Fiber Optics

And Laser
Instrumentation

Dr. Biswajit Barman

Assistant Professor,
EIE Department, NIT Nagaland
Syllabus
 MODULE 1:
OPTICAL FIBERS AND THEIR
PROPERTIES
Introduction
• The term ‘Fiber Optics’ was coined by N.S. Kapany in 1956 at Imperial College
of Science and Technology, London, when he developed flexible fiberscope.
A Fiber-Optic Communication System
Advantages of Fiber-Optic Systems
• Much higher transmission bandwidth than that of cable or microwave systems.

• Small size and light weight of optical fibers coupled with low transmission loss (~
0.2 dB/km) reduces the system cost.

• Free from any radio-frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference

(EMI).
Schematic of Optical Fibers
• An optical fiber is a very thin strand of silica glass
resembling to human hair.

• It consists of two parts: the core and the cladding.

• The core is a narrow cylindrical strand of glass,

and the cladding is a tubular jacket surrounding it.
• The core has a (slightly) higher refractive index than the cladding.

• The jacket (coating) protects the core and cladding from shocks and does not have any
optical properties that might affect the propagation of light within the fiber optic cable.
Review of Fundamental Laws of Optics
• What is refractive index (n)?

• It is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum

(c) to the speed of light in the medium (v).
• Snell’s Law

• Critical Angle

• Total Internal Reflection

(evanescent wave)
Light Propagation In Step-index Fibers

• Core diameter, 2a = 50 – 100 µm of refractive index n1, & cladding diameter, 2b =

120 – 140 µm of refractive index n2 (n1 > n2).

• Here, the refractive index n is a step function of the radial distance r.

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 Continued…

• Assume that the fiber is placed in air of refractive index na (n1 > n2 > na)

• What is the allowed range of α?

• For TIR, ϕ > ϕc and hence ϕc + θm = 90˚

• Using Snell’s Law,

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Continued…

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Single-mode & Multi-mode Fibers
• Mode is described by the nature of propagation of electromagnetic waves in a
wave guide. Based on the modes of propagation, the fibers are classified into two
types viz. single & multi-mode fibers.

• Single-mode Fiber
• It has very small core diameter so that it can
allow only one mode of propagation.
• The cladding diameter is very large compared Fig. Typical Structure of a Single-mode Fiber

to the core diameter.

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Multi-mode Fibers
• They are made by multi-component glass
materials.

• The core diameter is larger than the diameter

of the single mode fibers, so that it can allow
many modes to propagate through it.
Structure details:
Core diameter: 50 – 350 μm
Cladding diameter: 125 – 500 μm
Protective layer: 250 – 1100 μm
Numerical aperture: 0.12 to 0.5
Bandwidth: Less than 50 MHz km
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Step & Graded Index Fibers
Step Index Fibers Graded Index Fibers

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Transmission Characteristics
• Transmission characteristics of optical fiber are the properties that affect the
performance of optical fiber as a medium for data transmission.

• Attenuation (units = dB/km) in fiber optics is the reduction in intensity of the light
beam with respect to distance travelled through a transmission medium.

• Signal attenuation is defined as the ratio of optical input power (Pi) to the optical
output power (Po).
• It is caused by absorption, scattering, and bending losses.
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Absorption Losses
• Intrinsic absorption
• It is caused by basic fiber material properties. It results from the electronic and vibrational
resonances associated with specific molecules of glass.

• Intrinsic absorption sets the minimal level of absorption.

• Extrinsic absorption
• It results from the impurities introduced into the fiber material. Trace metal impurities, such as
iron, nickel, and chromium, OH- ions are introduced into the fiber during fabrication.

• It is caused by the electronic transition of these metal ions from one energy level to another.

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Scattering Losses
1. Rayleigh scattering
• It is a loss mechanism arising from the microscopic variations in the density of the fiber
material.

• Glass is a randomly connected network of molecules. It has regions of higher and lower
molecular density areas. These variations in the density lead to the random fluctuation of
the refractive index.

• Light traveling through the fiber interacts with the density areas as shown and thereby
gets partially scattered in all direction.

• It occurs when the size of the scattering centers is much smaller than the wavelength
of light & is inversely proportional to the fourth power of wavelength of light.
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Scattering Losses
2. Mie scattering

• Irregularities at the core–cladding interface, refractive index difference along the

fiber, fluctuation in the core diameter, larger size of impurity elements, etc. may
lead to additional scattering losses.

• These are known as losses due to Mie scattering.

• It occurs when the size of the scattering centers is comparable to or larger than
the wavelength of light.

• Mie scattering is less wavelength-dependent and more angle-dependent.

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Dispersion
• Dispersion losses in optical fiber are the losses of light power due to the spreading
or broadening of light pulses as they travel along the fiber.

• It causes the pulses to overlap and interfere with each other, which reduces the
signal quality and the data rate of the fiber.

• A short pulse becomes longer and ultimately joins with the pulse behind, making
recovery of a reliable bit stream impossible.

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Types of Dispersion
1. Intermodal Dispersion (Modal Dispersion)
• It occurs in multimode fibers, where multiple modes or paths of light propagate through the
fiber.

• It arises from the different propagation characteristics of the various modes supported by the
optical fiber.

• Each mode has a distinct group velocity, and thus, they take different amounts of time to
traverse the length of the fiber.

• This can be minimized by using single-mode fibers, which only allow one mode of light to
propagate, or by using graded-index fibers, which have a varying refractive index profile that
reduces the difference between modes.
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Continued…
2. Intramodal Dispersion (Chromatic Dispersion)
• It occurs due to the fact that different wavelengths of light travel at different speeds through the
fiber.

• This results into a spreading or broadening of the optical pulses as they propagate along the fiber

• Intramodal dispersion can be further divided into material dispersion and waveguide dispersion.

• Material dispersion is primarily influenced by the material properties of the core and cladding of
the optical fiber.

• Waveguide dispersion is caused by the variations in the propagation constant for different modes
supported by the fiber.

• Intramodal dispersion can be compensated by using dispersion-shifted fibers or dispersion-

compensating fibers, which have opposite dispersion characteristics to the original fiber.
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Fiber Alignment and Joint Loss
• Even when the two jointed fiber ends are smooth and perpendicular to the fiber
axes, and the two fiber axes are perfectly aligned, a small proportion of the light
may be reflected back into the transmitting fiber causing attenuation at the joint.

• This phenomenon, known as Fresnel reflection, is associated with the step changes
in refractive index at the jointed interface (i.e. glass–air–glass).

• It can be reduced to a very low level through the use of an index-matching fluid
(as the fiber core) in the gap between the jointed fibers.

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Continued…
• A potentially greater source of loss at a fiber–fiber connection is caused by
misalignment of the two jointed fibers.

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Fiber Splices
• A fiber splice is a permanent joint formed between two optical fibers.

• Splicing is required (i) when the length of the system span is more than the
manufactured cable length and (ii) when the cable is broken and needs to be
repaired.

• The primary objective of splicing is to establish transmission continuity in the

fiber-optic link.

• This can be done in two ways, namely, through (i) fusion splices or (ii) mechanical
splices.

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Fusion Splices

Drawback:
Heat produced by the welding arc may weaken the
fiber in the vicinity of the splice.

• After alignment, a short arc is applied to fire polish the fiber ends and thereby
removing any cleaving defects.

• Finally, two ends are pressed together and fused with a stronger arc.
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Mechanical Splices
• It utilises a transparent adhesive (e.g., epoxy resin) and thereby ensuring both
mechanical bonding and index-matching.

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Fiber Optic Connectors
• A fiber-optic connector is a device which is used to efficiently couple and
decouple two, or two groups of, fibers.

• The criteria for designing a connector are that it must

i. allow for repeated connection and disconnection without problems of fiber alignment
and/or damage to fiber ends,

ii. be insensitive to environmental factors such as moisture and dust, and capable of bearing
load on the cable, and

iii. have low insertion losses (which should be repeatable) and low cost.

• Can be grouped in two categories: butt-jointed and expanded-beam connectors.

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• Butt-jointed connectors are based on the principle of aligning the two fiber ends
and keeping them in close proximity.

Fig.: A plug–adapter–plug configuration

• Expanded-beam connector uses two microlenses for collimating and refocusing

light from one fiber end to another.

Fig.: Expanded-beam coupling using (a) a convex microlens

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Optical Sources (LEDs & LASERs)
• LEDs are devices used to convert the electrical energy into light energy. In
forward biased condition, the majority charge carriers diffuses into each other and
energy is emitted in the form of visible light and IR region.

• Advantages over LASERs:

• Simpler fabrication (No mirror facets)

• Less expensive

• Reliability (less degradation compared to LASERs)

• Less temperature dependence

• Long lifetime
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LEDs – Construction & Working

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Photodetectors
• Can be categorized into two types: photodiodes & photoconductors

Photodiodes

Fig.: Structure of a p-n photodiode and the Fig.: Response of a typical p-n photodiode to a
associated potential under reverse bias rectangular optical pulse
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p-i-n photodiode

• Increase the amount of absorbed

incident photons in the depletion region.
• As the middle layer is intrinsic in nature,
it offers high resistance, and hence most
of the voltage drop occurs across it.
• This results in the enhancement of the
drift components over the diffusion
currents. Fig.: (a) Structure of a p-i-n photodiode,
and (b) Electric field distribution

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Photo-conducting Detectors
• Absorption of a photon by a semiconductor,
provided the photon energy is greater than
the band gap energy, results into generation
of photocurrent.

• 1–2 µm thick n-type InGaAs that can

absorb photons in the wavelength range
1.1–1.6 µm.

• This layer is formed on the lattice matched

semi-insulating InP substrate.

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