TELCOM 2222

Photonic Communications

Ray/Particle
Model of Light

Dr. Richard A. Thompson

Telecommunications Program
University of Pittsburgh
 Course structure
Hour: 0 1 2 3
Week: 1
Sub-course on
Sub-course
Fiber-Optic
on
Transport
Photonic
Switching

N Comprehensive Final Exam

 Transport subcourse

• Introduction, Rays & Waves

• Transport, Fiber, Impairments
• Sources, Detectors, Modulation
• Connectors
• Noise & Signal-to-noise ratio
• Systems (link power budget)
• Fiber nonlinearities & dense WDM
Outline: Particle/Ray Model

• Photons
• Refraction
– Velocity
– Snell’s Law
• Lenses
– Imaging
– Numerical aperture
 Light is a
stream of particles
• Photon
– Smallest “quantum” of energy
– Energy can’t exist in arb amounts Albert Einstein in 1921
Physicist, 1876-1955
Among many things, he
• 2 properties of photons: gradually developed the
concept of the photon

– Move in a straight line, called a “ray”

• Not really straight because of diffraction 
– Have no mass
• But, they’re “attracted” by gravity anyway
• Space is “bent” (Einstein’s eclipse)
 Energy of a photon
Must be evacuated
• Photons have momentum…
– Classic experiment with
black/white vanes
• Photon hits and sticks to black face  ++m
• Photon hits and reflects off white  ++2m
• & energy e = h×f
– Prop to photon’s e = hc/ ,
where  is the
frequency free-space wavelength
– h is Planck’s constant
= 6.626×10-34
 Light at a material boundary
Reflection & Refraction

Some light transmits

Some light reflects
through the boundary
off the boundary The optical into material 2 – bends!
back into material 1 power splits

These 2 angles
These 2 angles
are equal
obey Snell’s Law 
Strikes the boundary
with material 2

Light ray from a

source in material 1
 Perfect Reflection
• Simple mirror
– Object, mirror, eye, image
• Angles of incidence & reflection
– With respect to the normal (not always)
r = i
• Optics usually works both ways - important
– switch object and eye
• More on reflection 
 Refraction

• Velocity of Light
c = 2.998×108 m/s
in a vacuum or in air
–  1 foot/ns
• Other mats: v = c/n
– Where n is the “relative index of refraction”
– Water: n=1.33  vw = .75 va
– Glass: n=1.5  vg = .667 va 2/3
– Fused silica n=1.46  vf = .685 va
n is assumed constant here, but it’s ridiculously non-constant 
 Digress - velocity of an
electrical signal along wire
• What moves along a wire?
– Electrons move slowly
– But, they “shift” along a conductor
– The effect (the “signal”) moves faster
• Electrical signals move at speed of light?
– Only in free-space - radio
– Get reactive effects in wires
– v = c/3 on twisted pair

c5
 Refraction - Pencil in water
• Light “bends” through media boundary
• Ray from object (point source) bends
– Eye/brain perceives the pencil to be bent
– Either direction
“fast”

“slow”
 Refraction by
Snell’s Law
• Angles of incidence & transmission
– wrt normal: nL sin L = nR sin R
– nR < nL  vR(fast) > vL(slow) & R > L Willebrord Snel
van Royen

– nR > nL  vR(slow) < vL(fast) & R < L

1580-1626
Credited with the
Law of Refraction,
1st discovered by
Ibn Sahl in 984.

“slow”
“fast”
“fast”
“slow”
 Lenses
• Motivation
– laser>lens>fiber & fiber>lens>pd
• Discuss only convex lenses
– Other types (esp, GRIN) in Palais
• Focal length, f = f(R1, R2, n)
– Distance between
the plane of the lens
f
and the “focal plane” 
– Eqns in Palais
 Convex Lens with
collimated light
• Simplified analysis of lens refraction:
– Lenses assumed ideal & “thin”
– Rays through center of lens (2, 4, & 5) don’t bend
– Other rays (1, 3, & 6) do bend
• Collimated (parallel rays)  source at infinity
– || normal rays (1, 3, & 4) intersect at the focal point
– || off-normal rays (5 & 6)  different point on focal plane
• Magnification - eye at fp
– image > object 
• Reverse - light at fp
– spotlight
 Imaging
• Figure: object, lens, focal point, proj image
• Draw two rays from each object-point
– Ray 1 parallel to normal, passes thru the focal point
– Ray 2 through the center of the lens
• Object light (captured by lens) intersects at Image
• Out-of-focus
– points diffused
– cover more area, overlap
%09

Imaging distances
• Image is upside down
& magnified
– M = Li / Lo = di / do = 1/[(do/f) -1]
• 1/f = 1/do + 1/di (f = “do || di”)
do di M
do=  di = f 0 (collimated)
do=2f di=2f 1
do=1.5f di=3f 2
do=1.2f di=6f 5
do=f di=  
Numerical
aperture
• Odd metric Hits center Hits edge Misses

• Camera - object, lens, film (on f-plane)

– Edge of film (or pd) has diameter d
– Center ray’s “cone” angle: tan = d / 2f
– Specifies light captured by film, fiber core, pd, retina
• Strong eyeglasses  Live in a smaller, darker world
• NA = n sin 
– Equals the “equivalent diameter”
– Used for fiber ‘s acceptance angle
 Example
• 2.14 (fiber length for 1 second)
– D=RxT = (2/3)(3x108 m/s) x 1s =
– 2x108 m = 2x105 Km = 200,000 Km
– About 125K miles
• 5 times around the earth
• Half way to the moon
 Reading Assignment
• PLCS Section 12.1
– Read Subsections 0, 2 & 3.A-C
• Palais Chapter 1
– Read Subsection 3.2
• Palais Chapter 2
– Read Sections 1 - 4
– Postpone Section 5
• For dispersion in wire, skim:
– TSS Section 3.4 or PLCS 11.2 & 11.3.1
 Problem Assignment C1
• Palais Chapter 1
– Problems 13 - 15, 22
• Palais Chapter 2
– Problems 9, 10, 13
• PLCS Chapter 12
– Problems 1 - 5, 7 - 9
• Additional exercise
– Compute time for light to travel 1 foot in air