Signal Degradation in Optical

Fibers
Unit 1
 Signal degradation in optical fibers

• Signal attenuation (fiber loss or signal loss):

important property of fiber
– Determines the max. repeaterless distance between Tr. &
Rr.

• Signal distortion :
causes pulses to broaden
limits BW (information carrying capacity of the
fiber)
 Attenuation

• Basic mechanisms are:

1. Absorption :– due to fiber material and atomic
defects, impurity atoms

2. Scattering :– material and structural

imperfection

3. Radiative loss :- perturbation of fiber geometry

(both at macroscopic and microscopic levels )
 Attenuation (fiber loss)
• Power loss along a fiber:

Z=0 Z= l
 p l
P(0) mW P(l )  P(0)e mw

As light propagates – its power decreases exponentially with

distance,
P(z) = P(0)𝒆−𝜶𝒑𝒛
𝟏 𝑷(𝟎)
where 𝜶𝒑 = 𝒍𝒏 is attenuation coefficient
𝒛 𝑷(𝒛)
 Attenuation units
In decibels/km,
10 𝑃(0)
𝛼 𝑑𝐵 𝑘𝑚 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔
𝑧 𝑃(𝑧)

10  P(0) 
 (dB/km)  log    4.343 P km -1

z  P ( z ) 

One of the derived unit commonly used in OFC is dBm

Power level in dBm:
𝑃(𝑚𝑊)
P(dBm)= 10𝑙𝑜𝑔
1𝑚𝑊
 Fiber loss in dB/km

z=0 Z=l
P(0)[dBm]

P(l )[dBm]  P(0)[dBm]   [dB/km]  l[km] [3-3]

Where [dBm] or dB milliwat is 10log(P [mW]).

 Problem
Consider a 30 km long optical fiber with an attenuation of 0.4 dB/km
at 1310 nm. Find the optical output power if 200 μW of optical power
is launched into the fiber.
Solution:
Find input power in dBm
𝑃𝑖𝑛 (𝑊) 200𝑋10−6 𝑊
Pin(dBm)=10𝑙𝑜𝑔 = 10log
1𝑚𝑊 1𝑋10−3 𝑊
= -7.0dBm
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 (𝑊) 𝑃𝑖𝑛 (𝑊)
Pout(dBm)=10𝑙𝑜𝑔 = 10log − 𝛼𝑧
1𝑚𝑊 1𝑚𝑊
=-7.0dBm-(0.4dB/km)(30km) = -19.0 dBm
In unit of Watts, the output power is
P(30km)=10-19.0/10(1mW) = 12.6x10-3mW = 12.6 μW
 Attenuation

Power
100 10 2 1 0.5 0.1 0.01 0.001
(mW)
dBm 20 10 3 0 -3 -10 -20 -30
 Absorption
• Absorption Caused by 3 different mechanisms
1. Absorption by atomic defects in glass composition
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms
3. Intrinsic absorption by basic constituent of fiber material

• Atomic defects are imperfections like

eg.: Missing molecules
high density clusters of atom groups
oxygen defects in glass structure

Absorption due to atomic defects is negligible compared to 2

other mechanisms
 Atomic defects
• They are significant, if exposed to ionizing radiation

Eg.: Nuclear reactor environment

Medical radiation therapies
Space missions passing through Van Allen belts
Accelerator instrumentation

• Radiation damages a material by changing its internal

structure, the damage effects depends on:

– energy of ionizing particles or rays (Ex.

electrons, neutrons or gamma rays)
– radiation flux (dose rate)
– fluence (particles/cm2)
 Atomic defects..
• Total dose a material receives is expressed in rad(Si) -
a measure of radiation absorbed in bulk silicon
1rad(Si) = 100 erg/g = 0.01 J/kg

• Radiation creates atomic defects or attn. centres

• ↑ radiation → ↑ attn. as shown in fig.

• Attn. centres will relax or anneal out with time as

shown in fig
 Extrinsic Absorption
• Dominant absorption factor in Silica fibers is due to:

– Presence of impurities such as iron, chromium, cobalt and

vanadium
– Also dissolved OH- (water) ion in glass causes losses 1 to 10
dB/km
– Transition metal imp. levels in the range of 1ppm in glass
fibers made in 1970s results in 1 - 4 dB/km
– Losses are due to electron transfer between energy levels
of ions or charge transitions between ions
 Extrinsic Absorption..

• Impurity levels in vapour deposition process are -

usually 1-2 order of magnitude lower

• The absorption peaks of various transition metal

impurities tend to be broad and several peaks may
overlap, which further broadens the absorption
region

• OH- ion concentration of few ppb are required if attn.

to be less than 20 dB/km
 Extrinsic Absorption..

• Early optical fibers had high levels of OH- ions –

resulted in large absorption peaks occurring at 1240,
1380, 950, 725nm

• The peaks and valleys in the attn. curve resulted in

designation of transmission Windows

• By reducing OH- content (around 1 ppb)

0.4 dB/km - 1310nm
> 0.25 dB/km - 1550nm
 Intrinsic absorption
• Associated with basic fiber material (pure SiO2)

• It is a principal physical factor that defines the transparency

window of a material over a specified spectral region

• It sets fundamental lower limit for any particular material

• It results from
– electronic absorption bands in the UV region and
– atomic vibration bands in the near-IR region
 Intrinsic absorption..

• The UV edge of the electron absorption bands

of both amorphous and crystalline materials
follow the empirical relation-

𝐸
𝛼𝑈𝑉 = 𝐶𝑒 𝐸0 − Urbach’s rule

E - photon energy
C, E0 - empirical constants
See figure..
 Intrinsic absorption..

• Since E is inversely proportional to λ

– UV absorption decays exponentially with increase
in λ
– UV loss contribution is expressed as a function of
mole fraction 𝑥 of GeO2 as
154.2𝑥 −2 4.63
𝛼𝑈𝑉 = X10 𝑒𝑥𝑝
46.6𝑥+60 λ
 IR region above 1.2µm
• Loss is predominantly determined by OH- ions

• Inherent IR absorption is associated with the

characteristic vibration frequency of particular chemical
bond between the atoms of fiber

• An empirical relation for IR absorption in dB/km for

GeO2-SiO2 glass is
11
−48.48
𝛼𝐼𝑅 = 7.81x10 𝑒𝑥𝑝
λ
 Intrinsic absorption..

• These mechanisms result in a wedge-shaped

spectral loss characteristics

• Within this wedge, losses as low as 0.148

dB/km at 1.57 µm in a SM fiber have been
measured.
• Absorption curve shown in figure 3.3 is for
GeO2 doped fiber
 Scattering Losses
• Glass is composed of randomly connected network of
molecules
• Scattering losses arises in glass from microscopic variations
in
– material density
• Regions in which molecular density is higher or lower than average
density
– Compositional fluctuations
• Several oxides in glass has compositional fluctuations leading to
change in refractive index variations over distances smaller than
wavelength – Rayleigh scattering (similar to blue sky scattering)
– Structural inhomogeneties and defects at manufacturing level
• Trapped gas bubbles, crystallized regions in the glass
• Lower than intrinsic Rayleigh scattering loss
Combination of IR, UV and Scattering
loss for MM fibers
Combination of IR, UV and Scattering
loss for SM fibers

MM fibers suffer more loss

compared to SM fibers
owing to:
• Higher dopant
concentration
• Greater compositional
fluctuation
• Higher order mode
losses
 Bending losses
• Radiative losses occur when fiber undergoes a
bend of finite radius of curvature
• Types of bends
– Macroscopic bends (corners)
• Bends with radii large compared with fiber diameter
– Random microscopic bends
• Cause - by non-uniformities in the fiber or non uniform
pressure during cabling of fiber
• Effect - Radiation loss from mode coupling
Macrobending Losses
Microbending losses
To avoid microbending losses
 Core and cladding losses
• Core and Clad do have
– different RI
– different composition
– Different attenuation coefficients (𝛼1 , 𝛼2 )
leading to losses for a mode of order (v,m)
𝑃𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑃𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑑
𝛼𝑣𝑚 = 𝛼1 + 𝛼2
𝑃 𝑃
Dispersion
Signal distortion in fibers
 Signal distortion..
• Causes of signal distortion
– Intermodal delay
• Each mode has different group velocity at a single freq
– Intramodal/ Chromatic/ Group velocity dispersion
• Material dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion
– Polarization mode dispersion
– Higher-order dispersion effects
NOTE: Group velocity is the speed at which energy in a particular mode travels.
Intramodal dispersion due to spectral width
 Modal Dispersion
High order mode Low order mode

Broadened
Cladding light pulse
Light pulse
Intensity Core
Intensity

Axial
Spread, 

t t
0

Schematic illustration of light propagation in a slab dielectric waveguide. Light pulse

entering the waveguide breaks up into various modes which then propagate at different
group velocities down the guide. At the end of the guide, the modes combine to
constitute the output light pulse which is broader than the input light pulse.
© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)
 Intermodal distortion
• Also called Modal delay
• Present only in MM fibers
• Each mode has different group velocity at a single
frequency
• Steeper the angle, higher is the mode no. and slower is the
axial group velocity
• Variation in group velocities results in group delay spread
• Calculated as the difference between travel Tmax of the
higher order mode and Tmin that of fundamental mode for a
fiber length L,
𝑛1 𝐿 𝐿𝑛1 2
∆𝑇 = 𝑇𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑇𝑚𝑖𝑛 = −𝐿 = ∆
𝑐 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑𝑐 𝑐𝑛2
 Modal Dispersion..
• Fiber capacity is determined by BL (bit rate
distance product)
• For the pulses to be distinguishable at receiver,
the pulse spread should be less than 1/B
• In general, ∆T<1/B for high performance
𝑛2 𝑐
• Substituting in previous eqn, 𝐵𝐿 <
𝑛1 2 ∆
• For SI fibers, BL=20Mbps-km and for GI
BL=1Gbps-km
 Various orders of dispersion
• Wave propagation constant, β, is a function of
wavelength and hence angular freq.
• Expanding β to third order using Taylor’s series
𝛽 𝜔 = 𝛽0 𝜔0 + 𝛽1 𝜔0 𝜔 − 𝜔0
1
+ 𝛽2 𝜔0 𝜔 − 𝜔0 2
2
1
+ 𝛽3 𝜔0 𝜔 − 𝜔0 3
6
 Various orders of dispersion..
Let distance travelled along the fiber, z, then
– 𝛽0 𝑧 – phase shift of propagating wave
– 𝛽1 𝜔0 𝑧 – Produces a group delay, τg=z/Vg where
𝜕𝛽 −1
Vg=1/β1 is the group velocity
𝜕𝜔
– 𝛽2 is known as GVD parameter, owing to group
velocity dispersion, GVD, caused by
2𝜋𝑐
𝐷 = − 2 𝛽2
𝜆
– 𝛽3 is known as Third order dispersion (TOD).
Significant at the wavelength at which 𝛽2 is zero
 Material dispersion

• Material dispersion is
due to to n (index of
refraction) varying
wrt λ shown in fig
• Pulse spread for a
source of spectral
width, σλ is
L  d 2 n
g   2  L  Dmat ( )
c d
 Material Dispersion
Input Cladding
v g ( 1 )
Core Output
Emitter v g ( 2 )
Very short
light pulse

Intensity Intensity Intensity

Spectrum, ² 
Spread, ² 

 t t
1 o 2 0 

All excitation sources are inherently non-monochromatic and emit within a

spectrum, ² , of wavelengths. Waves in the guide with different free space
wavelengths travel at different group velocities due to the wavelength dependence
of n1. The waves arrive at the end of the fiber at different times and hence result in
a broadened output pulse.
© 1999 S .O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)
 Material dispersion for Silica

Material
dispersion can
be reduced by
either
choosing
sources with
narrower
spectral
output widths
or by
operating at
longer
wavelengths
 Waveguide dispersion

Due to
difference
in RI of core
and clad,
power
propagating
in clad is
faster than
in core,
hence pulse
spread
occurs even
for same
wavelength
Chromatic dispersion
• If Light signal energy occupies two orthogonal polarization
states then it causes PMD
• Each polarization mode will encounter different refractive
index
• Each mode will travel with different velocity
Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

Each polarization state

has a different
velocity  PMD
 Polarization Mode dispersion
Intensity
t
Output light pulse
z 
n1 y // y Core Ex

 = Pulse spread
Ex Ey
n1 x // x Ey

t
E
Input light pulse

Suppose that the core refractive index has different values along two orthogonal
directions corresponding to electric field oscillation direction (polarizations). We can
take x and y axes along these directions. An input light will travel along the fiber with Ex
and Ey polarizations having different group velocities and hence arrive at the output at
different times

© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)