Brief flow of presentation

1. Introduction
2. What are Optical Fibers?
3. Structure of optical fiber
4. Workings principle of optical fiber
5. Classification of optical fiber
6. Optical fiber communication system
7. Advantages / Disadvantages of Optical fiber
8. Applications of Optical fiber
9. Conclusion
 History
•i d i n g o f l i g h t b y r e f r a c t i o n , t h e p r i n c i p l e
that makes fiber optics possible, was first
demonstrated by Daniel Colladon and
Jacques Babinet in Paris in the early 1840s.
• J o h n Ty n d a l l i n c l u d e d a d e m o n s t r a t i o n o f
it in his public lectures in London, 12 years
l a t e r.
• Ty n d a l l a l s o w r o t e a b o u t t h e p r o p e r t y o f
total internal reflection in an introductory
book about the nature of light in 1870:

3
J o h n Ty n d a l l i n c l u d e d a
demonstration of it in his public
lectures in London, 12 years
l a t e r.

12/18/2019 https://sites.google.com/site/ganeshbilla/ 4
 Introduction
 An optical fiber is a hair thin cylindrical fiber of glass or any
transparent dielectric medium
 They are arranged in bundles called optical cables and used
to transmit light signals over long distances.
 The fiber which are used for optical communication are wave
guides made of transparent dielectrics.
 Its function is to guide visible and infrared light over long
distances.
Optical Fiber
 It consists of a core and cladding that surrounds the
core
 It has little mechanical strength, so it must be enclosed
in a protective jacket
 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 is a very thin and flexible
medium having a cylindrical shape
consisting of three sections:
1. Core 8-10 µm
2. Cladding 125 µm
3. Buffer 250 µm
4. Jacket 400 µm
 Structure of optical fiber

 Core – Central tube of very thin size made up of optically

transparent dielectric medium and carries the light form
transmitter to receiver. The core diameter can vary from about
5um to 100 um.
 Cladding – Outer optical material surrounding the core having
reflecting index lower than core. It helps to keep the light
within the core throughout the phenomena of total internal
reflection.
 Buffer Coating – Plastic coating that protects the fiber made of
silicon rubber. The typical diameter of fiber after coating is 250-
300 um.
 Working principle
Total Internal Reflection
 Optical fibers work on the principle of total internal
reflection( TIR).

 In the optical fiber the rays undergo repeated total

number of reflections until it emerges out of the other end
of the fiber, even if the fiber is bent.

 The angle of refraction at the interface between two

media is governed by Snell’s law:

n1 sin 1  n2 sin2
Refraction & Total Internal Reflection
 Numerical Aperture
 The numerical aperture of
the fiber is closely related to
the critical angle and is often
used in the specification for
optical fiber and the
components that work with it.

 The numerical aperture is

given by the formula:

N . A.  n12  n22

 The angle of acceptance is

twice that given by the
numerical aperture
How Does fiber optic transmit light
 Modes
 Since optical fiber is a waveguide, light can propagate in a
number of modes
 If a fiber is of large diameter, light entering at different angles
will excite different modes while narrow fiber may only excite
one mode
 On the basis of number of modes:-
On the basis of number of modes of propagation the optical fiber
are classified into two types:
(i) Single mode fiber (SMF) and
(ii) Multi-mode fiber (MMF)

Single-mode fibers – In single mode fiber only one mode can

propagate through the fiber.
 This type of fiber has small core diameter(5um) and high cladding
diameter(70um) and the difference between the refractive index
of core and cladding is very small.
 There is no dispersion i.e. no degradation of signal during
travelling through the fiber.
 The light is passed through the single mode fiber through laser
diode.
 Multi-mode fiber :-

 Multi mode fiber allows a large number of modes for the light ray
travelling through it.
 The core diameter is (40um) and that of cladding is(70um)
 The relative refractive index difference is also larger than single
mode fiber.
 There is signal degradation due to multimode dispersion.
 They are not suitable for long distance communication due to
large dispersion and attenuation of the signal.
 On the basis of Refractive index
There are two types of optical fiber:-
 (i) Step-index optical fiber
 (ii) Graded-index optical fiber

 Step-index fibers - The index of refraction changes radically

between the core and the cladding
 Graded-index fiber - A multimode fiber, but the index of
refraction gradually decreases away from the center of the
core
Graded-index fiber has less dispersion than a multimode
step-index fiber
 Step Index Fibers
 A step-index fiber has a central core with a uniform refractive
index. An outside cladding that also has a uniform refractive index
surrounds the core;
 however, the refractive index of the cladding is less than that of
the central core.

The refractive index profile may be defined as

n(r) = n1 r < a (core)

n2 r ≥ a (cladding)
 Graded-index Fibres

 In graded-index fiber, the index of refraction in the core

decreases continuously between the axis and the cladding.
 This causes light rays to bend smoothly as they approach the
cladding, rather than reflecting abruptly from the core-
cladding boundary.
 Optical Fiber Communication
System

Electrical
Information source Optical Optical fiber Optical Electrical
Destination
source source cable detector receive
 Information source- it provides an electrical signal to a transmitter
comprising an electrical stage.

 Electrical transmitter- It drives an optical source to give an

modulation of the light wave carrier.

 Optical source- It provides the electrical-optical conversion .It may be

a semiconductor laser or an LED.

 Optical cable: It serves as transmission medium.

 Optical detector: It is responsible for optical to electrical conversion of

data and hence responsible for demodulation of the optical carrier. It
may be a photodiodes, phototransistor, and photoconductors.

 Electrical receiver: It is used for electrical interfacing at the receiver

end of the optical link and to perform the signal processing electrically.

 Destination: It is the final point at which we receive the information in

the form of electrical signal.
 Attenuation
Attenuation is the loss of the optical power.

Attenuation is defined as the ratio of optical output power to

the input power in the fiber of length L.
α= 10log10 Pi/Po [in db/km]
where, Pi= Input Power
Po= Output Power, α is attenuation constant
Attenuation in optical fiber take place due to elements like
coupler, splices, connector and fiber itself.

A fiber lower attenuation will allow more power to reach a

receiver than with a higher attenuation.

Attenuation may be categorised as –

(i) Intrinsic
(ii) Extrinsic
Factor causing attenuation in Fiber

Attenuation

Extrinsic
Intrinsic

Macrobending
Absorption Scattering Microbending
 Bending losses
 The loss which exists when an optical fiber undergoes
bending is called bending losses.
 There are two types of bending

i) Macroscopic bending
Bending in which complete fiber undergoes bends
which causes certain modes not to be reflected and therefore
causes loss to the cladding.

ii) Microscopic Bending

Either the core or cladding undergoes slight bends at its
surface. It causes light to be reflected at angles when there is
no further reflection.
 Macroscopic Bending

Microscopic Bending
 Absorption Loss
Absorption of light energy due to heating of ion impurities results
in dimming of light at the end of the fiber.

Two types:
1. Intrinsic Absorption
2. Extrinsic Absorption
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.
 Dispersion Loss
 As an optical signal travels along the fiber, it becomes
increasingly distorted.
 This distortion is a sequence of intermodal and intramodal
dispersion.
 Two types:
1. Intermodal Dispersion
2. Intramodal Dispersion
Intermodal Dispersion:
 Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion results from
the propagation delay differences between modes within a
multimode fiber.

Intramodal Dispersion:
 It is the pulse spreading that occurs within a single mode.
 Material Dispersion
 Waveguide Dispersion
1) Material Dispersion:
 Also known as spectral dispersion or chromatic dispersion.
 Results because of variation due to Refractive Index of core
as a function of wavelength, because of which pulse
spreading occurs even when different wavelengths follow
the same path.

2) Waveguide Dispersion:
 Whenever any optical signal is passed through the optical
fiber, practically 80% of optical power is confined to core &
rest 20% optical power into cladding.
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 =4.4x10-3d2λ2α dB v watts
where, λ= operating wavelength μm
d= fiber core diameter μm
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 =5.9x10-2d2λα dB watts
Advantages of fiber optic over wire cable
 Thinner
 Higher carrying capacity
 Less signal degradation
 Light signal
 Low power
 Flexible
 Non-flammable
 Lightweight
 Signal security
Disadvantage of fiber optic over wire
cable
 Optical fiber is more expensive per meter than copper
 Optical fiber can not be join together as easily as copper
cable. It requires training and expensive splicing and
measurement equipment.
Areas of Application

 Telecommunications
 Local Area Networks
 Cable TV
 CCTV
 Optical Fiber Sensors
 Space applications
 Military applications
THANK YOU