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Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
Signal Degradation in Optical Fibers
Signal Degradation in
Optical Fibers
1. Material absorption losses in silica glass fibers
•Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to both the
material composition and the fabrication process for the
fiber. The optical power is lost as heat in the fiber.
9
•Since these OH- absorption peaks are sharply peaked, narrow spectral
windows exist around 1.3 m and 1.55 m which are essentially
unaffected by OH- absorption.
(Lucent 1998)
IR absorption
UV absorption
(negligible in the
IR)
10
2.3 Scattering loss
Scattering results in attenuation (in the form of radiation) as the
scattered light may not continue to satisfy the total internal reflection
in the fiber core.
<<
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Absorption
• The essential mechanism is the Rayleigh scattering. Since the black body
radiation classically is proportional to 4 (this is true for wavelength
typically greater than 5 micrometer), the attenuation coefficient due to
Rayleigh scattering is approximately proportional to . This seems to me
4
not precise, where the attenuation of fibers at 1.3 & 1.55 micrometer can
be exactly predicted with Planck’s formula & can not be described with
Rayleigh-Jeans law. Therefore I believe that the more accurate formula for
scattering loss is
1
hc
scat 5 exp( )
k B T
h 6.626 10 34 Js, k B 1.3806 10 23 JK -1 , T : Temperature
Absorption & scattering losses in fibers
• Microbending Loss:
microscopic bends of the fiber
axis that can arise when the
fibers are incorporated into
cables. The power is dissipated
through the microbended fiber,
because of the repetitive
coupling of energy between
guided modes & the leaky or
radiation modes in the fiber.
1- Material Dispersion
2- Waveguide Dispersion
3- Polarization-Mode Dispersion
• In the case of optical pulse propagation down the fiber, GVD causes pulse
broadening, leading to Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).
Dispersion & ISI
A measure of information
capacity of an optical fiber for
digital transmission is usually
specified by the bandwidth
distance product BW L
in GHz.km.
For multi-mode step index fiber
this quantity is about 20
MHz.km, for graded index fiber
is about 2.5 GHz.km & for single
mode fibers are higher than 10
GHz.km.
g d 1 d 2 d
[3-15]
L dω c dk 2c 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 2c d d
d d L d 2
L [3-16]
d d V d 2
g
d 2
• 2 is called GVD parameter, and shows how much a light pulse
d 2
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
2c 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
t t
1 o 2 0
d 2 d 2 d 2
mat L L L n ( )
dω 2c d 2c 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
/ k n2
2
2 2
/ k n2
b [3-21]
2
n1 n2
2
n1 n2
n2 k (1 b) [3-22]
• Using V number:
2 2 1/ 2
V ka(n1 n2 ) kan2 2 [3-23]
Waveguide Dispersion
• Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be expressed as:
L d (Vb)
wg n2 n2 [3-24]
c dV
d wg n2 L d 2 (Vb)
wg L Dwg ( ) V [3-25]
d c dV 2
Dwg ( )
= 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
• The rms value of the differential group delay can be approximated as:
Fact 1) Minimum distortion at wavelength about 1300 nm for single mode silica fiber.
Fact 2) Minimum attenuation is at 1550 nm for sinlge mode silica fiber.
Strategy: shifting the zero-dispersion to longer wavelength for minimum attenuation and dispersion.
V
• Dispersion: [3-30]
d
D ( ) Dmat ( ) Dwg ( ) [3-31]
d
D ( ) L [3-32]
dD
S 0 S (0 ) [3-34]
d 0
S 0 0 4
D ( ) 1 ( ) [3-35]
4
Dispersion for dispersion shifted fibers (1500
nm- 1600 nm)
S0
( ) 0 ( 0 ) 2 [3-36]
2
D( ) ( 0 ) S 0 [3-37]
Example of dispersion
Performance curve for
Set of SM-fiber
Temporal changes in a medium with Kerr nonlinearity and negative GVD. Since dispersion tends to broaden the pulse, Kerr
Nonlinearity tends to squeeze the pulse, resulting in a formation of optical soliton.