FIBER OPTICS

-An optical fiber (or fibre) is a glass

or plastic fiber that carries light
along its length.
-Fibers are used instead of metal
wires because signals travel along
them with less loss, and they are
also immune to electromagnetic
interference.

3 Regions
1.) Core glass or plastic
diameter: 5 20um
n = 1.4
2.) Cladding glass or plastic
diameter:
n = 1.7
3.) Coating for protection
3 Variations of Optical Fiber
Plastic core and cladding (PCP)
Glass core and cladding (SCS)
Glass core and plastic cladding
(PCS)
Advantages of Plastic over Glass
Fiber
Flexibility and ruggedness
Easy to install
Less weight
More economical
Can withstand stress
Disadvantages
High attenuation
Inefficient
Limited for short distance
applications
Classifications of Optical Fibers
Depends on:
a.) Mode (path) of propagation
- A stable propagation state in an
optical fiber.
- The number of modes a fiber can
transmit depend on its numerical aperture
as well as the wavelength.
Two types:

Single-Mode (monomode)
Multimode
b.) Index Profile
- A graphical representation of the
refractive index of the core.
Two types:
Step Index
Graded Index
Single-Mode (Monomode)
Only one path for light to take
down the cable.
Extremely wide bandwidths and
low losses.
8um (most commonly used core
diameter)
Placed 3km between repeaters.
Multimode Fiber
The light wave rays take many
paths between the source and the
far end of the fiber.
Placed 2km between repeaters
Diameter: 50 200 um
62.5um most commonly used
Step Index
The core has a uniform index of
refraction providing an abrupt
change in refraction index at the
core-cladding interface.
These types of fibers have
relatively high dispersion making it
useful only at lower rates and
shorter distance.
Graded Index
The core has index of refraction
that changes continuously from the
center to the outside.
This core is made out of many thin
layers, each with lower index of
refraction than the adjacent inner
core.
The effect of this grading is that
light waves are propagated by
refraction so they are bent in a
sinusoid like curve about the fiber.

Light Propagation
Light is propagated through the
optical fiber using the principles of
refraction.
Light rays bend or change direction
when they pass from one medium
to another.
They bend because the speed of
propagation of light in each
medium is different.
The amount of bending or
refraction that occurs at the corecladding interface depends on the
refractive index of the two
materials.
Refractive Index ()
The ratio of light velocity in free
space to the velocity of a light in a
given material.
Where:
free space

When light ray enters a less dense

material, the ray bends away from
the normal.

For Total Internal Reflection

The glass inside the fiber core must
have a slightly higher index of
refraction 1 than the index of
refraction 2 of the material
(cladding) surrounding the fiber.
The light must have an angle of
incidence (between the ray path
and the normal to the fiber wall)
which is greater than a critical
angle c, which is defined as the
angle of incidence.

c = speed of light in
v = speed of light in a given

material
Snells law
Explains how a light may react
when it meets the interface of two
transmittive materials that have
different indices of refraction using
the law which states that:

where:
of material 1

1 sin 1 = 2 sin 2
1 = refraction index
2 = refraction index of

Critical Angle of Incident (c )

The minimum angle of incidence at
which a light ray may strike the
interference of two media and
result in an angle of refraction of
90 degrees or when the incident
ray is in parallel to the boundary.

Acceptance Angle or Acceptance Cone

Half Angle (in)
Maximum angle in which external
light rays may strike the air/fiber
interface and still propagate down
the fiber.

material 2

1 = angle of incidence
2 = angle of refraction
When a light travels from a less
dense material into a more dense
material, the wave is refracted
towards the normal

Numerical Aperture (NA)

A figure of merit used to measure

the light gathering or light
collecting ability of the optical fiber.

A light source is any material or

device which gives off energy with
a wavelength from about 300
microns down to 0.5 microns.

NA = sin in
Light Sources
Requirements:
a. Their light must be as nearly
monochromatic ( single frequency) as
possible.
b. Capable of being easily modulated; PCM
for better noise immunity.
c. High intensity light output so that
sufficient energy is transmitted to
overcome the losses encountered during
transmission down the fiber.
d. Devices should be small, compact, and
easily couple to the fibers so that
excessive coupling losses do not occur.
e. Must be inexpensive to manufacture.
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Non coherent injection light
sources which are low-cost, lowheat light sources and are the most
promising light sources for optical
transmission.
LEDS have the necessary reliability,
life expectancy, and simplicity for
optical transmission purposes.
LEDS are able to couple about
100uw of power with a coupling
efficiency of 2 %.
Injection Laser Diodes (ILD)
ILDs make the most efficient use of
electric energy.
This coherent light source can
couple a few milliwatts of light
power into a fiber since it has a
more direct radiation pattern.
Advantages of ILDs over LED
Reduced coupling losses
Greater radiant output power
Can be used at higher bit rates

Reduced wavelength dispersion;

monochromatic
Disadvantages of ILDs
Expensive
Shorter lifetime
Temperature dependence
Requires automatic level control
circuit to protect the device from
power Supply transients.

Light Detectors:
PIN (Positive Intrinsic Negative)
diodes
When photons are absorbed by
intrinsic layers electrons in the
valence band, they add sufficient
energy to generate carriers in the
depletion region and allow current
to flow thru the device
APD (Avalanche Photo Diode)
Light enters diode and is absorbed
by the thin, heavily doped n-layer
causing a high electric field
intensity to be across in p-n
junction thus ionization occur and
continues like avalanche.
Advantages of APD over PIN
APDs give better sensitivity over
PIN
APDs provides larger amplification
Disadvantages
High bias requirement
Temperature dependence
Long transit time
Advantages of Optical Fibers over
Metallic Cables
Broad Bandwidth Capability
Fiber Optics can be used to form a
Compact concept
Immunity to Crosstalk

Immunity to Electromagnetic and

Radio Frequency Interference
Lower Attenuation
Capability for secure transmission
Safer to install and Maintain
More Economical

Disadvantages of Fiber System

High initial cost of installation

a.) Linear scattering power transferred

from a wave is proportional to the power
of the wave.
i. Rayleigh Scattering light
interacting with inhomogeneities in the
medium that are much smaller than the
wavelength of light.
ii. Mie Scattering inhomogeneities
that are compatible in size to a
wavelength.
b.) Nonlinear Scattering significant
power to be scattered in the forward,
backward, or sideways direction,
depending on the nature of the
interaction.
i. Brillouin Scattering modulation
of the light by the thermal energy in the
material.
ii. Raman Scattering the nonlinear
interaction produces a high frequency
phonon and scattered photon.
2. Absorption Losses - impurities in the
fiber absorb the light and convert it to
heat.
a. Ultraviolet Absorption light ionizes the
valence electrons into conduction;
ionization is equivalent to a loss in the
light field.
b. Infrared Absorption photons of light
absorbed by atoms of the glass core are
converted to mechanical vibrations typical
of heating.
c. Ion Resonance Absorption caused by
OH ions from water molecules trapped in
the glass during manufacturing process.

Any damage inflicted on a fiber

cable is not easily repairable.

Losses in Optical Fiber Cables

1. Scattering losses due to
imperfections in the fiber that are
formed during manufacturing
process.

d. Hydrogen Effect fiber is exposed to

hydrogen
- corrosion of steel cable
3. Dispersion
Spreading of pulse out in the time
domain, changing its shape so that
it may merge into the previous and
succeeding pulses.
The pulses may be separated by
spacing them out at the transmitter
but this means reducing the
maximum bit rate.
4. Coupling Losses
a. Lateral Misalignment
b. Gap Misalignment or
Longitudinal Displacement
c. Angular Misalignment
d. Imperfect Surface Finish
5. Bending or radiation losses
As light travels around a bend on
an optical fiber, the light traveling
on the outside of the bend would
have to travel faster than the local
speed of light to maintain a
constant phase across the wave.
a.) Microbending occurs as a
result of differences in the thermal
contraction rates between core and
cladding.
- small scale bending.
b.) constant-radius bends occur
when fibers are bend during
handling and installation.

- large bends