Dispersion in Optical Fibers

Henrique Salgado
December, 2007

Phase velocity

A monochromatic wave travelling in the z-direction may be written as

E(z, t) = E0 ej(tz)

(1)

is the wave frequency

is the propagation constant

1.1

Definition of phase velocity

The velocity of an observer must maintain to travel with the field at constant
phase
t z = constant

(2)

Differentiating the previous equation and solving for dz/dt gives the phase
velocity as,

dz
= vp =
dt

(3)

The phase velocity characterizes only the rate of phase change in space,
not the rate of power or envelope propagation, the latter is characterized by
the group velocity.

1.2

Group velocity

A modulated signal is not monochromatic. Different components travel

through the fiber with generally different phase velocities, and therefore,
accumulate different phase shifts which gives origin to phase distortion.
Group velocity is, by definition, the velocity of the envelope (amplitude
modulation of an AM signal) of the signal.
AM optical signal
Let us consider an AM optical signal given by
EAM (t, z = 0) = E0 [(1 + m cos(1 t)] cos(c t)
E: field amplitude
m: modulation index
1

(4)

1 : modulation frequency
c : light (carrier) frequency (1 c
Expanding the cosine function using the Euler formula gives
n
o 1 jc t


m  j1 t
EAM (t, z = 0) = E0 1 +
e
+ ej1 t
e
+ ejc t
2
2
After some manipulation the previous equation can be written as
n
o
m  j(1 +c )t
e
+ ej(c 1 )t
EAM (t, z = 0) = E0 Re ejc t +
2

(5)

(6)

This signal contains three components at frequencies, c , c 1 and c +1 .

Each of these components will travel at its own phase velocity and accumulate
its own phase velocity.
It is convenient to write the () as a Taylor series around the carrier
frequency
...
c ) + 1 (
c )2 + 1 ( c )3 + . . .
() = c + (
2
6

=
 2 =
 c

=
2
...  3 =c
= 3

(7)

=c

c ):
Neglecting dispersion () c + (
1 = c
(c 1 ) = c

(8)

1.
where =
At a distance z in the fiber
o
n
m
m
EAM (t, z) = E0 Re ejc tz + ej[(c 1 )t(c )z] + ej[(c +1 )t(c +)z]
2
2
= E0 cos(t c z) [1 + m cos(1 t z)]
(9)
Phase shift accumulated by carrier is c z, while the phase shift accumulated by the modulation is equal to z. The group velocity, vg is defined as
the velocity one must maintain to observe a constantt phase of the envelope.
When z = vg t, 1 t z must be constant:
1 t z = const, t
1 vg t = const, t
1 t
This equation has a solution if and only if const = 0 in which case
 1
1

vg = =

1.3

(10)

(11)

Chromatic dispersion in single-mode fibers

The dominant dispersion mechanism in single-mode fibers is the so-called

chromatic dispersion: different light colors propagate with different velocites. Mathematically, the chromatic dispersion can be characterized either
by or by the group velocity dispersion (GVD) coefficient, usually denoted
by D.
2

Pulse spread
If is the propagation delay at a particular value of :
 
L

= ,
= L
=L
vg

vg

(12)

L is the length of the fiber and vg the group velocity generally frequency
dependent.
If a signal has a frequency spectral width of , the difference in propagation time of parts of this signal at the opposite extremes of the spectrum
will be
 
 
L
=   = ||
(13)

L and the signal spectrum width

Thus , the pulse spread is proportional to ,
.
The pulse spread is usually specified in terms of , the spectral width
of the signal expressed in wavelength and the Group Velocity Dispersion
coefficient, D:
= |D| L
(14)
with GVD given by
1
1
2c
=
= 2
L
L



2c
2c

= 2
=

D =

The parameter D has units of (s/m2 ) or (ps/(nmkm).

Considering that
 
d
1 dvg
d
1

=
= 2
=
d
d vg
vg d

(15)

(16)

this equation implies that at the point of zero dispersion, D , where = 0

the group velocity, vg as a function of has a minimum (the derivative is
zero). For wavelengths < D , > 0 and the fiber is said to exhibit normal
dispersion. In this regime (dvg /d) < 0, which means high-frequency ( >
0blue shifted) components of an optical pulse travel slower (vg < 0), than
the lower frequency (red-shifted) components. By contrast, the opposite
occurs in the so-called anomalous dispersion regime in which < 0.
In digital applications chromatic dispersion gives rise to intersymbol interference, whereas in analogue applications dispersion is usually quantified
in terms of an induced power penalty. The latter is described in the next
section.

Dispersion penalty in analogue applications

To quantify the impact in analogue systems we start from the Talylor series
expansion of the propagation constant and consider the first three terms of
this series.
c ) + 1 (
c )2
() = c + (
2

(17)

(c ) = c
2
1 + 1
(c 1 ) = c
2 1
Repeating the calculations to obtain EAM (t, z) at a distance z in the fiber,
this time including dispersion, we get
n
1 2
m

EAM (t, z) = E0 Re ejc tz + ej [(c 1 )t(c 1+ 2 1 )z ]

2
o
1 2
m j [(c +1 )t(c +1+

1 )z ]
2
+
(18)
e
2
To simplify the calculation we use the complex notation and write
n
1 2
m

EAM (t, z) = E0 ej(c tz) + ej [(c 1 )t(c 1 + 2 1 )z ]

2
m j [(c +1 )t(c +
2 )z ]
1 + 1
1
2
+
(19)
e
2 n
io


h
m j(1 t
2
1 z)

e
+ ej(1 t1 z) ej 1 z/2
= E0 ej(c tz) 1 +
2
h
n
io
m
2 z/2
j(c tz)
j

1
1 + cos(1 t 1 z)e
= E0 e
(20)
2
At the end of the fiber z = L, the photodetector responds to this signal with
a current that is proportional to square of the electric field,

EAM (t, L)EAM

(t, L)
2
i h
i
h
m
2
1 L)ej 1 + m cos(1 t
1 L)e+j
= E0 1 + cos(1 t
2
2
2
1 L) cos() + E 2 m cos2 (1 t
1 L)(21)
= E02 + E02 m cos(1 t
0
8

iAM (t) =

2 L/2 is the phase shift accumulated by the sidebands over the

where =
1
length L. The first term is a dc component and the third term, if expanded,
contains a dc plus a component at the frequency 21 . The second term is
the term of interest at the signal frequency 1 .
1 L) cos()
iAM (1 ) = E02 m cos(1 t

(22)

From this equation it can be verified that when = (2n + 1)/2 with n =
0, 1, 2, . . . the amplitude of the received signal goes to zero and this occurs
periodically along the fiber. The first null occurs for
2 Lnull,1
D2 12 Lnull,1

1
=
=
2
2c
2
2
4

(23)

Penalty (dB)

10

15
0

4
Fiber length (km)

Figure 1: Dispersion penalty for a 60 GHz signal over a fiber with D =

17 ps nm1 km1 .
That is for
Lnull,1 =

c
2D2 f12

(24)

The above figure shows the dispersion penalty for a fiber with D = 17 ps
nm km1 operating at = 1.55 m whereas the modulating signal is f1 =
60 GHz, the first null ocurring at 1.02 km.
1