Elec 3215 Fiber Optics

(Please put the assignment into my pigeon hole in general office)

Assignment 1

Bonus Questions:
(The three questions together carries same weighting as one regular question and can
be submitted in each of all homework dues)

B1: How much time did you spend on this HW?

B2: Any questions and suggestions about the lectures materials, examples and
assignment?

B3: Any suggestions for the progress arrangement and lecture delivery?

Regular Questions:
1. An examination question of 2006-2007
(a) Describe the tradeoff of using single mode fibers and multi-modes fibers for
optical network.
(b) Consider a symmetric slab waveguide with n1 and n2 as the refractive index of
the core and cladding region, respectively, and the light is coupled into the
waveguide in air. Draw the ray paths of cladding modes.
Assume n1=1.485 and n2=1.465, calculate the angle of the ray between the
core and cladding that the cladding modes are supported.

2. Considering a SM fiber with zero dispersion at 1.3µm, sketch the dispersion

coefficient of the material, waveguide and total dispersions in ps/km-nm as a function
of wavelength, with the approximate magnitudes and wavelengths marked on the
respective axis. Assume the polarization dispersion is zero.

3. (a) Sketch one index profile and dispersion profile for each of 1300nm optimized
SM fiber, dispersion shifted fiber and dispersion flatten fiber. State their advantages
for use in optical communication system.
(b) Assume a slab waveguide supports two modes, please sketch the two dimensional
cross section field profiles. How does the number of guiding mode change with (1)
the increase of the refractive index difference between the core and cladding layer of
the slab waveguide and (2) decrease with the core width.

4. Consider the material dispersion in 63.5/125 fiber with n1=1.48 and ∆=1.5% and
the dispersion figure below. Calculate the material dispersion in normalized units of
ps⋅km-1⋅nm-1 at 850nm and 1550nm.

Assignment-1 (ELEC3215) 1
5. Consider a symmetric slab waveguide with thickness 2d, core index n1 and cladding
index n2.
(a) Derive the characteristic equation for TE odd modes
(b) Sketch a mode chart for the TE1 mode assuming a core index n1 of 3.6 and
cladding index n2 of 3.55
(c) Determine the approximate angle of propagation for normalized thickness of 1.5

6. An examination question of 2007-2008

(a) Given that the even and odd modes of the characteristic equations of a
symmetric slab waveguide with a thickness of d are:
γd = κd tan(κd/2) (even modes)
γd = -κd cot(κd/2) (odd modes)
where γ2 = β2 – n22ko2, κ2 = n12ko2– β2, ko is the wavevector, β is the
propagation constant, κ is the vertical component of the wavevector, and n2
and n1 are the refractive indices of the waveguide cladding and core region
respectively.
Determine the general characteristic equation of the waveguide and use the
equation to draw the mode chart of the first two modes of a waveguide with n2
= 3.5 and n1 = 3.55. The calculation steps for the propagation angles of 80.37o,
84o, 88o, and 90o must be shown.
(b) (i) Give the reasons why the graded index profile is particularly useful for
multi-mode fibers.
(ii) State the features with schematic diagrams of dispersion flattened and
dispersion shifted fibers and their applications.
(iii) Describe the physics and effects of polarization mode dispersion and state
the communication situation that the polarization mode dispersion has to be
considered (in point form).

Assignment-1 (ELEC3215) 2