Course: BECE308L – Optical Fiber Communications

Dr V R Balaji
Assistant Professor – SENSE
Sigma Block,Room No.32
Email: [email protected]
Contact No:7667678242
Module:1 Optical Fiber: Structures, Waveguides 3 hours
Key elements of optical fiber system
Ray optics
Mode theory
Geometrical-Optics Description
Fiber Types - specialty fibers.
Optical Fiber as Transmission Medium
 Transmit data as light pulses (first
converting electronic signals to light pulses
then finally converting back to electronic
signals)
 Light propagate by means of Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
Fiber Attenuation

 4.0 dB/km at 850nm

 0.5 dB/km at 1310nm

 0.2 dB/km at 1550nm

Attenuation in Silica Optical Fibers

 Representation of the Critical angle and TIR
at a Glass-Air interface.

RECAP
Source:Internet
 Light ray in a perfect optical fiber

Angle of Reflection
Light is less than Critical Angle Angle of Incidence
is absorbed in Jacket Light is propagated by Total Internal Reflectio
Definition
Critical angle The minimum angle of incidence at which
a light ray ay strike the interface of two media and result
in an angle of refraction of 90° or greater
Total Internal Reflection Beyond some maxmium
incident angle the ray of light cannot pass through the
boundary of the two materials and the ray is completely
reflected
When the angle of incidence exceeds the maximum angle
or critical angle:TIR:Property:Fiber Optic Communication
to occur
Ray Optics (Meridional)
A meridional ray is a ray that passes through the axis of an
optical fiber.

Acceptance Angle:The maximum angle in which external

light rays may strike the air/glass interface and still
propagate down the fiber.

Numerical Aperature: Light collecting ability of the Optical

fiber
Any ray incident into fiber core at angle >a will be transmitted to
core-cladding interface at an angle <C and will not follow TIR
 Lost (case B)
Ray Optics (Meridional) Light inside the Acceptance Cone can only be

Coupled into the fiber

Case B
 B
Con… At Point A
Apply snell's law
n o sinθ 0  n1 sinθ A

From diagram
θ  / 2 
At Point B
n o sinθ 0  n1 sin( / 2   )
Crticle angle
n o sinθ 0  n1 1-sin 2  Sin i n2  n2 
2
 n o sinθ 0  n1 1-  
Sin r n1
 n1 
n2
Sin c  n o sinθ 0  n  n 2
2 2
n1 1
 Con…
n o sin θ 0  n12  n 2 2
For air n o  1
sin θ 0  n12  n 2 2  NA
For acceptance angle:
sin θ 0  sin θ A  n12  n 2 2  NA
Relative refractive Index:(Core cladding Index difference)
θ A  sin 1 ( NA)  sin 1 ( n12  n 2 2 )
n1 -n 2
= n1  n1 -n 2 for  <<1
n1
sin θ 0  n12  n 2 2  NA
NA  sin θ 0  (n1  n2 )(n1  n2 )
n1  n2
NA  sin θ 0  n1 (2n1 )  n1 2
 Numerical Aperture (NA)
A very useful parameter : measure of light collecting ability of the fiber.
 Larger the magnitude of NA, greater the amount of light accepted by the fiber from the external
source.

Acceptance / Emission Cone

NA  noutside sin  max 

• For SMFs ; NA varies from 0.12- 0.20 (small NA)

• For MMFs; NA may varies from 0.20 - 0.50 (large NA)
Ray Propagation

n1
 Ray Propagation
no

n2 << n1

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1
 Ray Propagation
n2 << n1
no

n1

Maximum
acceptance
angle
Optical Fibers
It is a dielectric waveguide

Normally cylindrical in shape

Confines EM energy at optical frequency in the

form of light within its surface and Guides light
parallel to its axis
Characteristics of Fiber
Transmission properties are said by:
Its structural characteristics which affects the propagation along the
fiber
Structure:
Establishes the capacity
Influence the response of the waveguide to environmental
perturbations

 A solid dielectric of two concentric layers.

 Inner layer - Core of radius ‘a’ and refractive index ‘n1’
 Outer layer - Cladding has refractive index ‘n2’.

n2 < n1  Condition necessary for TIR

Structure of a typical optical fiber

Source:Internet & Gerd Keiser

 Types of Optical Fibers
Advantages of Cladding
Reduces scattering loss (arise from dielectric discontinuities at the core surface)
Adds mechanical strength
Protects core from absorbing surface contaminants
Variations in material composition of the core give rise to two commonly used fiber
types:
Step index:
RI of the core is uniform throughout
Undergoes an abrupt change at the core-cladding boundary
Single mode
Multimode
Graded index:
RI of the core varies wrt radial distance from the center of the fiber
Multimode
Types of Fiber

Source:Internet
Source:Internet
Rays and Modes
To study the propagation Characteristics of light
The EM light field – guided along the fiber
Is Represented by a superposition of bound or trapped modes
Each guided mode consists of simple set of EM field configurations
Monochromatic light has a time and z dependence given by
• e j(ωt-βz)
• β is the z-component of the wave propagation constant k=2π/λ and is
main parameter of interest in describing fiber modes
For monochromatic light field of angular frequency ω, a mode traveling
in positive z-direction has time and z-dependence
Relation between Modes and Rays
A guided mode can be decomposed into a family of super-imposed plane waves
With any plane wave, a light ray is associated, that is perpendicular to the phase
front of the wave
The family of plane waves corresponding to a particular mode forms a set of rays
called a ray congruence
Each ray of this particular set travels in the fiber at the same angle relative to the
fiber axis
Possible angles of ray congruence corresponding to these modes are limited to
number of guided modes
Types of Rays in a Fiber
Two types of rays:
meridional rays (lies in single plane)
skew rays (not confined to a single plane)
Along the fiber
1 1, 3
3
Meridional ray
(a) A meridional
ray always
Fiber axis crosses the fiber
axis.

2 2

1 (b) A skew ray

2 1 does not have
Sk ew ray 2
Fiber axis
to cross the
5
3
fiber axis. It
5 zigzags around
3 4
4 the fiber axis.

Ray path along the fiber Ray path projected

on to a plane normal
to fiber axis
Types of Rays
Meridional rays
Confined to the meridian planes (axis of symmetry) of the fiber
easy to track
Bound rays – trapped in the core and propagate along fiber axis
Unbound rays – refracted out of fiber core

Skew rays:
1. Not confined to a single plane
2. Tend to follow the helical path along the fiber
3. These rays are more difficult to track as they travel along the fiber
4. constitute a major portion of the total no. of guided rays
5. but not required to obtain general picture of rays propagation
when included in analysis
1. change the expression for light acceptance capability of fiber
2. power loss of light travelling along the fiber
The V-Number
 Normalized frequency ‘V’ is expressed in terms of NA and 
2 2 1
V a(NA)  a n 1 (2) 2
 

• Normalized frequency; a dimensionless parameter and simply called V-number or

Value of the fiber.
• Combines in a very useful manner the information about three fiber parameters; a, 
and .
• Accounts for number of modes in a fiber.
• V-value differentiate between SM and MM propagation.
 For V ≤ 2.405; Fiber supports only one Mode which is Fundamental Mode
and hence the name SM Fiber.
Step Index Fibers
 Fiber with a core of constant refractive index n1 and a cladding of slightly lower
refractive index n2 .
• Refractive index profile makes a step change at the core-cladding interface

Refractive index profile

n1 ; r<a (core)
n(r) =
n2 ; r a (cladding)

• Multimode Step Index

• Single mode Step Index

The refractive index profile and ray transmission in step index fibers: (a)
multimode step index fiber. (b) single-mode step index fiber.
Modes in SI Fibers
 MM SI fibers allow the propagation of a finite number of guided modes
along the channel.
 Number of guided modes is dependent upon the physical parameters ; a, 
of fibers and wavelength of the transmitted light – included in V-number

• Total number of guided modes or mode volume Ms for SI fiber is

related to V-number for the fiber by approximate expression
Ms  V2/2
Allows an estimate of number of guided modes propagating in a
particular MM SI fiber.
Graded Index Fiber Structure
GI fibers do not have a constant refractive index in the core, but a decreasing core
index n(r) with radial distance from a maximum value of n1 at the axis to a constant
value n2 beyond the core radius ‘a’ in the cladding  Inhomogeneous core fibers

The most commonly used construction for the RI variation in the core the power
law relationship.
 1

Index variation is represented as   r 

a 2
for r≤a
n1 1  2  a  
n(r )      

 1
1
n (1  2) 2  n (1  )  n
1 2
ra
where,  is relative refractive index difference and  is the profile parameter
which gives the characteristic RI profile of the fiber core.
 1Triangular profile
2Parabolic profile
∞Step index
profile

OCN