrons locally,
providing the necessary momentum shift for recombination. These donor states serve
as the recombination centers. This is called indirect (non-radiative) recombination.

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Fig:indirect Bang gap & non-radiative recombination

QUANTUM EFFICIENCY OF LED

The internal quantum efficiency of LED is the ratio of photons generated to injected
electrons. The internal quantum efficiency of simple homojunction LED is only about
50% due to absence of stimulated emission. It totally relies on spontaneous emission,
Which allows non-radiative recombination within the structure due to crystalline
imperfections and impurities. This reduces the efhciency greatly. With double
heterojunction structure, internal efficiencies of about 60%-80% can be obtained.

The internal Quantum efficiency (ηint) of LED is the ratio of the radiative recombination
rate to the total recombination rate.

For exponential decay of excess carriers, the radiative recombination lifetime is

The non-radiative recombination lifetime is

The total recombination lifetime is

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Therefore

And Internal Quantum efficiency is

THE EXTERNAL QUANTUM EFFICIENCY

The external quantum efficiency of LED is defined as the ratio of photons emitted from
the LED to the number of internally generated photons. To find the external quantum
efficiency, we need to consider the radiation geometry for an LED and reflection effects
at the surface of LED. Most of the light generated within the device is trapped by total
internal reflection as indicated in figure, when it is radiated at an angle greater than
critical angle for crystal-air interface. Only light falling within a cone defined by the
critical angle will be emitted from an optical source.

The cone defined by critical angle is

Fig: Light emitted by LED

( )

DOUBLE HETEROJUNETION LED

The LED realized using two differently doped semiconductors that are of the same
material is called a homo-junction. When the LEDs are realized using different bandgap

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materials, they are called a hetero-structure device. A hetero-structure LED is brighter

than a homo-junction LED.

Heterojunctions are classified as an isotype (n-n or p-p) or an anisotype (p-n). This

sandwich structure confines the carriers and the optical field in the central active layer.
It effectively reduces the carrier diffusion length and hence the arm of region where
radiative recombination may take place. A heterojunction is formed between two
semiconductors which have different band gaps but same lattice parameters so that
they can be grown together as a single crystal. For example, a heterojunction may be
formed between GaAs and its ternary alloy Ga1-xAlxAs. The narrow bandgap material
such as n or p type GaAs is sandwiched between layers of wider bandgap materials such
as p or n-type GaAlAs to form a double heterostructure (DH).

Fig: (a) DH layer structure (b) Energy band diagram

When the DH-LED is forward-biased, the holes from p-GaAlAs are injected into n-GaAs,
but are prevented from going into n-GaAlAs by a potential barrier at J2. Similarly, the
electrons from n-GaAlAs are injected into n-GaAs but prevented from going further by
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potential barrier at junction J1. Thus, a large number of carriers are confined in the
central layer of n-GaAs, where they recombine to produce optical radiation of
wavelength corresponding to the bandgap of n-GaAs. As most of the activity takes place
in the central layer, it is called an active layer. This structure gives more radiative
recombinations, hence a brighter LED. The radiations generated by band to band
transitions in the active layer cannot excite the carriers in the adjoining layers because
Eg1 is less than Eg2 . Thus, the confining layers of wider bandgap material are
transparent to this radiation. The radiation may be collected through the surface or
edge.

The limitation of GaAs/ Ga1-xAlxAs based LED is that the range of wavelengths (800-900
nm) emitted is outside the wavelength limits of lowest attenuation and zero total
dispersion of optical fibers. Therefore, such emitters cannot be used in long-haul
communication systems.

LED STRUCTURE

The major types of LED structures are as follows:

1. Planar LED.
2. Dome LED.
3. Surface-emitting LED.
4. Edge-emitting LED.
5. Super luminescent LED.
6. Polymer LED.

Planar LED

The geometry and internal structure of LED play an important role in emitting light
from its surface. Simple planar LEDs emit light in all directions., as shown in Fig. (a) and
most of the emissions come from their surfaces. The light is emitted in a broad cone,
with intensity falling off roughly with the cosine of the angle from the normal to the
semiconductor junction, that is, Lambertian distribution.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

Fig: Planar LED Structure

The LED structures are organized such that most of the recombinations take place on
the surface in the following two ways

1. The doping concentration of the substrate is increased, so that additional free

minority charge carrier electrons move to the top, recombine, and emit light at
the surface.
2. The diffusion length L is increased.
Now √

where D is the diffusion coefficient and is the carrier lifetime.

The LED structure should be such that the photons generated from the device are
emitted without being reabsorbed. This is achieved by making p-layer on the top thin
enough to create a depletion layer

Dome LED
Another widely used structure is dome LED ,where a hemisphere of n type GaAs is
formed around a diffused p-type region. The diameter of the dome is chosen to
maximize the amount of internal emission reaching the surface within the critical angle
of the GaAs-air interface. Let us calculate the critical angle for GaAs-air interface

For GaAs, the refractive index n1 = 3.6 and for air, the refractive index n2=1

( ) ( )

The optical rays making angle of incidence greater than 16° will suffer total internal
reflection. To reduce the problem, dome or hemisphere structure is preferred so that
the light rays will strike the surface at an angle < and the surface does not experience
the total internal reflection. However, it is practically expensive to make pn junction of

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

the dome shape. Therefore, it is encapsulated into dome-shaped plastic medium having
higher refractive index than that of air.

Fig: Dome structure Fig: LED encapsulated Dome shaped plastic medium

Surface-Emitting LED

In the case ofsurface-emitting light diodes (SELED), the light beam is emitted from the
top of the diode as shown in Fig. and not from the side. The beam’s emission cone is
typically 120° and the guiding has a circular symmetry. The large beam emission angle
is caused by a difference in refractive index between the semiconductor (high index)
and the fiber or the glass material used for coupling with the Fiber (low index). The
total output power is between 500 µW and 1 mW

Fig: AlGaAs DH surface Emitting LED

The bottom p+ GaAs and top n+ GaAs layers are included for the realization of low-
resistance Ohmic contacts. A deep well is etched to reach the top n-AlGaAs layer to
avoid the reabsorption of the emitted radiation in the top n-GaAs layer. This well also

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

gives support to the fiber, which is butt-coupled to the device and held in place with an
epoxy resin of appropriate refractive index to enhance the external power eihciency of
the device. Photons are generated in the thin p-GaAs region and emitted from the top
surface. The heterostructure and reflection from the back crystal face ensures surface
emission. Thus, the forward radiance of these devices is very high. The top n-GaAs
contact layer ensures low contact resistance and thermal resistance and allows high
current densities and high radiation intensity. The Fiber is properly aligned to optimize
coupling of the emitted radiation. The power coupled (PC) into a multimode Step index
fiber can be calculated from

( ) ( )

where r is the Fresnel reflection coeHicient at the fiber surface, A is the Fiber cross-
section, and RD is the radiance of source.

Edge-Emitting LED

An edge-emitting LED (EELED) is a high-radiance structure. The light is produced in a

very thin active layer and it is emitted from the side of a structure. Due to carrier
confinement layers, the beam divergence is narrowed to 30° in a plane perpendicular to
the junction, while in the plane of junction due to absence of confinement, a Lambertian
pattern output gives 120° divergence. Thus, an elliptical pattern is obtained. At low
injection current, the efficiency of EELED is less, hence preferably it is operated at high
intensity current. This type of LED gim the output between 500 µW and 1 mW. ,

Fig: EELED structure

The device consists of an active junction region, which is the source of the incoherent
light. A very large population of carriers for recombination is created in this region by

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

forward-bias injection, and two InGaAsP layers on bath sides serve as carrier
confinement layers, on the outer sides of which are doped InP layers. These serve at the
cladding layers and the region in between forms an optical waveguide. The photons are
generated in the very thin active region and spread into the guiding layers, without
reabsorption, because of their larger bandgaps. The stripe geometry is made by
selective metallization on the top surface through a window opened in a SiO2 layer
which allows higher carrier injection densities for the same drive current. To match the
typical fiber core diameter (50-100 µm), the contact stripes for the edge emitter are
made 50~70 µm wide. The emission pattern of the aigt emitter is more directional than
that of the surface emitter.

Super Luminescent LED

Super luminescent LEDs (SLEDs) are different from EELEDs and surface-emitting LEDs
in several ways. in: SLED, there is Stimulated emission with amplification but
insufficient feedback for laser omnations to coal. It has the following advantages over
EELEDs and SELEDs:

1. The spectral width is narrower.

2. Light coming from an SLED is more coherent and its degree of polarization is
higher
3. The output beam is more directional, like a laser, which allows for better
coupling in the fibers.
4. A U-shaped cut in the active layer shown in Fig. increases the density of the
carriers, which improves the power efficiency, reaching 18 or 20 mW

Fig: InGaAsP Super luminescent LED

GaAsP/InP SLED emits at 1300 nm. It comprises a buried active layer within U-shaped
groove on the p-type InP substrate. One end of the structure is made optically lossy to
prevent reflections and thus suppress lasing; the output is taken from the opposite end.
For operation, the injected current is increased until Stimulated emission and hence
amplification occur, but because there is high loss at one end of the device, no optical
feedback takes place, and hence no laser oscillations build up. Because of stimulated

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

emissions, single-pass amplification takes place which results into high optical output
power with narrowing of spectral width to approximately 30-40 nm.

Most of the light emitted from LED is coupled into the optical fiber. The coupling
efficiency can be improved by using lenses, specifically when the fiber core diameter is
significantly larger than width of the emission region. There axe several lens coupling
conhgurations such as

1. Spherimlly polished structures

2. Spherical-ended or tapered fiber coupling.
3. Truncated spherical micro lenses.
4. Integral lens structure.

Polymer LED (PLED)

PLEDs are the polymer light-emitting diodes. The polymer emits light when exposed to
electricity. PLEDs are thin film displays that are created by sandwiching conjugated
polymer between two proper electrodes at a short distance. Figure shows the
schematic structure of the first single-layer PPV polymer LED device. PLEDs consist of a
thin layer of PPV between two electrodes, deposited on a glass substrate. In the
structure shown , layer of aluminium (or magnesium or calcium) is the cathode, acting
as the electron injection layer and layer of indium/tin oxide is the anode, acting as the
hole injection layer. The light-emitting layer is poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV). It is
the most widely used light-emitting polymer. The cathode is made up of aluminium or
calcium.

The anode is made up of indium or tin oxide, which facilitates the easy injection of holes
into the PPV layer. The recombination takes place at the layer interface giving rise to
photon emission The anode material (indium/tin oxide) is transparent to light; it
provides the route for the emitted light to exit through the device.

Fig: Polymer LED structure

The following are some advantages of polymer LED:

1. High brightness and long lifetime.

2. Low power consumption.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

3. View angle can be large as 160°.

4. Permits flexible lighting and displays.
5. Much cheaper.
6. Useful to large area lighting.

LED Characteristics

LED is a very linear device and hence it tends to be more suitable for analog
transmission. Output power versus forward current characteristics of LED is shown

Fig: Output power Vs forward current characteristics

The surface emitter radiates significantly more optical power into the air than the edge
emitter, and both devices are reasonably linear at moderate drive currents. SLED gives
high output power for more forward current. Practically, LEDs do exhibit non-linearity;
therefore, it is required to use some linearizing circuit to ensure linear performance.

Fig: Spectral Response

The spectral width of the source is important as it determines the contribution to

material dispersion. Low spectral Width allows increased data rate. Spectral responses

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

of SELED, EELED, and SLED are shown in above figure. For super luminescent LED,
spectral width as narrow as 30-40 mm is obtained.

LASER

Another important light source used in optical communication is the laser diode (LD). A
basic LD structure is similar to that of edge-emitting LED. By adding additional
structure for photon confinement, coherent light can be generated. The principle of
semiconductor laser is based on external pumping and internal light amplification.
When a laser has several energy states, external pumping excites carrier to a higher
energy state. When they return to the ground state, they release energy and generate
photons. Photon generation from external pumping is not sufficient for coherent light
generation. An additional amplification mechanism is needed to multiply photons of the
same frequency and phase. In a laser, this is made possible by a quantum phenomenon
called stimulated emission. Several photon emission and absorption processes exist in
two-level atomic system. When a carrier is pumped to the upper energy level, it can
come back to the ground state either spontaneously or by stimulation.

An electron in an atom is excited from an energy level E1 to a higher energy level E2 by

the absorption of a photon of energy hυ = E2-El . The electron in higher energy level can
come to lower energy level spontaneously or can be forced or stimulated by another
photon for the downward transition. In this transition, a photon of energy Eg is
released. In spontaneous emission, the electron falls down from energy level E2 to E1
and emits a photon of energy hυ = E2-El in a random direction as shown in Fig.(b). The
transition is spontaneous and a random photon is emitted. In stimulated emission, an
incoming photon of energy hv = E2-El Stimulates the whole emission process by forcing
the electron at E2 to transit down to E1 as shown in Fig. (c). The emitted photon is in-
phase with the incoming photon; it is in the same direction; it has the same polarization;
and it has the same energy.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

LASER STRUCTURES

The broad classification of laser is given in Fig.

Fig: Classification of laser structures

1. Edge-emitting laser:
The light emerges from the edge of the device, where the junction intersects the
surface. The configuration is simple and easy to fabricate. Most laser diodes are
edge emitters. They suffer from the drawbacks that the volume of material that
can contribute to the laser emission is limited and they are difficult to package as
2-D arrays.
 Homo junction laser: One type of semiconductor material with different dopants
is used to fabricate the pn junction shown in Fig. (a). The index of refraction
depends on the impurity added and the doping level. The lightly doped material
has the highest index of refraction and the more heavily doped p-type material
has a lower refractive index. This produces the light pipe effect, which helps to
confine the laser light to the active junction region. In this structure the index
difference is low and much light is lost.
 Single heterojunction: The fraction of Ga in the p-type layer is replaced by Al to
reduce the index of refraction, as shown in Fig. (b), Which results in better
confinement of laser light to the optical cavity. This leads to lower losses, lower
current, reduced damage, and longer lifetime for the diodes.
2. Surface-emitting laser: The light emerges from the surface of the chip rather than
from the edge. The devices can be packed densely on a semiconductor wafer and
it is possible to fabricate 2-D arrays easily.
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 Double heterojunction: Only the junction region is composed of GaAs; both p and
n-regions are of AJGaAs as shown in Fig.(c). Much better confinement is obtained
in this structure. It leads to reduced loss but there are two additional difficulties.
The optical radiation is so well confined that the output power may easily reach
the damage threshold. The tight confinement also reduces the effective beam
width of the output aperture of the laser. This increases the divergence angle in
the direction perpendicular to the junction.

Fig: (a) Homojunction (b) Single hetero junction ( C) Double hetero junction

In most modern semiconductor lasers, the current is injected only within a narrow
region beneath a Stripe contact several um wide, in order to keep the threshold current
low and to control the optical field distribution in the lateral direction.

Compared with broad-area lasers, where the entire laser chip is excited, the threshold
current of lasers with stripe geometry is reduced roughly proportional to the area of
contact.

The two types of stripe geometry structures are as follows:

1. Gain-guided laser: The current injection is restricted to a small region along the
junction plane.
2. Index-guided laser: A built-in refractive index variation in the lateral direction is
incorporated.

GAIN-GUIDED LASERS

The current injection is restricted to a narrow region beneath a Stripe as shown in Fig.
The active region is planar and continuous. Lasing occurs only in a limited region of the
active layer beneath the Stripe contact where high density of current flows. This
horizontal confinement of light wave propagating through the active region is thereby
accomplished by the small refractive index variation produced by the current-generated
population inversion. If the light wave spreads in the horizontal plane outside of the
horizontal dimensions of the stripe, it will be absorbed by the unexcited region of the
active layer. In the vertical directions, the lower refractive indices of the surrounding
layers reflect the optical wave back into the active region.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

The current restriction serves several purposes.

1. It allows continuous-wave (CW) operation with reasonable low threshold

currents (10-100 mA).
2. It can allow fundamental-mode operation along the junction plane, which is
necessary for applications where the optical wave is coupled into a single-mode
optical liber.
3. The requirements for heat sinking are low.

Such lasers are termed as gain-guided lasers because the optical intensity distribution
in the lateral direction is determined by the gain profile produced by carrier density
distribution.

Fig: Gain Guided Laser

INDEX-GUIDED LASERS

The transversal mode control in laser diodes can be achieved using index guiding along
the junction plane. The mode control is necessary for improving the optical wave
current linearity and the modulation response of lasers. .The active region is
surrounded by materials with lower refractive indices in both the vertical (y) and
lateral (x) transverse directions. The active region is buried in lower refractive indices
layers (e.g., InP) 6n all sides as shown in Fig. For this reason, these lasers are called
buried-heterostructure lasers. The lateral index step along the junction plane is about
two magnitudes larger than the carrier induced effects. As a result, the lasing
characteristics of buried-heterostructure lasers are primarily determined by the
rectangular waveguide that confines the mode inside the buried region. The transverse
dimensions of the active region and the index discontinuities are chosen so that only the
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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

lowest order transverse modes can propagate in the waveguide. These index-guided
devices produce beams with much higher beam quality, but are typically limited in
power to only a few hundred milli watts. Another important feature of this laser is the
confinement of the injected carriers to the active region

Fig: Index Guided Laser

LASER CHARACTERISTICS
1. Temperature dependence: Generally, the threshold current tends to increase
with temperature as shown in Fig..

Fig: Variation of threshold current with temperature for laser

The temperature dependence of threshold current density 1th is approximately
exponential and it is given by

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

where T is the device absolute temperature and To is the threshold temperature

coefficient.

2. Mode hopping: In single-mode laser diode, the peak emission wavelength

exhibits ‘jumps” at certain temperatures as shown in Fig

Fig: Peak wavelength versus case temperature charax showing mode hopping output
spectrum of single mode laser diode

A jump corresponds to a mode hop in the output. That is, at a new operating
temperature, another mode fulfils the laser oscillation condition which means a discrete
change in the laser oscillation wavelength. The peak emission wavelength increases
slowly with temperature due to slight increase in refractive index and cavity length with
temperature.

3. Dynamic response: When a current pulse is applied to the device, it results into
switch on delay (td) followed by high frequency damped oscillations known as
relaxation oscillations as shown in Fig.

Fig: Dynamic Behaviour of laser

Consequently, the laser output can comprise several pulses as the electron
density is repetitively built up and quickly reduced, thus causing relaxation
oscillations. At higher data rates above 100 Mbps, this behaviour can deteriorate
the pulse shape since t d = 0.5 ns and relaxation oscillation can last twice td.
4. Noise: The random Intensity fluctuations caused by temperature variation create
a noise called relative intensity noise (RIN). Typically, RIN for single-mode
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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

semiconductor laser lies in the range of 130 to 160 dB/Hz. It decreas as the
junction current level I increases. Mode partition noise is a phenomenon
associated with multi-mode semiconductor lasers when the modes are not
stabilized. Temperature changes can cause the relative intensities of various
longitudinal modes in laser’s output spectrum to vary from one pulse
to next, even though the total output power from a laser is maintained nearly
constant.

NOISE IN LASER DIODES

The optical output from a LASER diode is not constant at a particular level but has
fluctuations in the light intensity levels. These fluctuations manifest themselves as noise
in the transmission and are carried to the receiver end too. There are various sources of
generation of noise in a LASER diode.

 Reflection Noise:
This type of noise introduced into the LASER diode output due to the Fresnel reflections
of the output light of the LASER diode at the tip of the optical fiber. Fresnel reflection is
the phenomenon of reflection of a portion of light incident on a planar interface
between two homogeneous media having different refractive indices. It is independent
of the angle of incidence of light. When the output of the LASER diode is perfectly
aligned to the perfectly flat tip of the optical fiber, part of the light energy is reflected
back into the LASER diode and the phase of this reflected light depends on the relative
separation between the LASER diode output and the tip of the optical fiber. Due to
variation in mechanical vibrations or environmental factors the relative distance
between the LASER diode output end and the optical fiber may vary and so does the
phase of the reflected signal from the fiber tip. These variations in the phase of the
reflected signal produce vibrations in the output of the LASER diode causing noise in the
transmitted signal. This type of noise is, hence, the reflection noise.
 Mode Partition Noise:
In principle, although the output photonic flux emitted from the LASER has a precise
wavelength that satisfies both the gain and the phase condition to get amplified
between the two reflecting regions of the LASER, yet in practice, the output of a LASER
has a finite spectral width. The spectral distribution of the LASER (as already shown) is
given by the following figure.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

Figure: Spectral Distribution of Fabry-Perot cavity

However, one should note that the above spectral characteristic is actually an
average power representation with respect to time. In other words, although the
total power in the output may be constant with time, yet the power level of the
different wavelength components in the output of the LASER does not remain the
same all the time. The power level of the different wavelength components in the
LASER output vary as a function of time (the total power remaining the same)
and only when they are averaged over a time interval, the spectral distribution of
the LASER output looks like figure above. These variations in the power levels of
the different wavelength components of the output spectrum, cause different
wavelengths to have the maximum power level at different instants of time. This
leads to generation of noise in the transmission and is known as the mode
partition noise.

 Speckle Noise:

The different frequency components in the optical output of the LASER diode move with
different velocities inside the optical fiber due to dispersion phenomenon. This causes
the output of the optical fiber at the receiving end to contain several small bright and
dark regions called speckles of light. These speckles are shown in the figure below
which shows the optical fiber output at the receiving end of the optical fiber.

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EC405 Optical Communication Lecture Notes

Figure : Speckle Pattern

These speckles are produced by the constructive and destructive interferences of the
fields of different frequency components in the optical signal as they travel along the
optical fiber. The pattern of the bright and dark regions produced at the output side of
the optical fiber is called the speckle pattern. Speckle patterns are characteristic to any
coherent light. Since the total power in the cross-section of the fiber core is constant, the
speckle pattern is rather a redistribution of power over the cross-section of the optical
fiber core. However, due to temperature variations, the different wavelength
components in the optical signal undergo different phase changes with respect to time
and so; the speckle pattern slowly varies with respect to time. This effect coupled with
the non-uniform power detection capability of the photo-detector over its entire cross-
section creates fluctuations in the output signal produced at the receiver. This is
because, due to variation in the speckle pattern with respect to time, the once dark
region now gets converted into a bright region and vice versa. So, the detector output
varies accordingly since it has non-uniform power acceptance over the cross-section of
the detector and thus noise creeps in. This noise is called the speckle noise. Along with
the above three practical sources of noise, the relaxation oscillations produced at the
receiver output also contributes to introducing some noise into the optical
transmission.

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AMPLIFIED SPONTANEOUS EMISSION

In any laser amplifier, we need to have some laser-active ions in excited (metastable)
states as a precondition for stimulated emission. Unavoidably, we then also get
some spontaneous emission. The resulting fluorescence light goes into all directions and
mostly leaves the fiber on the side. (With an infrared viewer, one can see the pumped
fiber “glowing”.)
A tiny part of the fluorescence light is captured by the fiber core and propagates
together with any pump and signal along the fiber (in both directions). Importantly, it
can then experience a similar gain as any signal. As fiber amplifiers often reach a high
gain (tens of decibels), the guided part of the light from spontaneous emission is
strongly amplified. We call that amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The resulting
power can become much larger than the power radiated into all other directions, even
though only a minor part of the fluorescence is captured by the core.
The consequences of amplified spontaneous emission are:
 We may obtain a substantial output power in any wavelength region where the
amplifier gain is high, even if we do not inject any input signal. That ASE light is
relatively broadband; it is actually used in some super luminescent sources.
 If ASE copropagates with a signal, it constitutes a broadband noise for that signal.
 Strong ASE can cause substantial gain saturation: via stimulated emission, it
lowers the excitation density and thus the amplifier gain. It causes a kind of
soft gain clamping: more pump power still increases the gain, but only slightly, as
the ASE powers grow rapidly with increasing gain.
Note that the gain clamping by ASE is most unwelcome when we need to amplify signals
at wavelengths far from the gain maximum. Essentially, ASE limits the peak gain, and
our signal gain may be much weaker than that. There are even cases where a device
cannot work at all because of ASE. For example, it is not easy to make efficient high-
power erbium-doped fiber lasers emitting at 975 nm, because it can be hard to suppress
ASE at longer wavelengths.

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