Unit-II

Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers

by
Dr. P. V. Ramana
Professor & Head, Department of ECE,
Outline
1. Attenuation
 Absorption
 Scattering Losses
 Bending Losses
 Core and Cladding Losses

2. Signal Dispersion in Fibers

 Overview of Dispersion Origins
 Modal Delay
 Factors Contributing to Dispersion
 Group Delay
 Material Dispersion
 Waveguide Dispersion
 Dispersion in Single-Mode Fibers
 Polarization-Mode Dispersion
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Absorption
Absorption is caused by three different mechanisms:
1. Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition.
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material.
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the fiber material.
1.Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition:
Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic structure include missing
molecules, high-density clusters of atom groups, or oxygen defects in the
glass structure.
These defects are negligible compared with intrinsic and impurity
absorption effects.
However, they can be significant if the fiber is exposed to ionizing
radiation, as might occur in a nuclear reactor environment, in medical
radiation therapies, accelerator instrumentation.
 Radiation damages a material by changing its internal structure that
depend on the energy of the ionizing particles or rays (e.g., electrons,
neutrons, or gamma rays), the radiation flux and the fluence.
 Contd..
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material.
This Absorption is due to impurities include OH-(water) ions that are
dissolved in the glass and transition metal ions such as iron, copper,
chromium, and vanadium
Transition metal impurity levels were around 1 part per million (ppm) in
glass fibers which resulted in losses ranging from 1 to 4 dB/km
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass material Contd..
Impurity absorption losses occur either because of
 Electron transitions between the energy levels within these ions or
 because of charge transitions between ions.

 The absorption peaks of the various transition metal impurities tend

to be broad, and several peaks may overlap, which further broadens
the absorption in a specific region.

 Modern vapor-phase fiber techniques for producing a fiber preform

have reduced the transition-metal impurity levels by several orders of
magnitude. Such low impurity levels allow the fabrication of low-loss
fibers.
 Contd..
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the fiber material.
This Absorption is associated with the basic fiber material (e.g: pure SiO2)
Intrinsic absorption results from
 Electronic absorption bands in the ultra violet region
 Atomic vibration bands in the near-infrared region

In the UV Region:
Absorption occurs when a photon interacts with an electron in the valence
band and excites it to a higher energy level. The ultraviolet edge of the
electron absorption bands of both amorphous and crystal line materials
follow the empirical relationship

which is known as Urbach’s rule.

Here, C and E0 are empirical constants and
E is the photon energy
Since E is inversely proportional to λ , UV absorption decays exponentially
with increased λ.
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the fiber material. Contd..
In the near-infrared Region:
Above 1.2 mm in IR, the optical waveguide loss is predominantly
determined by the presence of OH ions and the inherent infrared
absorption of the constituent material.
An interaction between the vibrating bond and the electromagnetic field of
the optical signal results in a transfer of energy from the field to the bond,
thereby giving rise to absorption.
An empirical expression for the infrared absorption in dB/km for GeO2-SiO2
glass with l given in mm is
Scattering Losses
Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic variations in the material
density, from compositional fluctuations, and from structural
inhomogeneities or defects occurring during fiber manufacture.

Scattering Losses

Linear Non-Linear

Rayleigh Mie SBS SRS

Scattering:
Linear Scattering- Rayleigh Scattering:
Transfer of some or all of the optical power contained within one
propagating mode to be transferred linearly (proportionally to the
mode power) into a different mode.
It results from inhomogeneities of a random nature occurring on a
small scale compared with the wavelength of the light. refractive
index fluctuations and arise from density and compositional
variations which are frozen into the glass lattice on cooling.
attenuation proportional to 1/λ4

Transmission loss factor of the fiber following

where L is the length of the fiber
Mie Scattering:
These result from the non-perfect cylindrical structure of the wave
guide and may be caused by fiber imperfections such as irregularities
in the core–cladding interface, core–cladding refractive index
differences along the fiber length, diameter fluctuations, strains and
bubbles.
The scattering created by such inhomogeneities is mainly in the
forward direction and is called Mie scattering.
The inhomogeneities may be reduced by:
(a) removing imperfections due to the glass manufacturing process;
(b) carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber;
(c) increasing the fiber guidance by increasing the relative refractive
index difference.
Non-Linear Scattering:
This nonlinear scattering causes the optical power from one mode to
be transferred in either the forward or backward direction to the
same, or other modes, at a different frequency. These scattering
mechanisms in fact give optical gain but with a shift in frequency.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering
The incident photon in this scattering process produces a phonon of
acoustic frequency as well as a scattered photon. This produces an
optical frequency shift which varies with the scattering angle because
The frequency of the sound wave varies with acoustic wavelength.
The frequency shift is a max. in the backward direction, reducing to
zero in the forward direction.

Stimulated Raman scattering is similar to SBS except that a high-

frequency optical phonon rather than an acoustic phonon is generated
in the scattering process. Also, SRS can occur in both the forward
and backward directions
Bending Losses:
Radiative losses occur whenever an optical fiber undergoes a bend
of finite radius of curvature.
Fibers can be subject to two types of curvatures:
(a) Macroscopic bends having radii that are large compared with
the fiber diameter, that occur when a fiber cable turns a corner
(b) random Microscopic bends of the fiber axis that can arise
when the fibers are incorporated into cables.

Macro-Bending
Expression for the effective number of modes that are guided by a
curved multimode fiber of radius
Micro-Bending
Core and Cladding Losses
The core and cladding have different indices of refraction and
therefore differ in composition, the core and cladding generally have
different attenuation coefficients, denoted α1 and α2, respectively.
the loss for a mode of order (v, m) for a step-index waveguide is

For the case of a graded-index fiber

where p(r) is the power density of that mode at

r
 Attenuation

Scattering Radiative
Absorption Losses losses/ Bending
losses

Extrinsic
Intrinsic Atomic
(Impurity
Absorption Defects
atoms)

Absorption Absorption Inhomogeneities Compositional

in in Microscopic Macroscopic
or defects fluctuations
Infrared Ultraviolet bends bends
in fiber in material
region region
 Signal Degradation in the Optical Fiber
Signal Attenuation
It determines the maximum unamplified or repeaterless
distance between transmitter and receiver.

Signal Distortion
•Causes optical pulses broaden.
•Overlapping with neighboring pulses, creating errors in the
receiver output.
•It limits the information carrying capacity of a fiber.
 Absorption

Extrinsic Intrinsic
Atomic Defects
(Impurity atoms) Absorption

Absorption in Absorption in
Ultraviolet region Infrared region
 Scattering Losses

Compositional fluctuations Inhomogeneities or defects

in material in fiber
 Minimizing
microbending losses
Bends are shown full size — and may have caused damage to the fiber
Signal Distortion in Fibers
Optical signal weakens from attenuation mechanisms and
broadens due to distortion effects.

 Eventually these two factors will cause neighboring pulses to

overlap

 After a certain amount of overlap occurs, the receiver can no

longer distinguish the individual adjacent pulses and error arise
when interpreting the received signal.

 The basic need is to match the output waveform to the input

waveform as closely as possible.
Pulse broadening and attenuation
Dispersion
 Dispersion results when some components of the
input signal spend more time traversing the fiber than
other components.
 In a pulse modulated system, this causes the received
pulse to be spread out over a longer period.
 It is noted that actually no power is lost to dispersion,
the spreading effect reduces the peak power.
 Pulse dispersion is usually specified in terms of Nano
seconds-per-kilometer.

 The difference in width of an input pulse with the

width of the same pulse at the output, measured in
time, is the dispersion characteristics.
Dispersion

Dispersion of optical energy within an optical fiber falls

into following categories:
 Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic Dispersion
Material Dispersion
Waveguide Dispersion

 Intermodal Delay or Modal Delay)

 Polarization –Mode Dispersion

Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic Dispersion or Group Velocity
Dispersion
This takes place within a single mode.
Intramodal dispersion depends on the wavelength, its effect on
signal distortion increases with the spectral width of the light
source.(Vg being a function of Wavelength)
Spectral width is approximately 4 to 9 percent of a central
wavelength.
Two main causes of intramodal dispersion are as:
1. Material Dispersion
2. Waveguide Dispersion
LASER source will produce far less spectral dispersion or intramodal
dispersion than an LED source since it is more nearly monochromatic
Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic Dispersion

Material Dispersion:

Arises due to the variations in the refractive index of the core

material as a function of wavelength.

Pulse spreading occurs even when different wavelength follow

the same path.

Material dispersion can be reduced:

•Either by choosing sources with narrower spectral output
widths or
•By operating at longer wavelengths.
 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)
Intramodal Dispersion or Chromatic Dispersion

Waveguide Dispersion:
It causes pulse spreading because only part of the optical power
propagation along a fiber is confined to core.

Dispersion arises because the fraction of light power propagating

in the cladding travels faster than the light confined to core.

Single mode fiber confines only 80 percent of the power in the core
for V values around 2.
The amount of waveguide dispersion depends on the fiber
design.
Intermodal delay/ modal delay

Intermodal distortion or modal delay appears only in multimode

fibers.

This signal distortion mechanism is a result of each mode having a

different value of the group velocity at a single frequency.

The amount of spreading that occurs in a fiber is a function of the

number of modes propagated by the fiber and length of the fiber

Group Velocity: It is the speed at which energy in a particular mode

travels along the fiber.
Intermodal delay/ modal delay

The maximum pulse broadening arising from the modal delay is

the difference between the travel time Tmax of the longest ray and
the travel time Tmin of the shortest ray .

This broadening is simply obtained from ray tracing for a fiber of

length L:

∆T= Tmax – Tmin = (Ln12/cn2)∆

Dispersion
Step Index Multi-mode

Graded Index Multi-mode

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)

Variation in the polarization states of an optical pulse as it passes through a
fiber that has varying birefringence along its length.
 Signal Distortion/
Dispersion

Intermodal Delay/ Intramodal Dispersion/ Polarization-mode

Modal Delay Chromatic Dispersion Dispersion

Material Waveguide
Dispersion Dispersion
 Signal Degradation
in the Optical Fiber

Signal Distortion/ Attenuation

Dispersion

Scattering Radiative
Absorption Losses
Intramodal
losses
Intermodal Polarization
Dispersion/
Delay/ -mode
Chromatic
Modal Delay Dispersion Extrinsic
Intrinsic Atomic
Dispersion (Impurity
Absorption Defects
atoms)

Material Waveguide
Absorption Absorption Inhomogeneities Compositional
Dispersion Dispersion in in Microscopic Macroscopic
or defects fluctuations
Infrared Ultraviolet bends bends
in fiber in material
region region
 How to characterize dispersion?
• Group delay per unit length can be defined as:

g d 1 d 2 d
  
L dω c dk 2c d
• If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, then the delay
d g
difference per unit wavelength along the propagation path is approximately
For spectral components which are apart, symmetrical around center d
wavelength, the total delay difference  over a distance L is:

d g L  d 2 d  
2
      2  
2 
d 2c  d d 
d d  L   d 2 
      L 
d d V   d 2
 g   
 d 2
• 2 
d 2 is called GVD parameter, and shows how much a light pulse
broadens as it travels along an optical fiber. The more common parameter
is called Dispersion, and can be defined as the delay difference per unit
length per unit wavelength as follows:

1 d g d  1 
   2c  2
D  [3-17]
L d d  V g 
  2

• In the case of optical pulse, if the spectral width of the optical source is
characterized by its rms value of the Gaussian pulse   , the pulse
spreading over the length of L,  g can be well approximated by:

d g
g     DL  [3-18]
d
• D has a typical unit of [ps/(nm.km)].
 Material Dispersion
• The refractive index of the material varies as a function of wavelength,n( )
• Material-induced dispersion for a plane wave propagation in homogeneous
medium of refractive index n:

d 2 d 2 d  2 
 mat L  L  L n (  )
dω 2c d 2c d   
L dn 
  n    [3-19]
c d 
• The pulse spread due to material dispersion is therefore:

d mat L  d 2 n
g     2  L  Dmat ( ) [3-20]
d c d

Dmat ( ) is material dispersion

 Waveguide Dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion is due to the dependency of the group velocity of
the fundamental mode as well as other modes on the V number, (see Fig 2-
18 of the textbook). In order to calculate waveguide dispersion, we
consider that n is not dependent on wavelength. Defining the normalized
propagation constant b as:

 / k  n2
2
2 2
 / k  n2
b  [3-29]
2
n1  n2
2
n1  n2

• solving for propagation constant:

  n2 k (1  b) [3-31]

• Using V number:
2 2 1/ 2
V  ka(n1  n2 )  kan2 2 [3-33]
 Waveguide Dispersion
• Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be expressed as:

L d (Vb) 
 wg  n2  n2  [3-34]
c dV 

Optical Fiber communications, 3 rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

 Polarization Mode dispersion
• The effects of fiber-birefringence on the polarization states of an optical
are another source of pulse broadening. Polarization mode dispersion
(PMD) is due to slightly different velocity for each polarization mode
because of the lack of perfectly symmetric & anisotropicity of the fiber. If
the group velocities of two orthogonal polarization modes
v gx andare
v gy
delay
then the differential time pol between these two polarization over
a distance L is
L L
 pol   [3-26]
v gx v gy

• The rms value of the differential group delay can be approximated as:

 pol  DPMD L [3-27]

 Chromatic & Total Dispersion
• Chromatic dispersion includes the material & waveguide dispersions.

Dch ( )  Dmat  Dwg

[3-28]
 ch  Dch ( ) L 

• Total dispersion is the sum of chromatic , polarization dispersion and other

dispersion types and the total rms pulse spreading can be approximately
written as:

Dtotal  Dch  D pol  ...

[3-29]
 total  Dtotal L 
 Chromatic & Total Dispersion
• Chromatic dispersion includes the material & waveguide dispersions.

Dch ( )  Dmat  Dwg

 ch  Dch ( ) L  [3-28]

• Total dispersion is the sum of chromatic , polarization dispersion and other

dispersion types and the total rms pulse spreading can be approximately
written as:
Dtotal  Dch  D pol  ...
 total  Dtotal L 
[3-29]