EE 230: Optical Fiber Communication Lecture 4

Fiber Dispersion

From the movie

Warriors of the Net
Types of Dispersion
• Modal dispersion: different modes
propagate at different group velocities
• Material dispersion: the index of
refraction of the medium changes with
wavelength
• Waveguide dispersion: index change
across waveguide means that different
wavelengths have different delays
• Polarization mode dispersion: if
waveguide is birefringent
Definitions

−1
Group velocity  ∂β 
vg =  
 ∂ω 

Group delay ∂β 1 ∂β
τ= =
∂ω c ∂k
Dispersion ∂τ
D=
∂λ
Wave Packet Construction
Group and Phase Velocity
Transform Limited Frequency Spread

Rectangular Pulse Pulse modulated Sine wave

Optics-Hecht & Zajac

Gaussian modulated Sine wave
Spectral properties of digitally modulated
signals1
1 0 1 1 0 0 1

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No spectral component at the clock frequency

For Non-Return to Zero Encoded Data
 Pulse Propagation through Fibers

Response of a multi-mode fiber to a single

short pulse

Broadening of a short pulse after transmission

through different types of fibers

Fundamentals of Photonics - Saleh and Teich

Material Dispersion

Refractive Index of Pure Silica and its derivatives

Material Dispersion Parameter for pure silica

and germanium doped silica

Optical Fiber Communications-Keiser

Fiber Optic Communications-Palais

Zero Dispersion Slope

Fiber Optics Communication Technology-Mynbaev & Scheiner

Fiber Dispersion
Dispersion:The change in speed of propagation with wavelength

Pulse Degradation from Dispersion

Typical fiber Dispersion Curve

Ray optics View of the origin of waveguide dispersion
Polarization Mode Dispersion

Polarization Maintaining Fiber

Non-Polarization Maintaining Fiber

Random power transfer occurs between different polarization modes

as the pulse propagates, if the two modes have different propagation velocities
then the pulse will broaden
Representative Fiber Characteristics
Dispersion for various Fiber Types
Dispersion Shifted and Dispersion
Flattened Fibers

Chromatic Dispersion Parameters of Waveguide Dispersion mechanism

a singlemode fiber
As λ ⇑, Mode field diameter ⇑
More of the mode travels in the cladding.
Cladding index is lower so pulse velocity ⇑
resulting in dispersion ⇓

Fundamentals of Photonics - Saleh and Teich

Comparison of Dispersion Characteristics
Propagation of Gaussian Pulses

Input Pulse Output Pulse

chirped and broadened

β2<0 for standard single mode silica fiber

and Ld ~ 1800 km at 2.5 Gb/s and ~115 km at 10 Gb/s

Input Pulse After some distance Upon further propagation

Already Positively the chirp is removed the pulse will continue to broaden
Chirped and the pulse assumes its and acquire chirp.
minimum possible width

Optical Networks a Practical Perspective-Ramaswami and Sivarajan