SPEIGHT, J. D., O'SULLIVAN, P., LEIGH, P. A., MCINTYRE, N., COOPER, K.

, optical period, we find an expression for the backscattered

and O'HARA, S.: 'The isolation of GaAs microwave devices using power Ps at the input end:
proton bombardment', Inst. Phys. Conf. Ser. 33a, 1977, p. 275
FAVENNEC, p. N., and DIGUET, D.: 'Electrical properties of proton-
bombarded Ga1_xAlxAs', Appl. Phys. Lett., 1973, 23, p. 546 s = jjdxdy(E2>/Z
DYMENT, J. c , NORTH, j . c, and D'SARO, L. A.: 'Optical and electrical
properties of proton bombarded p-type GaAs', J. Appl. Phys., i973,
44, p. 207 = P0e-°v'{<o/c)2 (3)

0013-5194/80/090327-03$1.50/0 where

00

,i )/2
jj dx dy Ax

Zj) exp [-2(x 2 2

)/w%]
BACKSCATTERING IN SINGLE-MODE
FIBRES
The quantity PQ = (l/2)(Eo/Z)(nwl/2) denotes the power of
the incoming optical pulse at t = 0, and n is the refractive index
Indexing terms: Optical fibres, Scattering of the medium.
To express the backscattered power Ps in more practical
The scattering process in single-mode optical fibres is con- terms, it is useful to regard the scattered intensity in the far
sidered in terms of wave optics rather than geometrical optics,
which is inadequate in this case. Surprisingly, however, the field of a scattering volume illuminated by a plane wave. The
result for the backscattering signal at the input end of the fibre solution of this problem in Reference 5, eqn. 3.3.8 contains an
is nearly the same as for multimode fibres. integral very similar to G. Modifying the analysis there by
assuming an inhomogeneous wave with an intensity /,- = (1/2) x
The backscattering method, first presented by Barnoski and {El/Z) exp [ — 2(x2 + y2)/wl] incident upon a scattering
Jensen1 in 1976 is a very elegant way of investigating the atten- volume of length lp/2, and taking into account that A/(x, y, z)
uation characteristics of multimode optical fibres. Although can be regarded as white spatial noise, we obtain an expression
this method has been tested and analysed by several for the total scattered power P, in terms of G:
authors, 2 ' 3 it has not yet been applied to single-mode fibres as
far as we know. It is the object of this letter to give a theoretical p_\El (co/cr
(4)
prediction of the backscattering signal in the latter case, thus
filling part of the gap. The analysis is quite different from the
corresponding analysis in the case of multimode fibres.3 This is On the other hand, the attenuation constant as due to scatter-
due to the fact that geometrical optics is inadequate when ing is related to P, by as = P,/(Polp/2). From this it follows
dealing with single-mode fibres. that the backscattered power Ps is given by
Let us consider a harmonic optical pulse of rectangular en-
velope entering the input end z = 0 of the fibre at a time t = 0.
This means that the electric field of the primary optical pulse
propagating in the z-direction can be specified by
where
£,(x, y, z, t) =
Eoe{x, y) cos 0(z - vpt)e~"'2 0 < v gt - z < l p 3/2 n\ - n\
S= (5)
2n2w2.{co/c)2 ~ (wo/a)2V2
0 elsewhere
The quantity T = lp/vg denotes the temporal pulse width, V the
(1)
normalised frequency of the fibre, a its core radius and n t and
The quantity lp denotes the spatial pulse width, a the power n2 the refractive index on the fibre axis and in the cladding,
attenuation constant, vg<p the group and phase velocity, respec- respectively. For step-index single-mode fibres, the normalised
tively, and e(x, y) the unit-amplitude field distribution of the spot-size wo/a has been given by Marcuse:7
fundamental mode. The mode fields in single-mode fibres are
known to be very nearly Gaussian, regardless of the index
profile;4 i.e. e(x, y) = exp [ — (x2 -I- y2)/wl] where w0 is called — = 0-65 + 1-619K"3/2 + 2-879K-6 (6)
a
spot size.
The scattering is caused by the small-scale inhomogeneities This means that the backscattering factor S is nearly constant
A/(x, y, z) of the local electric susceptibility, which act as for 1-5 < V < 2-4:
induced dipole oscillators.5 The radiation of each dipole par-
tially excites the fundamental mode of the fibre in the back- n\-n\ n\-n\
ward direction. The differential amplitude d3a due to a 0-21 < S < 0-24 (7)
particular dipole with an amplitude dp located at (x, y, zs) is
given by 6 For graded-index single-mode fibres, the result is the same,
within a few percent, since they can be reduced to equivalent
coe(x, y) dp(x, y, zs) step-index fibres by using the effective quantities aeff and Veff,
d3a = (2) the effective core radius and the effective normalised
, n)/Z] d£ dtj frequency.8-9 For multimode fibres the backscattering formula
is identical to eqn. 5 except for the meaning of the back-
where Z = y/Ji/e denotes the wave impedance of the medium scattering factor S. Under certain assumptions, S is equal to
and co = f}vp the light frequency. (3/8)(n? - n\)ln\ and (l/4)(«2 - n\)ln\ for step-index and
To calculate the electric field Es at the input end of the fibre square-law fibres, respectively.3 Surprisingly, eqn. 5 and eqn. 7
due to scattering—or, equivalently, dipole oscillation—it is yield nearly the same value. This means that the backscattering
useful to consider first the portion dEs coming from a length signals are approximately equal for single- and multimode
element dzs located at z = zs. This quantity dEs consists of the fibres, provided the coupled power Po and the index difference
portions of all the dipoles located in dzs and oscillating in are equal. This does not prove, however, that geometrical
phase. Subsequent integration over z, yields the total back- optics is adequate when dealing with single-mode fibres.
scattered field Es. Taking the time average of E2 over one In writing eqn. 1, we tacitly assumed from the beginning that

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 24th April 1980 Vol. 16 No. 9 329

we are dealing with linearly polarised fields. This assumption techniques for improving the above problem of a conventional
can be dropped because the complete form of eqn. 2 contains integrator has not been treated in detail.
the scalar product of the dipole moment and the mode field to In this letter, we propose a simple sampled-data recursive
be excited.6 Therefore, the dipoles excited by one polarisation integrator. The experimental results show that this integrator
direction do not excite the orthogonal polarisation direction. operates successfully even at ultra low frequencies since the
Consequently, both polarisation directions can be treated d.c. feedback path is constructed every sampling interval. As an
separately. extension of the integrator, we also propose a wideband phase
The result of this analysis shows that testing single-mode shifter. Unlike conventional phase shifters, it has the advantage
fibres by the backscattering method should be possible and of constant amplitude and phase shift with frequency change.
promising. Moreover, it may be useful when dealing with
crosstalk in optical two-way transmission lines or sensitivity of
the fibre-optical gyroscope. A more complete analysis will be
given elsewhere.10
sampler
x(t) y(nT)
Acknowledgment: The author is grateful to Prof. E. -G. Neu-
mann for several useful hints and continuing interest and
encouragement.
I delay line
E. BRINKMEYER 3rd March 1980 sampling pulse
Universit'at Wuppertal
Fachbereich Elektrotechnik Fig, 1 Block diagram of integrator
Fuhlrottstr. 10, D-5600 Wuppertal 1, W. Germany

References Integrator: Fig. 1 shows the block diagram of a sampled-data

1 BARNOSKI, M. K., and JENSEN, M. s.: 'Fiber waveguides: a novel recursive integrator, where K is a loop gain. The sampler and
technique for investigating attenuation characteristics', Appl. Opt., holder act as a delay line for the recursive signal. When an
1976, 15, pp. 2112-2115 analogue signal is sampled every T seconds, this integrator can
2 PERSONICK, s. D.: 'Photon probe—an optical fibre time domain be described by the linear difference equation as follows:
reflectometer', Bell Syst. Tech. J., 1977, 56, pp. 355-366
3 NEUMANN, E. -G.: 'Theory of the backscattering method for testing
optical fiber cables', Electron. & Commun. AEU (to be published) y(nT) = x(nT) + Ky(nT - T) (1)
4 MARCUSE, D.: 'Gaussian approximation of the fundamental modes
of graded-index fibers', J. Opt. Soc. Am., 1978, 68, pp. 103-109 where x(nT) is the sampled output of x(t), and y(nT) is the
5 CHU, B.: 'Laser light scattering' (Academic Press, New York, 1974), output of the integrator. The general solution of eqn. 1 is given
chap. 3 by
6 GOUBAU, G.: 'On the excitation of surface waves', Proc. IRE, 1952,
40, pp. 865-868
7 MARCUSE, D.: 'Loss analysis of single-mode fiber splices', Bell Syst. y(nT) = K"-mx(mT) (2)
Tech. J., 1977, 56, pp. 703-718
8 BRINKMEYER, E.: 'Spot size of graded-index single-mode fibers:
profile-independent representation and new determination where y( — T) is the initial output. If T is small enough and n
method', Appl. Opt., 1979, 18, pp. 932-937 very large, we can rewrite eqn. 2 in integral form by putting
9 BRINKMEYER, E.: 'Profile-independent representation of near- and mT = t:
far-field characteristics of single-mode fibers and its use for the
determination of fiber parameters', Proc. Opt. Comm. Conf.
Amsterdam 1979, paper 17.2 y{nT) ~ Kn+ly(- T) + ~ f" K"-^ dt (3)
10 BRINKMEYER, E.: 'Analysis of the backscattering method for single- T Jn
mode optical fibers' (submitted to J. Opt. Soc. Am.)
Eqn. 3 indicates that the integration of x(t) is carried out when
K = 1 and y(-T)^0. The coefficient l/T corresponds to
0013-5194/80/090329-02$! .50/0 l/RC in the conventional RC integrator, where the leakage
current due to the large value of the feedback capacitor C
causes a serious problem at ultra low frequencies. Since we
have no such problem in the new integrator, we can choose an
ultra low sampling frequency.
Fig. 2 shows an experimental result where the input signal
frequency and sampling frequency are 001 Hz and 0-7 Hz,
respectively. It is clear that the input square wave is trans-
formed into a triangular wave through the integrator, and that
SAMPLED-DATA RECURSIVE INTEGRATOR when the input voltage becomes zero the output voltage keeps
FOR ULTRA-LOW-FREQUENCY WIDEBAND itsfinalvalue for 3 min. Such characteristics of constant output
PHASE SHIFTER were observed for as long as 20 min in our experiment, which is
very difficult to attain with conventional integrators.
Indexing terms: Circuit design, Signal processing

A simple sampled-data recursive integrator suitable for

processing an ultra-low-frequency signal is proposed. The
principle for realising the integrator can be extended to a 0 2V
wideband phase shifter by varying the sampling frequency in
proportion to the input signal frequency.

Introduction: In a conventional RC integrator and integrating

sample-and-hold circuit,1 it is very difficult to process an ultra- 35V
low-frequency signal for lack of a d.c. feedback path. The 3 min
output voltage of such integrators will gradually increase or
decrease to the power supply voltage, due to the drift of the
operational amplifier and the leakage current of a feedback Fig. 2 Experimental results of integrator
capacitor. Other techniques, such as the sampled-data integra- Sampling frequency = 0-7 Hz
tor using c.c.d.s2%3 and the switched-capacitor integrator,4'5 Upper trace: input voltage, 0O1 Hz
have been given. However, the possibility of using such Lower trace: output voltage

330 ELECTRONICS LETTERS 24th April 1980 Vol. 16 No. 9