Module 2.

2- Optical Fibers

Introduction:

• Optical fibre (OF) is a thin flexible fibre through which light signals can be sent with very little
loss of strength using the principle of Total Internal Reflection (TIR).
• Fibre-optic communication is the technology associated
with data transmission using light pulses travelling along
with a long fibre which is usually made of plastic or glass.
• They permit transmission over longer distances and at
higher bandwidths (data transfer rates) than electrical
cables.
• Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss. In addition,
fibers are immune to electromagnetic interference, a problem from which metal wires suffer.
Description of the optical fibre cable:
OF is a thin flexible fibre consisting of,
i. Core - the inner cylindrical part with refractive index .
ii. Clad – the outer cylindrical with refractive index .
iii. Outer Jacket - Cladding is enclosed inside a polyurethane
jacket to protect the OF cable.

Note: (a) There is continuity between core & cladding. (b) is always greater than ,( .

Total Internal Reflection (TIR):

• TIR is the optical phenomenon in which the waves arriving at the interface (boundary) from one
medium to another (e.g., from water to air) are completely reflected back into the same medium
without energy loss.

Conditions for TIR are,

i. The wave must travel from denser medium (medium with higher refractive index, ) to a rarer
medium (medium with lower refractive index, ), i.e, .
ii. The angle of incidence of the wave must be higher than the critical angle of incidence .

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Expression for critical angle :

From snell’s law, wkt

when,

( )

Acceptance angle :

Definition: It is the maximum incident angle at which an optical fiber will transmit light by total
internal reflection.

Numerical Aperture (NA):

Definition: It is the measure of light gathering capacity of an optical fiber.

Condition for ray propagation in an optical fiber:

Relation for Angle of Acceptance , Numerical Aperture (NA) and Refractive Indices:

• Consider a light ray AO incident at point O

making an angle enters into the fiber.
• Let be the angle of refraction for the ray
OB and meet the core and clad junction at
point B at a critical angle
• At B, the ray grazes the interface between core
and cladding along BC.
• Let , be the refractive indices of the outer medium, core and cladding respectively.

Applying Snell’s law at point ‘O’,

.... (1)

Applying Snell’s law at point ‘B’,

.... (2)

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 Module 2.2- Optical Fibers

wkt,

Therefore,
√

Therefore equation (1) can be written as

√ … (3)

Using equation (2) in (3)

√ ( )

√( )

where, is also called as the numerical aperture (NA), which determines the maximum angle of
incidence for a given combination of core and cladding refractive indices.

If the surrounding medium is air, , therefore the above equation can be written as

Condition for propagation:

For any angle of incidence equal to less than , the incident ray is able to propagate in the optical
fiber i.e.,

this is the condition for propagation.

Fractional refractive index change :

It is defined as the ration of change in refractive indices between core and cladding to the
refractive index of the core.

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Relation between NA and :

√ √
Considering and

Increase in the value of increases NA.

Note: Δ value cannot be increased very much because it leads to intermodal dispersion leading to
signal distortion.

V-number:

The number of modes supported for propagation in the fibre is determined by a parameter called V-
number.

If the surrounding medium is air, then

√ √

where ‘d’ is the core diameter, n1 and n2 are refractive indices of core and cladding respectively, ‘λ’ is
the wavelength of light propagating in the fibre.

Number of modes (N):

For, , the number of modes supported by the fibre is given by,

Types of optical fibers:

Depending on the refractive index (RI) profile of the core and the propagation of signals inside an
optical fibre, following are the different types of optical fibres:

1. Step index Single mode fibre

2. Step index multimode fibre
3. Graded index multimode fibre

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1. Step index Single mode fibre:

• In step index optical fiber, the RI of the core is

constant throughout and decreases suddenly at the
interface of core and clad with RI , forming a step
like refractive index profile, as shown in the figure
below.
• Only one mode of propagation is allowed.
• The core diameter is in the order of the order of 8 µm to
10 µm.
• It has high information carrying capacity.
• The single mode step index fiber has the distinct
advantage of low intermodal dispersion, as only one
mode is transmitted.
• Single mode fibers have lower attenuation losses compared to the multimode fibers.
• It can be used for long distance communication.

NOTE: Single mode fibers require precision connectors for coupling between fiber and equipments.
The Single mode fibers use precision laser light sources for optical signals. Manufacturing costs of
single mode fibers are very high. These factors make the use of single mode fibers expensive.
However, the reliability of transmission and low losses in the fiber make them attractive for high
reliability transmissions.

2. Step index multimode fibre:

• In step index optical fiber, the RI of the core is

constant throughout and decreases suddenly at the interface
of core and clad with RI , forming a step like
refractive index profile, as shown in the figure.
• More than one mode of propagation is allowed.
• The total number of guided modes for a step index fiber is

given by

• In multimode step index fiber, depending on the angle of

incidence, different waves will travel in different path or
mode.
• This causes intermodal dispersion due to the differing
group velocities of the propagating modes.
• Due to high dispersion the information carrying capacity is less.

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3. Graded index multimode fibre (GRIN):

• The refractive index is maximum at the center of the
core and gradually decreases from the axis towards the
core cladding interface.
• The refractive index profile is shown in figure.
• The incident rays bends and takes a periodic path along
the axis.
• The rays have different paths with same period and
hence the group velocity of the waves will be constant.
• Since the group velocity of the waves will be constant,
the multimodal dispersion of the Step index fiber is
overcome in graded index optical fiber.

Attenuation or Fiber loss can be caused by three mechanisms:

1. Absorption:

All materials absorb some amount of light energy incident on it. The absorption depends on the
composition of the material and the wavelength of light incident on it. Most of the glasses absorb
strongly in the ultraviolet and minimum in the infrared.

a. Intrinsic Absorption:
 Absorption of photons by the highly pure material with which the optical fiber is made of is
called intrinsic absorption.
 Intrinsic absorption arises out of the electronic configuration (absorption in the ultraviolet
regions) and the bond formation (absorption in the infra-red region) of the basic materials of
the optical fiber.
b. Extrinsic Absorption:
 Absorption of photons by impurities like metal ions such as iron, chromium, cobalt and copper
in the optical fiber.
 During signal processing photons interact with electrons of impurity atoms. The atoms are
excited and de-excite by emitting photons of different characteristics. Hence it is a loss of
energy.
 The other impurity such as hydroxyl ions (OH) causes significant absorption loss.

2. Scattering:

 When the wavelength of the photon is comparable to the size of the particle then the scattering
takes place.

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 Because of the non-uniformity in manufacturing, the refractive index changes with length
leads to a scattering and this type of scattering is called as Rayleigh scattering.
 In Rayleigh scattering, the scattering intensity is inversely proportional to the fourth power of
wavelength i.e., .

 As the wavelength increases the loss caused by Rayleigh scattering decreases.

 Scattering of photons also takes place due to metal impurities present in the optical fiber and
also may due to trapped gas bubbles which are not dissolved at the time of manufacturing.
3. Radiation losses:

Radiation losses occur due to macroscopic and microscopic bends.

a. Macro bending:
 Macro bends are bends having a large radius of curvature relative to the fiber diameter.
 All optical fiber are having critical radius of curvature provided by the manufacturer.
 During installation, if the fiber is bent below critical radius of curvature, the light ray incident
on the core cladding interface will not satisfy the condition of TIR.
 This causes loss of optical power.
b. Micro bending:
 Micro bend losses are caused by small discontinuities or non-uniformity of refractive index in
the fiber.
 The non-uniformity is due to manufacturing defects and also lateral pressure built up on the
fiber.
 The defect due to non-uniformity (micro bendings) can be overcome by introducing optical
fiber inside a good strengthen polyurethane jacket.

Signal attenuation in optical fiber:

 Attenuation is the loss of optical power as light travels through a fiber.
 As per Lambert’s law, the rate of decrease of intensity of light with distance travelled in a
homogeneous medium is proportional to the initial intensity
dP
i.e.,   P (negative sign indicates the decrement in intensity with distance)
dL

dP
  P
dL

where is called attenuation coefficient,

By rearranging the equation

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dP
  dL
P

Integrating both the sides

dP
 P
   dL

It is expressed in decibel/kilometre [dB/km]. A fiber with lower attenuation will allow more power to
reach its receiver than a fiber with higher attenuation. If Pin is the input power and Pout is the output
power after passing through a fiber of length ‘L’, the mean attenuation constant or coefficient ‘α’ of the
fiber, in units of db/km is given by

( )

Fiber Optics Communication System:

Optical fiber communication system consists of transmitter, information channel and receiver.
Transmitter converts an electrical signal into optical signal. Information channel carries the signal from
transmitter to receiver. The receiver converts optical signal to electrical form. The block diagram of
optical fiber communication system is shown in figure.

Message origin: It converts a non-electrical message into an electrical signal.

Coder: It converts the electrical message into proper format and it helps to improve the signal onto the
wave which is generated by the carrier source.

There are two types of format. They are analog and digital. Analog signal is continuous and it
doesn’t make any change in the original format. But digital signal will be either in ON or OFF state.

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Carrier source: It generates the waves on which the data is transmitted. These carrier waves are
produced by the electrical oscillator. Light emitting diodes (LED) and laser diodes (LD) are the
different sources.

Information channel: It is path between transmitter and receiver. Here optical fibre is the Information
channel

Detector: The detector separates the information from the carrier wave. Here a photo-detector converts
optical signal to electronic signal.

Signal processor: Signal processor amplifies the signals and filters the undesired frequencies.

Message output: The output message will be in two forms. Either person can see the information or
hear the information. The electrical signal can be converted into sound wave or visual image by using
CRO.

Advantages of optical communication system:

Noise Immunity:
Optical fibers are used in environments where electromagnetic interference is prominent and
unavoidable. While cables are normally contained in protective sheaths and often run inside conduit,
there is no need to physically isolate fiber optic cables from electrical cables. This makes cable
routing simpler.
Electrical Isolation:
The problem of ground loop noise and common mode potential differences is eliminated by the use
of fiber optic cables. Field signals, generated by devices floating at high potentials, can be coupled
to other equipment at much lower potentials without the risk of damage. This is particularly
desirable in industrial applications.
Safe for Use in Hazardous Areas:
Fiber optic links can be used to couple signals into areas with potentially explosive atmospheres
without a risk to delivering or storing sufficient energy to ignite an explosion. This makes fiber optic
technology particularly useful when designing intrinsically safe systems.
Wide Bandwidth:
Fiber optic cables can carry very wide bandwidth signals, well into the GHz range. Many individual,
lower bandwidth signals can be multiplexed onto the same cable. In commercial systems fiber optic
cable often carries a mixture of signal types, including voice, video and data all on the same fiber.
Low Signal Attenuation:
Optical fibers do exhibit some attenuation due to absorption and scattering. However, this
attenuation is relatively independent of frequency, a factor that is significant in copper cables.

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Light Weight, Small Diameter:

Because many signals can be multiplexed onto one fiber, cables tend to be smaller and lighter. This
makes installation easier.
No Crosstalk:
Since fibers do not pick up electromagnetic interference, signals on adjacent cables are not coupled
together.
Inherent Signal Security:
Optical fibers cannot be ‘tapped’ and hence signal security is very high as compared to copper wires.
Note:
• Optical fibers are used in sensors like pressure sensor, voltage sensor and current sensors.
• Optical fibers are used in local networks like data link purpose.

Problems:
Formula

( )

Fractional index change

√ ( √ )

( )

P1. An optical fiber has a core and cladding refractive index of 1.51 and 1.49, respectively.
Calculate the i) Critical angle , ii) Numerical Aperture (NA), iii) Angle of acceptance
and iv) fractional refractive index change
Ans:

(i) ( ) (ii) √

(iii) (iv)

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P2. The angle of acceptance of an optical fiber is 300 when kept in an air medium. Find the angle
of acceptance and the numerical aperture when it is kept in a medium of refractive index
1.33.

Ans:

When the optical fiber is kept in air,

When the same optical fiber is kept in medium of RI,

P3. Calculate the fractional refractive index change and V-number for an optical fiber of
diameter 40 µm with refractive indices of the core and cladding 1.55 and 1.5 respectively, if
the wavelength of propagation through it is 1.4×10-7 m.

Ans:

( √ )

P4. The number of modes in a step index fiber is 3500. The diameter of the core is and
numerical aperture is 0.25. Calculate the operating wavelength.

Ans:

P5. A 750 m long optical fibre has an input power of 90 mW and an output power of 80 mW.
Calculate the signal attenuation coefficient. What will be the output intensity if the fibre
length is increased to 5 km.

Ans:

(i) ( ) (ii)

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 Module 2.2- Optical Fibers

Question Bank:

Marks
Question
(Approximate)
Explain the principle of propagation of an optical fiber. 3
Define angle of acceptance and numerical aperture of an optical fiber. 4
Derive the expression for numerical aperture in an optical fiber. 6
Explain any two types of optical fibers with neat illustration. 6
Describe attenuation mechanisms in an optical fiber 5
Define co-efficient of attenuation. Explain the causes of attenuation. 8
Describe point to point communication system using optical fibers with the help of
a block diagram and mention its advantages over the conventional communication 8
systems.
The numerical aperture of an optical fiber is 0.2 when surrounded by air. Determine
the refractive index of its core, given the refractive index of the cladding is 1.59.
4
Also find the acceptance angle when the fiber is in water. Assume the refractive
index of water as 1.33.
Calculate the V-number for a fiber of core diameter and with refractive
indices of 1.55 and 1.5 respectively for core and cladding when the wavelength of
4
propagating wave is . Also calculate the number of modes that the fiber
can support for propagation.

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