Light Source materials Light Source materials

• Semiconductor in active layer must have
direct band gap
• None of the single element semiconductors
are direct band gap materials
• Binary compounds like III-V, and various
combinations of ternary and quaternary are
direct band gap materials.
• For 800-900 nm ternary alloy Ga1-xAlxAs is used
• For 1.0-1.7μm quaternary alloy In1-xGaxAsyP1-y
is used
• For simplicity always the subscripts are omitted
• Basically a close match between the crystal lattice
parameters of the adjoining hetero junctions needed
– to reduce interfacial defects and
– to minimize strains as temperature increases

LED spectral patterns for 1300 nm

Typical characteristics of surface
and edge-emitting LEDs

LED Type Material Wavelengt Operating Fiber Nominal

h (nm) current coupled FWHM
(mA) power (nm)
(μW)
SLED GaAlAs 850 110 40 35
ELED InGaAsP 1310 100 15 80
SLED InGaAsP 1310 110 30 150

Edge emitting LED’s have slightly narrow line width

Quantum efficiency Internal Quantum Efficiency

• Carrier injected at device contacts
• Recombination of pairs with charge
neutrality takes place
• As carrier injection stops, carrier density
returns to equilibrium based on n=noe-t/τ
• Recombination can be either
– radiative or
– non-radiative (Self absorption, recombination at
heterojunction interface, etc..)
Internal quantum efficiency is the ratio
between the radiative recombination rate and
the sum of radiative and nonradiative
recombination rates
int  Rr /( Rr  Rnr )
For exponential decay of excess carriers, the
radiative recombination lifetime is n/Rr and
the nonradiative recombination lifetime is
n/Rnr
 Internal Quantum Efficiency External Quantum Efficiency
Ratio of photons emitted from LED to that of number of internally generated photons
If the current injected into the LED is I, then n2
the total number of recombination per second n1
Light
is, emission
Rr+Rnr = I/q where, q is the charge of an cone
electron. That is, Rr = intI/q.
Since Rr is the total number of photons
generated per second, the optical power
External Efficiency for air
generated internal to the LED depends on the Fresnel Transmission Coefficient n2=1, n1 = n
internal quantum efficiency
T (0)  4n1n 2 ext  1
n1  n2  2 n(n  1) 2

Frequency response of an Frequency response showing electrical and

optical 3-dB Bandwidths
optical source
• If the drive current is modulated at a frequency f,
the optical output power will vary as
P ( f )  Po / 1  (2f ) 2
where Po is the power emitted at zero frequency

• Bandwidth of an LED can be defined in either

– Electrical terms, p(f)=I2(f)/R Optical Power  I(f); Electrical Power  I2(f)
– Optical terms - detected current is directly
proportional to optical power Electrical Loss = 2 x Optical Loss

Drawbacks of LED

• Large line width (30-40 nm) • Light Amplification by ‘Stimulated Emission’

• Large beam width (Low coupling to the fiber) and Radiation (L A S E R)
• Low output power • Coherent light (stimulated emission)
• Low E/O conversion efficiency • Narrow beam width (very focused beam)
• High output power (amplification)
Advantages • Narrow line width because only few
• Robust wavelength will experience a positive
feedback and get amplified (optical filtering)
• Linear
 Fundamental Lasing Operation Howling Dog Analogy

• Absorption: An atom in the ground state might

absorb a photon emitted by another atom, thus
making a transition to an excited state.

• Spontaneous Emission: random emission of a

photon, which enables the atom to relax to the
ground state.

• Stimulated Emission: An atom in an excited state

might be stimulated to emit a photon by another
incident photon.

Laser Transition Processes Transitions…

Energy absorbed Random Coherent release

from the release of energy of energy
incoming photon

Identical Photons…

In Stimulated Emission, incident and

stimulated photons will have
• Identical energy  Identical wavelength
 Narrow linewidth
• Identical direction  Narrow beam width
• Identical phase  Coherence
• Identical polarization
 Laser Diodes
• For BWs greater than 200 MHz, SC Laser
diodes preferred because:
– Response time less than 1 ns
– Spectral widths of 2 nm or less
– Coupling several tens of mW
– Useful luminescent power into small core fibers
and with small MFD
Fabry-Perot Resonator cavity
• Longitudinal modes: exists along the
length of the cavity
• Length of cavity determine the Principal
structure of frequency spectrum
• As Length is very much larger than lasing
wavelength (1micron) many longitudinal
modes exist.
Laser diodes..
• Laser diodes are multi-layered
heterojunction devices
• Apart from carrier and optical confinement,
current confinement in a small lasing cavity
is additionally required
• Dielectric reflectors at rear end (6 layer
reflectors – 98% reflectivity)
– Reduce the optical loss
– Reduce the threshold lasing current density
– Increases the External quatum efficiency
• Lateral modes: lie in the plane parallel to the
plane of PN junction.
• These modes depend on the sidewall preparation
and width of the cavity – it determines the lateral
profile of the beam
• Transverse Modes: the beam profile is in the
direction perpendicular to the plane of PN junction
– these modes determine the radiation pattern and
threshold current density of the laser
 Resonant wavelengths for various mirror reflectivity
Mirror Reflections in Fabry-Perot resonator

Wavelengths of integral cavity length interfere constructively

and others destructively

How a Laser Works.. DFB laser

Lasing threshold
Modes and Lasing action

• Lasing is the condition at which light • At lasing threshold, steady state oscillation
amplification occurs takes place,
– Magnitude and phase of returned wave must be
• Requirement: Population inversion
same as original wave.
• For a given mode
• Stimulated emission rate is proportional to
intensity of radiation I(z)
• Condition to reach threshold is point at
which optical gain is equal to total loss,
 Optical output vs. drive current
Lasing…
• Mode that satisfies above equation reaches
threshold first

• At the onset of this condition, all additional

energy introduced into Laser, should
augment the growth of this particular mode

Threshold current….

External quantum efficiency &

Rate equations of Laser
Resonant frequency
• For a carrier confinement region of depth d,

• Gain and frequency – Gaussian relationship

• = stimulated emission + spontaneous
emission + photon loss
• This equation governs the number of
photons, ϕ

Fabry-Perot laser spectrum Laser threshold depends on

Temperature
 Structures confining Current Laser diode structures…
• In addition to transverse optical and carrier confinement, Types:
current must be restricted laterally Gain guided structures
Index guided strucutres
• Current confinement could be achieved by many methods Gain induced guide (gain guided laser):
with varying degree of success •A narrow electrode stripe (< 8 μm wide) runs along the
length of the diode
•Injection of carriers alters the R.I. of active layer below the
• All strive for the same goals of stripe
Limiting the no. of lateral modes •profile of the these injected carriers
Stabilizing the lateral gain and
– creates a weak, complex waveguide
Ensuring a relatively low Ith
– confines the light laterally

Laser diode structures… Laser diode Structures

• It emits > 100 mW, but has strong instability,

highly astigmatic, two peaked beams
• Index Guided Lasers:
– Fabricated in lateral direction
– Variation in RI controls lateral modes
• In positive index guide, central region has
higher RI than outer regions
• In negative index guide, the central region has
lower RI than the outer regions

Buried hetero structures

Index guide structures
• Buried hetero structures
• Selectively diffused construction
• A varying thickness structure
• Bent layer configuration

Short wavelength (800-900nm) GaAlAs and

Long wavelength (1300-1600nm) InGaAsP
Positive-index optical wave confining structure Four basic methods for achieving current confinement
a) Preferential-dopant diffusion b) proton implantation c) inner-stripe
a) selectively diffused b) varying thickness c)bent- confinement d) regrowth of back-biased pn junctions
layer types

Energy-band diagram for a quantum layer Single mode laser

in a multiple quantum well (Vertical cavity surface emitting laser)

Time-resolved laser spectra

Laser structures
with built-in
freq resonator
A) DFB b)
DBR c) DR
 Why Modulation
• A communication link is established by transmission
of information reliably
• Optical modulation is embedding the information on
the optical carrier for this purpose
• The information can be digital (1,0) or analog (a
continuous waveform)
• The bit error rate (BER) is the performance measure
in digital systems
• The signal to noise ratio (SNR) is the performance
measure in analog systems
Types of Optical Modulation
• Direct modulation is done by superimposing
the modulating (message) signal on the driving
current
• External modulation, is done after the light is
generated; the laser is driven by a dc current
and the modulation is done after that
separately
• Both these schemes can be done with either
digital or analog modulating signals

Direct Modulation Optical Output vs. Drive Current of a Laser

• The message signal (ac) is superimposed on the

bias current (dc) which modulates the laser
• Robust and simple, hence widely used
• Issues: laser resonance frequency, chirp, turn on
delay, clipping and laser nonlinearity

Modulation methods Analog LED Modulation

LED LASER

Note:
No threshold
current
No clipping
No turn on
delay

I B'  I B I B'  I B  Ith

Modulation index (depth) m  I I B'

 Laser Digital Modulation Turn on Delay (lasers)
Optical
Power
(P) P(t) • When the driving current suddenly jumps from
Ith low (I1 < Ith) to high (I2 > Ith) , (step input),
I1
there is a finite time before the laser will turn
on
I2
t
• This delay limits bit rate in digital systems
Current (I)
• Can you think of any solution?
I(t)

 I I 
t d   sp ln  2 1   I I 
t d   sp ln  2 1 
 I 2  I th   I 2  I th 
t

I2
• Input current Relaxation oscillation peak
– Assume step input
I1

• Electron density
– steadily increases until
threshold value is
reached

Turn
• Output optical power on Resonance Freq.
(fr)
– Starts to increase only Delay
(td)
after the electrons reach
the threshold

Concept of external optical

modulator External Modulated Spectrum

• Typical spectrum is double side band

• Modulation and light generation are separated • However, single side band is possible which is
• Offers much wider bandwidth  up to 60 GHz useful at extreme RF frequencies
• More expensive and complex
• Used in high end systems
Electro optical Lithium Niobate Laser transmitter
EO modulator