Fiber Optics Book: Optical Communication Sytems by John Gowar Optical Fiber Communication by Gerd Keiser Optical Fiber

Communications by John M. Senior Optical Fiber Communications by Selvarajan and Kar Introduction to Fiber Optics by Ghatak and Thyagrajan Optoelectronics by Wilson and Hawkes Introduction to Optical Electronics by Keneth E Jones Fiber Optic Communication Technology by Djafer K Mynbaev and Lowell L Scheinerk between New Jersy (USA) 8 (Eighth Trans Atlantic under sea fiber optics Lin - TAT to France (Europe) les carried 5000 voice TAT-7 link Predecessor of TAT-8 based on metal cab channels whereas TAT-8 carried 37800 channels.along its light fiber that carries plastic or glass ) is a fibre (or optical fiber An length. nonconducting ( dielectric waveguide An optical fiber is a cylindrical total internal ss of waveguide) that transmits light along its axis, by the proce layer, both cladding surrounded by a core . The fiber consists of a reflection materials. To confine the optical signal in the dielectric of which are made of of the core must be greater than that of the refractive index core, the her be cladding. The boundary between the core and cladding may eit ,fiber fiber index index -- graded graded inin gradual, gradual, or or ,, fiber fiber index index -- step step inin abrupt, abrupt ..Total internal reflection ary at a steep angle (larger When light traveling in a dense medium hits a bound ght will be completely reflected. than the "critical angle" for the boundary), the li

ght in the core. Light travels along This effect is used in optical fibers to confine li ry. the fiber bouncing back and forth off of the bounda angle greater than the critical Because the light must strike the boundary with an rtain range of angles can travel angle, only light that enters the fiber within a ce down the fiber without leaking out. of the fiber. The size of this acceptance cone This range of angles is called the ex difference between the acceptance cone is a function of the refractive ind fiber's core and cladding. fiber axis at which light may In simpler terms, there is a maximum angle from the l, in the core of the fiber. enter the fiber so that it will propagate, or trave (NA) of the fiber. numerical aperture of this maximum angle is the sine The plice and work with than fiber Fiber with a larger NA requires less precision to s with a smaller NA. Single-mode fiber has a small NA .Modal DispersionFiber Typeshas a little bit bigger diameter, with a common Step Index Multi-Mode cable omponent (the diameters in the 50-to-100 micron range for the light carry c le which most common size is 62.5um). POF is a newer plastic-based cab ns, but at a lower promises performance similar to glass cable on very short ru 0 to 100MBS - cost. Multimode fiber gives high bandwidth at high speeds (1 Gigabit to 275m to 2km) over medium distances. hey travel Light waves are dispersed into numerous paths, or modes, as t ltimode fiber through the cable's core typically 850 or 1300nm. Typical mu ver long runs core diameters are 50, 62.5, and 100 micrometers. However, o ceiving end, multiple paths of light can cause signal distortion at the re now now designers designers soso transmission transmission data data incomplete incomplete and and unclear unclear anan inin resulting resulting eyond. use single mode fiber in new applications using Gigabit and bcontains a core in which the refractive GRADED-INDEX MULTIMODE FIBER

toward the cladding. The index diminishes gradually from the center axis out ht rays moving down the axis higher refractive index at the center makes the lig lso, rather than zigzagging advance more slowly than those near the cladding. A y because of the graded index, off the cladding, light in the core curves helicall d the higher speed allow reducing its travel distance. The shortened path an bout the same time as the slow light at the periphery to arrive at a receiver at a igital pulse suffers less but straight rays in the core axis. The result: a d dispersion.has a narrow core (8-10 microns), and the index of SINGLE-MODE FIBER s less than it does for refraction between the core and the cladding change e axis, creating little pulse multimode fibers. Light thus travels parallel to th ough which only one mode dispersion. It is a relatively narrow diameter, thr ode optical fiber, propagate typically 1310 or 1550nm. Synonyms mono-m ni-mode fiber. single-mode fiber, single-mode optical waveguide, uDistribution CablesLosses due to macrobending Losses due to microbending Fiber Materials 1. Plastics Fibers ation and have high The plastics offers advantages in terms of cost, ease of fabric often useful for mechanical flexibility. They have high transmission losses and are short distance communication. late (PMMA) Polystyrene core (refractive index = 1.6) and Polymethylmethaacry 66 deg. cladding (refractive index = 1.49) => NA=0.583 and acceptance angle =35. Two main type of materials are there for making optical fibers. r cladding Polymethylmethaacrylate core (refractive index = 1.49) and Polyme 2. Glasses Fibers Mainly two types of glass fibers are there based on the (

2 (i) Silica glass (SiO licates, (ii) Soft glasses such as Sodium borosilicates, Sodium calcium si and Lead silicates. These are high purity low loss optical fibers . r cladding Polymethylmethaacrylate core (refractive index = 1.49) and Polyme es. (refractive index = 1.40) => NA=0.51 and acceptance angle = 30.66 degreObvious requirement of the material is that it must be possible to vary the refractive index by addition of other impurities. Pure Silica has refractive index =1.46 at 1 micron. Other dopants like (Fluorine, Boron, Phosphorus, Germanium, Aluminium and Titanium are added to it to change its refractive index. but the Glass fibers can be made with a relatively wide range of refractive index be control of impurity content is more difficult than with silica where it can level ppb 1 to up controlled .Among the various fabrication techniques there are two methods used for making low loss optical fibers. Double Crucible Method Chemical Vapour Deposition Techniques Fiber Fabrication MethodsDouble Crucible Method bles. At the Pure glass material with appropriate dopants is taken in two platinum cruci zle bottom of each crucibles is a circular nozzle, both being concentric, the inner noz is slightly above the outer one. The inner crucible contains core material and the outer one contains cladding high material. The two crucibles are kept inside the furnace which is heated to high by temperature. When the temperature of the furnace is raised sufficiently nto switching on the heating power, the core material flows through the inner nozzle i the center of the flow stream of the outer crucible.

The fiber is then allowed to pass through a bath containing molten plastic for n a protective coating of plastic over the fiber. Below this is curing oven and the rotating take up drum on which composite fiber is wound onto it. result. By using If the two materials remain separated then step index fiber will glasses that diffuses (or by having dopants that do so) graded index fiber can be obtained. The index profile can be controlled by diffusion process.ge-diameter Standard optical fibers are made by first constructing a lar pulling then , with a carefully controlled refractive index profile, and preform the preform to form the long, thin optical fiber. thods: The preform is commonly made by chemical vapor deposition me inside vapor deposition, outside vapor depositionChemical Vapour Deposition Techniques It is one of the variety of vapour phase deposition techniques, that produces fibers having minimal impurity content. In this techniques a doped silica layer is deposited onto the inner surface of a pure silica tube. The deposition occurs as a hat are result of a chemical reaction taking place between the vapour constituents t , being passed through the tube. Typical vapours used are SiCl4, GeCl4, BCl3 tten as SiF4, TiCl4, etc. and the various reactions that may takes place may be wri follows: Cl 2 + 2 GeO = O + GeCl Cl 2 + SiO = O + SiCl SiCl 2 Cl 2 + 2 GeO = 2 O +4 GeCl 2 Cl 2 + 2 SiO = 2 O +4 2 + 2Cl TiO2 = 2 + O 4 TiCl 2 + 2F SiO2 = 2 + O 4 SiF 4BCl 2 + 6Cl P2O5 = 2 2 + 3O 3 4POCl 2 + 6Cl B2O3 = 2 2 + 3O 3The zone where reaction takes place is moved along the tube by locally heating

the tube to the temperature in the range 1200-1600C with a travelling oxynt hydrogen flame as shown in figure. If the process is repeated with differe input concentrations of the dopant vapours, the layers of different impurity concentrations may be built up sequentially. This technique thus allows the x fabrication of graded index fiber with much greater control over the inde profiles than does the double crucible method. After the deposition process is complete, the tube is heated to its softening perform perform called called rod rod solid solid aa into into collapses collapses then then tube tube The The .. C) C) 2000 2000 (~(~ temperature temperature .. The fiber is subsequently produced by drawing from the heated tip of the perform as it is lowered into a furnace. To have finite control over the fiber diameter, a thickness monitoring gauge is used before the fiber is drawn onto the take up drum and feedback is applied to the take up drum speed. ied to the Similar to earlier method a protective plastic coating is often appl outside of the fiber and resulting coating is then cured bypassing it through a further furnace.Modified chemical vapour deposition (inside) processknown The preform, however constructed, is then placed in a device , where the preform tip is heated and the optic drawing tower as a ber width, fiber is pulled out as a string. By measuring the resultant fi er the tension on the fiber can be controlled to maintain the fib thickness. ite Fiber optic coatings are UV-cured urethane acrylate compos

ing materials applied to the outside of the fiber during the draw lass fiber process. The coatings protect the very delicate strands of g of of rigors rigors the the survive survive toto itit allow allow and and hair hair human human aa ofof size size the the about about manufacturing, proof testing, cabling and installation.The core and cladding material is deposited inside tube Fiber wire drawing Further heating collapses the tubeFusion SplicerSplice alignment structuresElastomeric mechanical splicesMultiple fiber splicingPress Release 6 October 2009 has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2009 with one half to Charles K. Kao , and Chinese University of Hong Kong Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK nsmission of light in fibers for optical "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the tra communication" and the other half jointly to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA uit the CCD sensor" "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circ The masters of light wo scientific achievements that have helped This year's Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for t ties. They have created many practical to shape the foundations of todays networked socie Charles s for scientific exploration. In 1966, innovations for everyday life and provided new tool r optics. He carefully calculated how made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fibe K. Kao lass fibers. With a fiber of purest glass it would to transmit light over long distances via optical g meters, compared to only 20 meters for the be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilo

pired other researchers to share his vision of fibers available in the 1960s. Kao's enthusiasm ins rapure fiber was successfully fabricated just the future potential of fiber optics. The first ult four years later, in 1970.rishes our Today optical fibers make up the circulatory system that nou tate global broadband communication society. These low-loss glass fibers facili ads of glass, and it carries communication such as the Internet. Light flows in thin thre direction. Text, music, almost all of the telephony and data traffic in each and every t second. images and video can be transferred around the globe in a spli he globe, we would get If we were to unravel all of the glass fibers that wind around t ough to encircle the a single thread over one billion kilometers long which is en f kilometers every globe more than 25 000 times and is increasing by thousands o hour. h constitute the second A large share of the traffic is made up of digital images, whic first first the the invented invented Smith Smith .. EE George George and and Boyle Boyle .. SS Willard Willard 1969 1969 InIn .. award award the the ofof part part (Charge-Coupled Device). successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD Albert theorized by The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as is effect, and for which he was awarded the 1921 year's Nobel Prize. By th Einstein hen designing an image light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge w of image points, sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number pixels, in a short time.nized The CCD is the digital camera's electronic eye. It revolutio instead of photography, as light could now be captured electronically tribution of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and dis these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical h for applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, bot diagnostics and for microsurgery. y fields Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in man

lize the of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visua stant previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of di places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.