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Signal distortion is a result of
• Intramodal dispersion
• Intermodal delay effect
Intermodal dispersion Multimode only
Intramodal dispersion Material dispersion Multimode and Single mode
Waveguide dispersion Multimode and Single mode
These distortion effects can be explained by group velocity of guided modes i.e. speed at which energy
in a particular mode travels along the fiber
Intramodal dispersion or Chromatic dispersion
Pulse spreading within a single mode. This arises from finite spectral emission width of an optical source.
This is also known as group velocity dispersion (GVD).
Since intramodal dispersion depends on wavelength, its effect on signal distortion increases with
spectral width.
For LED source, the rms spectral width is approximately 5% of a central wavelength. For example, if a
LED source peak emission wavelength is 850nm, then source spectral width would be 40 nm i.e. source
emits most of its power in 830‐870 nm.
Causes of Intramodal Dispersion
1) Material (Chromatic) dispersion: variation of refractive index of the core material as a function
of wavelength. This causes wavelength dependence of the group velocity of any given mode i.e.
pulse spreading occurs even when different wavelengths follows same path.
2) Waveguide dispersion: occurs because a single mode fiber confines only about 80% of the
optical power to the core. Dispersion occurs since 20% of the light propagating in the cladding
travels faster than light in the core. The amount of wavelength dispersion depends on the fiber
design.
Another factor that gives rise to pulse spreading is Intermodal delay:
o A result of each mode having different value of group velocity at a single frequency.
o In multimode fibers, waveguide dispersion can be ignored. However, in single move, waveguide
dispersion is significant.
o These distortion effects are seldom observed in practice. They tend to be mitigated by other
factors such as non ideal index profile, optical power launching conditions, etc.
Information Capacity Determination
• As a result of dispersion‐induced signal distortion, light pulse will broaden as it travels along the
fiber, see figure below.
• A measure of information capacity is bandwidth‐distance product in MHz.Km.
• For a step index fiber the various distortion effects tend to limit bandwidth‐distance product to
20 MHz.Km.
• In graded index fiber, radial refractive index profile can be carefully selected so that pulse
broadening is minimized at a specific operating wavelength. This lead to bandwidth‐distance
product as high as 2.5GHz.km.
• For single mode fiber, capacity is even higher.
• Information carrying capacity can be determined by examining deformation of short light pulse.
Following discussion focuses on pulse broadening.
Group Delay
• Assume that
o modulated optical signal excites all modes equally at input end of fiber
o Each mode contains all spectral components in the wavelength band over which source
emits.
• As signal propagates along the fiber, each spectral components can be assumed to travel
independently, and undergo a time delay or group delay per unit length
………………..(1)
• L is distance travelled by the pulse, Vg is group velocity.
• The group velocity is
………………..(2)
• Group delay depends on wavelength; each spectral component of any particular mode takes
different amount of time to travel a certain distance‐> optical signal spreads out in time as it is
transmitted over the fiber.
• If the spectral width of source is not too wide, the delay difference per unit wavelength along
the propagation path is approximately equal to / .
• For spectral components which lie at /2 above and below a central wavelength , the total
delay difference over a distance L is
2 ………………..(3)
• Dispersion is
………………..(4)
Where / is GVD parameter, which determines how much a light pulse broadens at it
travels along an optical fiber.
• Dispersion defines pulse spread as a function of wavelength and it is measured in picoseconds per
kilometer per nanaometer.
• To a good approximation D can be written as a sum of material dispersion and waveguide
dispersion.
Material Dispersion
• Exists in all fibers including single mode fiber
• It is a result of the fact that refractive index is different for different
wavelengths (frequency/ color of light).
• Since group velocity of a mode is a function of refractive index of refraction,
various spectral components of a given mode travel at different speeds
depending on wavelengths
Material Dispersion Calculations
o Consider a plane wave propagating in an infinitely extended dielectric
medium that has refractive index n(λ) equal to that of fiber core. The
propagation constant β is
………………..(5)
o The time spend by a pulse to traverse a fiber of length L is given by
group delay (substitute for β in (1))
………………..(6)
o For a light pulse with central frequency λ and spectrum width σλ, pulse
spread
| |………..(7)
Where Dmat(λ) is the material dispersion
We can see
Time delay is proportional to spectrum width.
o Dmat is proportional to second derivative of effective refractive
index to wavelength ( or first derivative of group delay)
Example: Consider a typical GAAlAs LED having a spectral width of 40 nm at an
800nm peak output so that 5%. As can be seen in fig, this produces a pulse
spread of 4.4 ns/km.
Waveguide Dispersion
o This is a result of the fact that normalized frequency V number is
independent of wavelength (V inversely proportional to λ).
o When a cylindrical waveguide is made, if there is a spectral width
in the transmitting light, there will be difference in V numbers.
o The differences in V number results in difference in propagation
constant β.
o Even when n is not a function of wavelength (no material
dispersion), the propagation constant and therefore the effective
index are still dependent on wavelength. This is known as
wavelength dispersion.
o The group delay (τwg) can be expressed as
Δ
Where
2
1
o This factor is plotted below
o The plots show that for a fixed value for a fixed value of V, the
group delay is different for every guided mode. When a light
pulse is launched in a fiber, it is distributed among many
guided modes. These various modes arrive at different time
depending on their group delay, so a pulse spreading occurs.
Signal Distortion in Single Mode Fibers
• For single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion is of importance and
can of same order of magnitude as material dispersion.
• The pulse spread σwg occurring over a distribution of wavelengths
σλ is obtained from derivative of group delay with respect to
wavelength
∆
• For HE11 mode,
1 √2
1 /
1 4
• Figure shows plots of d(Vb)/dV and Vd2(Vb)/dV2
Example
Δ
Let n2=1.48 and Δ = 0.2 percent. At V=2.4, from the figure, the
expression in square brackets is 0.26. Choosing λ = 1320 nm, we have
Dwg(λ)=‐1.9 ps/(nm.km)
• Figure below gives examples of material and waveguide
dispersion for a fused‐silica‐core single‐mode fiber having V=2.4.
• Waveguide dispersion is important around 1320 nm. At this point
the 2 dispersion factor cancel to zero to give zero total dispersion.
• Material dispersion dominates at shorter and longer wavelengths.