Optical Fiber

Yavari (PhD)

Main ref: G. P. Agrawal, Optical fiber communication systems

Ref: H. Dutton, Understanding optical communication

J. Senior, Optical Fiber Communication
J. Crisp, B. Elliott, Introduction to fiber Optics
S. Kartelopoulos , DWDM
Saleh, Fundamentals of photonics
 Applications of Optical Fibers

1) fiber-optic communications and interconnections

2) fiber sensors
3) guided optical imaging
4) medical applications

 With active dopants, such as neodymium or erbium, fibers with

an optical gain under optical pumping are also used as optical
amplifiers and fiber lasers, opening up many new applications.

2
 Advantages of Optical Communication
1) low loss, longer repeater spacing
2) enormous transmission capacity (large bandwidths)
3) no electrical connection
4) no EMI (electromagnetic interference)
5) better security
6) low weight and small size
7) low material cost

3
 Advantages of Optical Comm.

• Attenuation
advantage

• Bandwidth
advantage

4
Basics of optical fiber transmission
Basics of optical fiber transmission
 Basics of optical fiber transmission

• the transmission of light in optical fiber is

commonly explained using the principle of Total
Internal Reflection.
 Basics of optical fiber transmission

What is an optical fiber?

A glass or plastic fiber that
has the ability to guide light
along its axis.
A fiber cable consists of
three layers:
 core,
 cladding,
 jacket.
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 Fiber Types (SM and MM)

 Multi-Mode: supports
hundreds paths for light.

 Single-Mode: supports a
single path for light

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 Laws of Reflection & Refraction

less dense medium (air)

more dense medium (Glass)

Reflection law: angle of incidence=angle of reflection

Snell’s law of refraction:

n1 sin 1  n2 sin  2
Total internal reflection, Critical angle

 2  90 
n2
n 1 > n2
c
Critical angle

n2
sin  c 
n1
 NA: Numerical Aperture
The numerical aperture of a fiber is defined as the sine of the largest
angle an incident ray can have for total internal reflection in the core.

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 Acceptance Angle
  c  i  i max
i max  a :acceptance angle
i a   c No Guiding
i a   c Guiding
relative refractive index difference between the core
and the cladding
n12  n 22 n1  n 2
 2
 for n1  n 2
2n 2 n1
1
NA  n1  2  2
• Clearly, Δ should be made as large as possible
in order to couple maximum light into the
fiber. However, such fibers are not useful for
the purpose of optical communications
because of a phenomenon known as
multipath dispersion or modal dispersion
ncore  1.5
nclad  1.47
nclad 1 1.47
c  sin1
 sin  78.5
ncore 1.5
NA  (ncore
2
 nclad
2
)0.5  0.3
a  sin 1 NA  sin 1  0.3  17.4
Fiber Bands
 Limitations in Fibers

• Attenuation
- Absorption, Scattering
• Dispersion
- Modal, Chromatic, PMD
• Nonlinear effects
- SPM, XPM, FWM, SBS, SRS

Ref: H. Dutton, Understanding optical communication

 Attenuation (Loss α)
 It is the reduction of light power over the length of the
fiber.

Beer’s Law

adB : signal attenuation per unit length in decibels

L: Fiber length
Attenuation (Loss α)
Attenuation Coefficient
Example: When the mean optical power launched into an 8 km
length of fiber is 120 uW, the mean optical power at the fiber
output is 3 uW

Determine:
(a) the overall signal attenuation or loss in decibels through the
fiber assuming there are no connectors or splices
(b) the signal attenuation per kilometer for the fiber.
(c ) the overall signal attenuation for a 10 km optical link using the
same fiber with splices at 1 km intervals each giving an attenuation
of 1 dB
 Solution:
Pi 120
a ) Signal attenuation : 10 log  10 log  16 dB
Po 3
16 dB
b ) adB   2 dB / km
8 km

c ) adB L  2 10  20 dB
Loss due to nine splices : 9 1dB  9dB
overall signal attenuation for the link : 20  9  29dB
Homework
: Intrinsic and extrinsic abs

Ref: Agrawal
• The primary factors affecting attenuation in
optical fibers are the length of the fiber and
the wavelength of the light.

Attenuation profile

 Pin 
10 log 
Loss (dB / unit length)   Pout 
L
 ALLWave fiber

In a new kind of fiber, known as the dry fiber, the OH ion concentration
is reduced to such low levels that the 1.39-μmpeak almost disappears ( AllWave). Such
fibers can be used to transmitWDM signals over the entire 1.30- to1.65-μm wavelength
range.
• Scattering
Rayleigh scattering:
- caused by small variations in the density of
glass
• Causes a change in direction which usually causes
light to escape from the core
- more scattering at shorter wavelengths
Scattering varies inversely with 4th power of wavelength
 Dispersion

• Even, the laser light consists of a range of

wavelengths.
• Different wavelengths propagate at
slightly different velocities in a fiber.
• A short pulse will become longer due to
pulse spreading (dispersion).
• When dispersion is too large, pulses run
together.
• When dispersion is too large, pulses
interfere with each other.
 Multipath dispersion or modal
dispersion
• Clearly, Δ should be made as large as possible
in order to couple maximum light into the
fiber. However, such fibers are not useful for
the purpose of optical communications
because of a phenomenon known as
“multipath dispersion or modal dispersion”
n12  n 22 n1  n 2
 for  1 or n1 n2
2n 22 n1
1
NA  n1  2  2
Modal Dispersion
Each ray (mode) travels a different distance, so it
arrives at a distant point of the fiber at a different time

Modal Dispersion is zero in Single Mode Fiber

 Multipath dispersion
• Different rays travel along paths of different lengths. As a
result, these rays disperse in time at the output end of the
fiber even if they were coincident at the input end and
traveled at the same speed inside the fiber.
• A short pulse (an impulse) would broaden considerably as
a result of different path lengths.
• One can estimate the extent of pulse broadening simply
by considering the shortest and longest ray paths.
• The shortest path occurs for θi = 0 and is just equal to the
fiber length L.
• The longest path occurs for θi = θa and
has a length L/sinφ c.
• By taking the velocity of propagation v = c/n1, the time
delay is given by
 BL Limitation of step index fibers
• It is clear intuitively that ΔT should be less
than the allocated bit slot (TB = 1/B).
• Thus, an order-of-magnitude estimate of the
bit rate is obtained from the condition
BΔT < 1
 BL Limitation of step index fibers
• This condition provides a rough estimate of a
fundamental limitation of step-index fibers.
• As an illustration, consider an unclad glass fiber with
n1 = 1.5 and n2 = 1.
• The bit rate–distance product of such a fiber is limited
to quite small values since BL<0.4 (Mb/s)-km.
• Considerable improvement occurs for cladded fibers
with a small index step. Most fibers for
communication applications are designed
with Δ < 0.01.
• As an example, BL < 100 (Mb/s)-km for Δ = 2×10^−3.
Such fibers can communicate data at a bit rate of 10
Mb/s over distances up to 10 km and may be suitable
for some local-area networks.
 Modal dispersion in Graded-Index Fiber

• Velocity is lowest in center of core, highest near its

edges.
• The graded index increases the group velocity of higher-
order modes, relative to low-order modes, reducing
dispersion

Refractive index
 GI fibers profile
• The refractive index of the core in graded-index
fibers is not constant but decreases gradually
from its maximum value n1 at the core center to
its minimum value n2 at the core–cladding
interface. Most graded-index fibers are designed
to have a nearly quadratic decrease and are
analyzed by using α-profile, given by

• where a is the core radius. The parameter α

determines the index profile. A step-index profile
is approached in the limit of large α.
• A parabolic-index fiber corresponds to α = 2.
• Homework: It can be show that a parabolic-
index profile leads to nondispersive pulse
propagation within the paraxial aproximation,
why?
Homework:
 Dispersion in Single-Mode Fibers
• Intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers
leads to considerable broadening of short
optical pulses (~ 10 ns/km).
• In the geometrical-optics description, such
broadening was attributed to different paths
followed by different rays.
In the modal description it is related to the
different mode indices (or group velocities)
associated with different modes.
 Dispersion in Single-Mode Fibers
• The main advantage of single-mode fibers is
that intermodal dispersion is absent simply
because the energy of the injected pulse is
transported by a single mode.
• However, pulse broadening does not
disappear altogether. The group velocity
associated with the fundamental mode is
frequency dependent because of chromatic
dispersion
 Dispersion in Single-Mode Fibers
• As a result, different spectral components of
the pulse travel at slightly different group
velocities, a phenomenon referred to as
Group-Velocity Dispersion (GVD), intramodal
dispersion, or simply fiber dispersion

Intramodal dispersion has two contributions,

material dispersion and waveguide
dispersion.
 Chromatic dispersion
1- Material dispersion
due to the dependence of refractive index to
wavelength, n(λ)
2- Waveguide dipersion
due to the different refractive indices of the
core and cladding
long wavelengths: neff~ncladding
short wavelengths: neff~ncore
Different neff cause different velocity

Different neff cause different velocity

Chromatic dispersion
different wavelengths propagate at different Speeds
Chromatic dispesion is measured in ps/nm/Km
(picoseconds of dispersion per nanometer of signal
bandwidth per kilometer of distance travelled).
 Group-Velocity Dispersion (GVD)
• Consider a single-mode fiber of length L.
A specific spectral component at the frequency
(w) would arrive at the output end of the fiber
after a time delay T = L/vg, where vg is the
group velocity, defined as

group index given by

 Group-Velocity Dispersion (GVD)
• The frequency dependence of the group
velocity leads to pulse broadening simply
because different spectral components of the
pulse disperse during propagation and do not
arrive simultaneously at the fiber output.
• If Δω is the spectral width of the pulse, the
extent of pulse broadening for a fiber of
length L is governed by
 Group-Velocity Dispersion (GVD)
GVD parameter determines how much an optical
pulse would broaden on propagation
inside the fiber
In some optical communication systems, the
frequency spread Δω is determined by the range of
wavelengths Δλ emitted by the optical source. It is
customary to use Δλ in place of Δω.
By using ω = 2π c/λ and Δω = (−2π c/λ^2)Δλ

D is called the dispersion parameter and is expressed in

units of ps/(km-nm).
The effect of dispersion on the bit rate B can be
estimated by using the criterion BΔT < 1

By using
For standard silica fibers, D is relatively small in the
wavelength region near 1.3 μm [D ∼ 1 ps/(km-nm)].

For a semiconductor laser, the spectral width Δλ is 2–4 nm

even when the laser operates in several longitudinal modes.

The BL product of such lightwave systems can exceed 100

(Gb/s)-km. Indeed, 1.3-μm telecommunication
systems typically operate at a bit rate of 2 Gb/s with a
repeater spacing of 40–50 km.

The BL product of single-mode fibers can exceed 1 (Tb/s)-km

when singlemode semiconductor lasers are used to reduce Δλ
below 1 nm
The wavelength dependence of D is governed by
the frequency dependence of the mode index n:
Total dispersion D and relative contributions of material dispersion DM and
waveguide dispersion DW for a conventional single-mode fiber. The zero-dispersion
wavelength shifts to a higher value because of the waveguide contribution.
Homework
Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)
- caused by asymmetry and stress in the fiber core
that results in birefringence
- An arbitrarily polarized pulse of light entering the
fiber can be resolved into two components. These
polarization modes will travel at different speeds
through the fiber. It leads to pulse broadening
- PMD is measured in ps/(Km1/2 )

PMD is important over 40 Gbps

 PMD
The degenerate nature of the orthogonally polarized modes
holds only for an ideal single-mode fiber with a perfectly
cylindrical core of uniform diameter.
Real fibers exhibit considerable variation in the shape of their
core along the fiber length.
They may also experience nonuniform stress such that the
cylindrical symmetry of the fiber is broken. Degeneracy
between the orthogonally polarized fiber modes is removed
because of these factors, and the fiber acquires birefringence
 Nonlinear effects
Response of fiber to optical power is nonlinear.
Nonlinear effects appear when the power launched into
fiber is high.

- Change of Refractive index :

Self-Phase Modulation (SPM)
Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM)
Four-Wave Mixing (FWM)
- Stimulated Scattering:
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
 Self-Phase Modulation (SPM)

• Effect of a pulse on its own phase is SPM

• Refractive index, n, varies with intensity of
light.
• Phase and frequency change, when light
intensity changes quickly.
 Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM)

• Effect of a pulse on the phases of

pulses in other channels
• Similar to self-phase modulation
• One channel modulates other light
wavelengths by changing the refractive
index
• XPM only occurs in multi-channel links.
 Four-Wave Mixing (FWM)
• FWM is combination of wavelengths to
produce new wavelengths

• If these products fall on top of another

channel they can cause problems
 Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
• Interaction with molecular vibrations (optical
phonon).
• With two or more wavelength channels, Stimulated
Raman Scattering can cause power transfer from
shorter wavelengths to longer ones
Physically speaking, the beating of the pump and
with the scattered light in these two directions
creates a frequency component at the beat
frequency (wp — ws), which acts as a source that
derives molecular oscillations
 Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)

• Caused by acoustic vibration in glass at high

powers. Interaction between Photon and Acoustic
phonon
• Stimulated Brillouin Scattering is caused by the
presence of the optical signal itself.
• Causes light to scatter back toward transmitter.

The scattered light is shifted in frequency by about

10 GHz for SBS but by 13 THz for SRS) Stokes shift(
The physical process behind Brillouin scattering is
the tendency of materials to become compressed in
the presence of an electric field—a phenomenon
termed electrostriction

For an oscillating electric field at the pump

frequency wp, this process generates an acoustic
wave at some frequency wa.
The energy conservation requires that the Stokes
shift ws=wp-wa
Spontaneous Brillouin scattering can be viewed as
scattering of the pump wave from this acoustic
wave, resulting in creation of a new wave at the
pump frequency ws
Elastic and Inelastic scatt (microscopic theory of light)

• Rayleigh scattering is an example of elastic scattering for

which the frequency (or the photon energy) of scattered
light remains unchanged.
• By contrast, the frequency of scattered light is shifted
downward during inelastic scattering.
Two examples of inelastic scattering are Raman scattering
and Brillouin scattering
• Both of them can be understood as scattering of a photon
to a lower energy photon such that the energy difference
appears in the form of a phonon.
• The main difference between the two is that optical
phonons participate in Raman scattering, whereas acoustic
phonons participate in Brillouin scattering. Both scattering
processes result in a loss of power at the incident
frequency. However, their scattering cross sections are
sufficiently small that loss is negligible at low power levels.
‫برای مطالعه‬
‫‪Q&A‬‬
Types of Fibers:
Multimode
(Core diameter: 50 or 62.5 mm Cladding diameter: 125 mm)
Step-index
Graded-index
Single-mode
(Core diameter: 8-12 mm Cladding diameter: 125 mm)
• If the fiber core is very narrow compared to the
wavelength of the light in use then the light cannot
travel in different modes and thus the fiber is called
“single-mode” or “monomode”.

90
 Fiber Types
refractive
index

SM
Single-Mode

MM-SI
Multi-Mode
Step Index

MM-GI
Multi-Mode
Graded Index

91
 Multi-Mode vs Single-Mode

Multi-Mode Single-Mode
Modes of light Many One

Distance Short Long

Bandwidth Low High

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Photonic Crystal Fibers: Holey Fibers
Left: The first solid core
photonic crystal fiber
prepared by Philip Russell
and coworkers at the
University of Bath in 1996;
an endlessly single mode
fiber. (Courtesy of Philip
Russell)

Above: A commercially
available hollow core
photonic crystal fiber from
Blaze Photonics. (Courtesy
of Philip Russell)

Left: One of the first hollow core photonic crystal

fibers, guiding light by the photonic bandgap
effect (1998) (Courtesy of Philip Russell)

95
 Photonic Crystal Fibers: Holey Fibers

(a) A solid core PCF. Light is index guided. The cladding has a hexagonal array of
holes. d is the hole diameter and L is the array pitch, spacing between the
holes (b) and (c) A hollow core PCF. Light is photonic bandgap (PBG) guided.

96
Optical fiber fabrication
EDFA
Soliton Propagation in Optical Fibers
Optical solitons
Optical soliton
Optical soliton
Optical soliton
Ref: Agrawal
End