OPTICAL FIBER

SYSTEMS
Carlos Pupiales Y.
chpupiales@utn.edu.ec
Outline

• Introduction

• Optical Spectral Bands

• Reflection and Refraction

• TIR

• Fiber Modes

• Examples

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Introduction
• Optical fiber provides low-loss transmission over a large bandwidth. Cooper and
wireless are not as efficient as fiber.
• A portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is used
in optical communications.
• Infrared: Human eye are not able to see λs
because they are too large.

• Visible: The human eye can see these λs.

• Ultraviolet: Human eye cannot detect λs

because they are too small.

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Optical Spectral Bands

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Light Propagation
• Light travels at 3𝑥108 m/s in the fiber; however, a more realistic approach is
2𝑥108 m/s.

• Light should travel only through the core; however, it travels through the cladding
as well.

• Cladding allows the light keeps inside the core.

• Core has a larger refraction index than the cladding in order most of the light can
travel inside the core.

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Light Propagation
𝑐
• Refraction index can be explained as: 𝑛 = .
𝑣

• Light propagation in the fiber depends on the refraction index.

• Refraction index of the core must be larger than cladding index in order light
can travel inside the core.

𝑛1 −𝑛2
• The index difference can be explained as: ∆=
𝑛1

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Conservation of Energy
• When light pass through a material, part of its energy is absorbed, part reflected,
and part transmitted.

• α, fraction of the total energy is absorbed.

• ρ, fraction of the total energy reflected.

• τ, fraction of the total energy is transmitted.

• Therefore, only a portion of the light sent by the transmitter arrives to the
detector.

• What happens with the rest of energy?

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Reflection
• When the reflected ray has the same angle of the incident wave.

• In the reflection some energy is lost by either absorption or transmission.

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Refraction
• Light beam changes its direction when it passes from one medium to another
one.

• When the refracted angle is larger than 90°, the light ray will be reflected instead
of refracted. (Critical Angle).

• The idea of propagation if F.O is that the ray instead of being refracted can be
reflected.

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Critical Angle and TIR
• Critical angle (ϴc) is the incident angle for which the refraction angle is 90°.

• Total Internal Reflection (TIR) is gotten when light is not refracted but only
reflected inside the core.

• If n1 > n2

• If ϴi > ϴc
Snell Law

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Acceptance Angle
• It’s the shortest/largest incident angle that should come from an external source
for which the light will propagate in the fiber.

• An incidence angle larger than the acceptance angle causes that light cannot be
coupled into the fiber.

• Typical values of 10° – 30° are used for MM fibers.

We can assume the air

refractive index as 1

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Numerical Aperture
• It’s the maximum angle of incidence in which the light propagates over the fiber
without refractions.

• NA determines the amount of light a fiber can carry.

• Keep in mind that amount of light doesn’t mean quality of information.

• Typical values from 0.1 to 0.5.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhVxBw5qnuY
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Example
• If n1 = 1.5 and n2 = 1.48.

• What will be the critical angle?

• Find an incidence angle to have TIR

• Find the acceptance angle that the source of light should have to avoid
refractions in the fiber.

• Find the numerical aperture.

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Single Mode Fibers
• These fibers allow the light to follow a single ray of light through the fiber.

• The core diameter is so small, typically 8 – 10 um.

• Due to low losses, it’s used for long-distance applications and for high bandwidth
requirements.

• It requires a very directive source of light like a laser.

• At high data rates, chromatic dispersion is a problem.

Core diameter

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Multimode Fibers
• Multiple rays of light propagate through the fiber following their own path.

• Because of multi propagation, MMF aren’t useful for long-distance applications.

• Used mainly in access networks and low data rate requirements.

• The core diameter is typically 62.5, 85, and 100 um.

• The multi propagation profile causes Modal Dispersion.

• Easy to work with, so it’s possible to use LEDs as transmitter.

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Cutoff Wavelenght
• It is the shortest wavelength for which an unique mode (single mode) can be
transmitted in a fiber.

• When fiber is fabricated for single-mode use, the cutoff wavelength is usually
much less than the desired operative wavelength. For instance, to operate at 1310
nm, the cutoff wavelength may be 1275 nm.

• Example: Suppose a radius of 4.2 um, n1 = 1.48, and n2 = n1(1-0.0034).

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Mode Field Diameter
• In a single mode fiber, is the section of fiber where most of the light travels. In
other words is the parameter which explains the optical field distribution in F.O.

• Light actually travels in the core and cladding, so this effective area is MFD.

• MFD plays an important role in estimating splice losses, coupler losses, micro and
macro bending losses.

5.2𝜆
𝑀𝐹𝐷 =
2𝜋𝑁𝐴

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Multimode Fibers: Step-index
• The refractive index of the core is uniform throughout its surface, but undergoes
an abrupt change at the cladding boundary.

• It has a refraction profile that “steps” from low-to-high-to-low measured from

cladding-to-core-to-cladding, generating multiple paths for the light.

• These fibers aren’t useful for long distances applications because they have large
modal dispersion.

• Because of the large core size (MM Fibers), it’s easy to work with, easy coupling
from and to it, different sources can be used.

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Multimode Fibers: Step-index
• The number of possible modes in these fibers can be determined by:

• Where V is the normalized frequency and a is the core radius. For single mode
fibers V must be less than 2.405. (because of the diameter of the fiber).

• What is the maximum core diameter for a fiber if it’s to operate in a SM at

wavelength of 1550 nm and if NA is 0.12?
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Multimode Fibers: Graded-index
• The refractive index in the core decreases continuously from a maximum value at
the center of the core to a constant value at the core-cladding boundary.

• Light follows a curved trajectory in order to keep the same speed of propagation
in each path respect to the axis of the fiber.

• This makes possible to keep the modes together while they are propagating.

• This allows to reach longer distances than traditional MM transmission and

reduce the Modal Dispersion.

• Typically, 400 modes travels at 1300 nm and 800 at 800 nm.

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Multimode Fibers: Graded-index
• Keep in mind that Graded and Step Index are analyzed in Multimode fibers;
however, we can consider that a step-index is available in single mode as well.

Source: Cisco

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Step vs Graded fibers

Source: Optical Networks, R. Ramaswami

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Examples
• Consider a step-index fiber with a core radius of 4 μm and a cladding refractive index of
1.45.

• For what range of values of the core refractive index will the fiber be single moded for
all wavelengths in the 1.2–1.6 μm range?

• What is the value of the core refractive index for which the V parameter is 2.0 at λ =
1.55 μm? What is the propagation constant of the single mode supported by the fiber
for this value of the core refractive index?

• Derive an expression for the cutoff wavelength of a step-index fiber with core radius a,
core refractive index n1, and cladding refractive index n2. Calculate de cutoff wavelength
of a fiber with core radius a=4, n1=1.5 and ∆=0.003

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Next class: Propagation

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