Course: EC833
Optical Fiber
Technology
Lectures 1-20: Fiber Optics
Philip B. Kassey
Founder
& MD
Petrasys Global Pvt
Ltd Mumbai – 400709
E-mail:
[email protected] m
Course
goals
H elp you understand fiber
optics
Learn basics about the
technology
What the pieces are
How they go together
C om ponents im portant for optical
networking
Plan for
Course :
⚫1: Fiber Optic Basics
⚫ Fiber optic technology overview
⚫ Benefits and applications
⚫ Propagation and material interaction
⚫ Fiber construction and fabrication, etc.
⚫2: Dispersion in OFCs
⚫ Fiber optic transmitters
⚫ Fiber optic receivers, etc.
⚫ 3.
Fiber Optic Connectors, Splices, and
Tools
⚫ Fiber Connection
⚫ Fiber splices, Sensors, etc.
⚫ 4. Optical Networks
⚫ Fiber to the x (FTTx)
⚫ Fiber to the home (FTTH) installation, etc..
1.Fiber optic Technology
Overview
⚫ Evolution of ‘ics & nics’
⚫ Whatis Fiber Optics or
Photonics
⚫ Signal modulates a carrier
⚫ Signal has a data rate and format
⚫ Fiber Construction
⚫ Fiber Types
⚫ Fiber Properties
Guidance of Light by tube of
Water *
What is Fiber ?
Principle : Total Internal Reflection
Index of refraction : n = c / v
It is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in the medium
⚫ When light travels from one medium to another, the speed changes, as does
the wavelength.
⚫ If light is travelling from medium 1 into medium 2, and angles are measured from the
normal to the interface, the angle of transmission of the light into the second medium
is related to the angle of incidence by Snell's law :
Principle : Total Internal Reflection
Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
Fiber
types
Single-mode fiber 50/125 Graded-index fiber
250-µm plastic 250-µm plastic
coating coating
125-µm 125-µm glass
cladding
glass cladding
Core
or 50 µm
140-µm cladding
Core
100 µm 100/140 Step-index multimode
Step-index multimode
fiber
⚫ Large high-index core, thin cladding
⚫ Abrupt core-cladding boundary
⚫ Modal dispersion is large
⚫ Communications limited to short distance
⚫ Main uses: imaging and illumination
⚫ Well described by total internal reflection of rays
Unconfined light
Total internal reflection
Core Confines light
Cladding
Graded-Index
⚫ Refractive
index grades from center of core to edge of
Multimode
cladding
⚫ Index profile
Step-index profile
Refractive
index Graded-index profile
Distance from fiber axis
Graded-Index
Guiding
⚫ Change
in index refracts rays toward
axis
⚫ Rays go fastest in lowest index zones
⚫ Evening out difference in ray paths
Refractive
index
Graded-index
⚫ Parabolic refractive index profile
fibers
⚫ Shape of refractive-index profile important
⚫ Index gradientcompensates for modal
dispersion
⚫ 50/ 125 and 62.5 /125 used up to 2 km
⚫ 50/125 has higher bandwidth
⚫ Large core eases coupling into fiber
Limits of graded-index
fibers
⚫ Ideal
index profile hard to
realize
⚫ Dispersion higher than single-
mode
⚫ Modal noise with laser sources
Laser source generates
speckle pattern in multimode
fiber; random drift of speckles
Speckle within small fiber core
pattern generates modal intensity
noise.
Light guiding in bare
fibers
⚫ Bare
glass rod or fiber in air
⚫ Total internal reflection traps light in
fiber
Critical angle
Bare glass fiber
Clad
fibers
⚫ Low-index cladding allows total internal reflection
⚫ Reflecting surface safe inside fiber
⚫ Small index difference still guides light
⚫ Early fibers with large core, thin cladding (bundles)
Unconfined light
Total internal reflection
Core Confines light
Cladding
Fingerprint doesn't affect transmission
Clad Communication
⚫ Smallercore, thicker cladding, single mode
Fibers
⚫ Single-mode core size ~ k/ index difference
⚫ Light guided by core-cladding boundary
⚫ Most light inside core
Cladding
Wave guided in core and along core
boundary
Core
Single-mode
Fiber
2.4
⚫ Small core transmits D
only one mode
⚫ 9-µm core for = 1.3 n02 n12
⚫ Light spreads over larger
µm (0.6% n) Light
mode field Mode field
Diameter intensity
diameter
High intensity
At center Core
Cutoff
wavelength
⚫ Shortest
wavelength
for single-mode D ncore
2
nclad
2
transmission
c
2.4
⚫ Typically 1250 to
1280 nm
⚫ Multimode
transmission at
shorter wavelengths
Features of single-mode
⚫ Single-mode transmission
is simple
fiber
⚫ No modal dispersion
⚫ No modal noise
⚫ Transmission distance limited by chromatic
dispersion
⚫ Several types available, differ in dispersion
properties
Types of Single-mode
⚫Fiber
Step-Index single-mode fiber (simple)
⚫Matched cladding
⚫Depressed cladding
⚫ Reduces core doping required
⚫ Dopes cladding to reduce index
⚫Dispersion-shifted fiber
⚫More complex core-cladding design
⚫Larger waveguide dispersion
⚫Shifts zero chromatic dispersion
⚫Higher dispersion slope, larger variation with
⚫Minimum dispersion needed to prevent four-
wave mixing (more later)
Two viewpoints of
fiber
⚫ Optical view: (more
intuitive)
⚫ Total internal reflection of rays
critica
⚫ Useful l
for 'highly' multimoded fibers
ar csin n cla d / n co re
⚫ Waveguide model
⚫ More complex and more accurate
⚫ Derived from microwave theory
⚫ Predicts transverse modes
⚫ Needed to design sophisticated single-mode
fibers
Optical
View Cladding
Normal
(low-index)
Refracted light
Input light
Reflected ray
Total internal
reflection
Critical angle
Core
(high index)
Important Fiber
Properties
⚫Attenuation
⚫ Light coupling efficiency
⚫ Core diameter
⚫ Numerical aperture
⚫ Mode structure
⚫ Pulse dispersion
⚫ Depends on modal properties of fiber
⚫ Determined byfiber type &
composition
⚫ Nonlinear effects
Fiber
⚫ Measured in dB/km
Attenuation
⚫ dB=-10 log(Pout/ P in)
⚫ Sum of scattering and
absorption
⚫ Proportional to distance
⚫ Using dB
P(D) P in (1
attenuation) D
Loss(D) D(km) loss(dB /
km)
Attenuation and
composition
⚫ Absorption
depends on composition
has little absorption at <1.7 µm
⚫ Silica
⚫ Tracemetals have high absorption
⚫ OH bonds have peak at 1.38 µm
⚫ Scattering proportional to -4
⚫ Sets lower limit on short-wavelength attenuation
⚫ Sum of minimum absorption and scattering sets
theoretical limits
⚫ Minimum silica loss near 1.55 µm
Communication Fiber
Loss 1.3 µm 1.55 µm
window
window
850 nm
Main OH
window absorption
Rayleigh Infrared
Scattering Absorption
minimum Of silica
Glass fiber mechanical
properties
⚫ Plastic coating protects surface
⚫ Standard coating 250 µm on 125 µm fiber
⚫ Surface damage is main cause of failure
⚫ Flaws spotted by proof testing 100,000 lb/in2
⚫ Strong per unit cross-section
⚫ But cross-section is small
⚫ Fiber breaks with very little stretching
⚫ Bend into 5-cm loop
Plastic
fibers
⚫Advantages of plastic
⚫ Cheap
⚫ More flexible than glass
⚫ Some types easier to
terminate
⚫ Disadvantages of
plastic
⚫ Much higher attenuation
⚫ Limited
temperature
range
⚫ Several compositions
Plastic fiber
loss
Courtesy Takaaki Ishigure
Light Coupling
Efficiency
⚫ Must match emitting area to core diameter
⚫ Numerical Aperture (NA)
⚫ Definesrange of angles over which fiber collects
light
⚫ NA is 0.21 for ncore=1.50 and nclad=1.485
⚫ Typical core-cladding difference around 0.3-2%
NA n 2
core n2
cladding
Acceptance
angle
Whole Acceptance angle 2
(Light here is guided in fiber)
C
o
n
f
i
n Cor
e e
m Cladding
e
n
t
Half Acceptance angle NA=sin=ncore sinc
a
n
g
Pulse
dispersion
Initial instantaneous pulses
⚫ Successive pulses
overlap as they spread
⚫ Spreading increases
with distance
⚫ Degree of
dispersion depends
on fiber type
Unintelligible
Types of fiber
dispersion
⚫ Modal (nanoseconds/ fiber km)
⚫ Largest, depends on number of modes
⚫ Chromatic (ps/ nm bandwidth, fiber
km)
⚫ Increaseswith source bandwidth
⚫ Equals material + waveguide
dispersion
⚫ Material (ps/ nm bandwidth, fiber
km)
⚫ Waveguide (ps/ nm bandwidth, fiber
km)
⚫ Polarization mode dispersion
Fiber
Types
⚫ Step-index multimode (large-
core)
⚫ Graded-index multimode
⚫ Step-index single-mode
⚫ Dispersion-modified single-
mode
⚫ Polarization controlling
⚫ Fiber Bragg gratings
⚫ Doped fiber for amplifiers
⚫ Sensing fibers
What we
learned
⚫ Evolution of ‘ics & nics’
⚫ Fiber Optics or Photonics
⚫ Signal modulates a carrier
⚫ Signal has a data rate and
format
⚫ Fiber Construction
⚫ Fiber Types
⚫ Fiber Properties
Modal
⚫ Largest in magnitude
Dispersion
⚫ Equals characteristic dispersion (ns/km) x fiber length
(km)
⚫ Arises from differences in mode velocity
⚫ Graded-index fibers reduce
⚫ Smaller in 50/125 fiber than 62.5/125
⚫ Single-mode fibers eliminate
Modes and Modal
dispersion
⚫ Modes are oscillation/ propagation paths
⚫ Mode velocities differ in step-index multimode
fiber
⚫ Visualize as difference in ray paths
⚫ Red ray goes shorter distance than blue
