Optical fibers

Advantages of optical fiber communication

Wide bandwidth
2*1012 Hz to 37*1012 Hz
Low losses
1dB/km
Immune to cross talk
non conductors,no magnetic field
Intereference immune
no conductive or radiative interference
Light weight
Material used is glass and plastic,lesser than copper and aluminium
Small size
Diameter of OFC is smaller than copper
More strength
Stronger and rugged
Security
Impossible to tap
Long distance transmission
Less attenuation ,long distance transmission
Enviornment immune
Not affected by corrosive liquids or gases
Safe and easy installation
No shock hazard
Long term

The Nature of Light

Ray Theory:

Light travels along a

straight line and obeys laws of
geometrical optics. Ray theory is valid
when the objects are much larger than
the wavelength.

Quantum Theory:
Light consists of
small particles (photons)

Wave Theory:
Light travels as a
transverse electromagnetic wave

Introduction to Optical fibers

An optical fiber is essentially a waveguide for light.
It consists of a core and cladding that surrounds the core.
The index of refraction of the cladding is less than that of
the core, causing rays of light leaving the core to be refracted
back into the core.
A light-emitting diode (LED) or laser diode (LD) can be
used for the source.

Optical fiber structure

Types of Fiber
Modes :

Single mode propagation

Multimode propagation
Configuration:
Step index
Graded index
Graded-index fiber has less dispersion than a multimode step-index
fiber

Comparison of fiber structures

Ray optic representation

Skew rays

Meridional ray representation

Signal Degradation in
Optical Fibers

Attenuation
Attenuation means loss of light energy as the
light pulse travels from one end of the cable to
the other.
It is also called as signal loss or fiber loss.
It also decides the the number of repeaters
required between transmitter and receiver.
Attenuation is directly proportional to the length
of the cable.

 Attenuation is defined as the ratio of optical

output power to the input power in the fiber of
length L.

Attenuation (fiber loss)

Power loss along a fiber:

Z= l

Z=0
P(0) mW

P (l ) P (0)e

P( z ) P(0)e

p l

mw

p z

The parameter p is called fiber attenuation coefficient in a units of for example

[1/km] or [nepers/km]. A more common unit is [dB/km] that is defined by:

P (0)
10
[dB/km]
log
4.343 p [1 / km]

l
P (l )

Attenuation:

Variation of specific attenuation with

wavelength

Attenuation & Wavelength

The specific attenuation ( power loss in dB per
unit length ) actually depends on the
wavelength of the radiation travelling along
the optic fibre
The graph shows minima at 1310nm and
1550nm, which implies that these are
desirable wavelengths for optimal
transmission
These are infra red wavelengths

Intrinsic Absorption:
Caused by the interaction with one or more
components of the glass
Occurs when photon interacts with an electron in the
valence band & excites it to a higher energy level
near the UV region.
Extrinsic Absorption:
Also called impurity absorption.
Results from the presence of transition metal ions like
iron, chromium, cobalt, copper & from OH ions i.e.
from water.

Scattering Losses
It occurs due to microscopic variations in the material density,
compositional fluctuations, structural in homogeneities and
manufacturing defects.
Linear Scattering

Rayleigh Scattering losses

Mie Scattering Losses
Waveguide Scattering Losses
Non-linear Scattering

Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS)

Stimulated Raman Scattering(SRS)

i) Linear Scattering
a)

Rayleigh Scattering Losses:

These losses are due to
microscopic variation in the
material of the fiber.

Unequal distribution of
molecular densities or
atomic densities leads to
Rayleigh Scattering losses

Glass is made up of several

acids like SiO2, P2O5,etc.
compositions, fluctuations
can occur because of these
several oxides which rise to
Rayleigh scattering losses

b) Mie Scattering Losses:

These losses results from the compositional fluctuations &
structural inhomogenerics & defects created during fiber
fabrications, causes the light to scatter outside the fiber.
c) Waveguide Scattering Losses:
It is a result of variation in the core diameter, imperfections
of the core cladding interface, change in RI of either
core or cladding.

ii) Non-linear Scattering

a) SBS Scattering:
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS) may be regarded
as the modulation of light through thermal molecular
vibrations within the fiber.
Pb =4.4x10-3d22 dB v watts
where, = operating wavelength m
d= fiber core diameter m
v = source bandwidth in GHz

b) SRS Scattering:
Stimulated Raman Scattering is similar to SBS except
that high frequency optical phonon rather than
acoustic phonon is generated in scattering processes.
Pb =5.9x10-2d2 dB watts
Phonon:
Collective excitation in a periodic arrangement of atoms
or molecules in solid.

Bending Loss (Macrobending & Microbending)

Macrobending Loss: The curvature
of the bend is much larger than fiber
diameter.
Lightwave suffers sever loss due to
radiation of the evanescent field in
the cladding region.
As the radius of the curvature
decreases, the loss increases
exponentially until it reaches at a
certain critical radius.
For any radius a bit smaller than
this point, the losses suddenly
becomes extremely large. Higher
order modes radiate away faster than
lower order modes.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Microbending Loss

Microbending Loss:
microscopic bends of the fiber
axis that can arise when the fibers
are incorporated into cables.
The power is dissipated through
the microbended fiber, because of
the repetitive coupling of energy
between guided modes & the
leaky or radiation modes in the
fiber.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Dispersion
Dispersion in fiber optics results from the fact that in multimode
propagation, the signal travels faster in some modes than it would in
others
Single-mode fibers are relatively free from dispersion except for
intramodal dispersion
Graded-index fibers reduce dispersion by taking advantage of
higher-order modes
One form of intramodal dispersion is called material dispersion
because it depends upon the material of the core
Another form of dispersion is called waveguide dispersion
Dispersion increases with the bandwidth of the light source

Examples of Dispersion