Assignment 1 Optical Fibres

I. Introduction:
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass (silica) not much thicker than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or light pipe[1], to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber.[2] The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. Optical fibers are widely used in fiber-optic communications, which permits transmission over longer distances and at higher bandwidths (data rates) than other forms of communication. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces. Specially-designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, including sensors and fiber lasers.

Fig: An optical fiber junction box

An optical fiber junction box. The yellow cables are single mode fibers; the orange and blue cables are multi-mode fibers: 50/125 m OM2 and 50/125 m OM3 fibers respectively. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with a lower index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by total internal reflection. This causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers (MMF), while those that only support a single mode are called single-mode fibers (SMF). Multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter, and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,050 meters (3,440 ft). Joining lengths of optical fiber is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable. The ends of the fibers must be carefully cleaved, and then spliced together, either mechanically or by fusing them with heat. Special optical fiber connectors for removable connections are also available.

Different generations of optical fiber communication:

Table 1 shows the different generations of optical fiber communication. In generation I, mostly GaAs based LEDs and laser diodes having emission wavelength 0.8mmwere used. From 1974 to 1978, graded index multimode fibers were used. From 1978 onwards, only single mode fibers are used for long distance communication. During the second generation the operating wavelength is shifted to 1.3 mm to overcome loss and dispersion. Further InGaAsP hetero-junction laser diodes are used as optical sources. In the third generation the operating wavelength is further shifted to 1.55mm and the dispersion-shifted fibers are used. Further single mode direct detection is adopted. In the fourth generation erbium doped optical (fiber) amplifiers are fabricated and the whole transmission and reception are performed only in the optical domain. Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is introduced to increase the bit rate. In the proposed next generation (V generation), soliton based lossless and dispersionless optical fiber communication will become a reality. At that time, the data rate may increase beyond 1000 Tb/s.

II.

Principle of Operation:

An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide (nonconducting waveguide) that transmits light along its axis, by the process of total internal reflection. The fiber consists of a core surrounded by a cladding layer, both of which are made of dielectric materials. To confine the optical signal in the core, the refractive index of the core must be greater than that of the cladding. The boundary between the core and cladding may either be abrupt, in stepindex fiber, or gradual, in graded-index fiber.

Index of refraction
The index of refraction is a way of measuring the speed of light in a material. Light travels fastest in a vacuum, such as outer space. The speed of light in a vacuum is about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second. Index of refraction is calculated by dividing the speed of light in a vacuum by the speed of light in some other medium. The index of refraction of a vacuum is therefore 1, by definition. The typical value for the cladding of an optical fiber is 1.52.[34] The core value is typically 1.62.[34] The larger the index of refraction, the slower light

travels in that medium. From this information, a good rule of thumb is that signal using optical fiber for communication will travel at around 200 million meters per second. Or to put it another way, to travel 1000 kilometers in fiber, the signal will take 5 milliseconds to propagate. Thus a phone call carried by fiber between Sydney and New York, a 12000 kilometer distance, means that there is an absolute minimum delay of 60 milliseconds (or around 1/16 of a second) between when one caller speaks to when the other hears. (Of course the fiber in this case will probably travel a longer route, and there will be additional delays due to communication equipment switching and the process of encoding and decoding the voice onto the fiber).

Total internal reflection

When light traveling in an optically dense medium hits a boundary at a steep angle (larger than the "critical angle" for the boundary), the light will be completely reflected. This is called total internal reflection. This effect is used in optical fibers to confine light in the core. Light travels through the fiber core, bouncing back and forth off the boundary between the core and cladding. Because the light must strike the boundary with an angle greater than the critical angle, only light that enters the fiber within a certain range of angles can travel down the fiber without leaking out. This range of angles is called the acceptance cone of the fiber. The size of this acceptance cone is a function of the refractive index difference between the fiber's core and cladding. In simpler terms, there is a maximum angle from the fiber axis at which light may enter the fiber so that it will propagate, or travel, in the core of the fiber. The sine of this maximum angle is the numerical aperture (NA) of the fiber. Fiber with a larger NA requires less precision to splice and work with than fiber with a smaller NA. Single-mode fiber has a small NA.

III. Types of fibres:

We know that the light or the optical signals are guided through the silica glass fibers by total internal reflection. A typical glass fiber consists of a central core glass (_50 mm) surrounded by a cladding made of a glass of slightly lower refractive index than the cores refractive index. The overall diameter of the fiber is about 125 to 200 mm. Cladding is necessary to provide proper light guidance i.e. to retain the light energy within the core as well as to provide high mechanical strength and safety to the core from scratches. Based on the refractive index profile we have two types of fibers (a) Step index fiber (b) Graded index fiber. (a) Step index fiber: In the step index fiber, the refractive index of the core is uniform throughout and undergoes an abrupt or step change at the core cladding boundary. The light rays propagating through the fiber are in the form of meridional rays which will cross the fiber axis during every reflection at the core cladding boundary and are propagating in a zig-zag manner as shown in figure 1a. (b) Graded index fiber: In the graded index fiber, the refractive index of the core is made to vary in the parabolic manner such that the maximum value of refractive index is at the centre of the core. The light rays propagating through it are in the form of skew rays or

helical rays which will not cross the fiber axis at any time and are propagating around the fiber axis in a helical (or) spiral manner as shown in figure 1b.

Figure 1: Types of fibres

Modes of fibres:
Based on the number of modes propagating through the fiber, there are multimode fibers and single mode fibers. Mode is the mathematical concept of describing the nature of propagation of electromagnetic waves in a waveguide. Mode means the nature of the electromagnetic field pattern (or) configuration along the light path inside the fiber. In metallic wave-guides there are transverse electric (TE) modes for which Ez = 0 butHz 6= 0 and transverse magnetic (TM) modes for whichHz =0 butEz 6=0 when the propagation of microwaves is along the z-axis. In optical fibers, along with TE and TM modes, there are also hybrid modes which have both axial electric and magnetic fieldsEz and Hz. The hybrid modes are further classified into EH and HE modes. In EH modes, the axial magnetic field Hz is relatively strong whereas in HE modes, the axial electric field Ez is relatively strong. Based on the linearly polarized nature of light, today these modes are designated as linearly polarized (LP) modes. For example LP01 mode corresponds to HE11 mode. LP11 mode is the combination of HE21, TE01 and TM01 modes. (c) Single mode fibers: In a single mode fibre, only one mode (LP01 mode) can propagate through the fiber (figure 1c). Normally the number of modes propagating through the fiber is proportional to its V-number where

Here a = radius of the core of the fiber; n1 = refractive index of the core, l = wavelength of light propagating through the fiber; D = relative refractive index difference. In the case of single mode fiber, V-number_ 2.405. The single mode fiber has a smaller core diameter (10 mm) and the difference between the refractive indices of the core and the cladding is very small. Fabrication of single mode fibers is very difficult and so the fiber is expensive. Further the launching of light into single mode fibers is also difficult. Generally in the single mode fibers, the transmission loss and dispersion or degradation of the signal are very small. So the single mode fibers are very useful in long distance communication. (d) Multimode fibers: Multimode fibers allow a large number of modes for the light rays traveling through it. Here the V-number is greater than 2.405. Total number of modes N propagating through a given multimode step index fiber is given by

where d is the diameter of the core of the fiber. For a multimode graded index fiber having parabolic refractive index profile core,

which is half the number supported by a multimode step index fiber. Generally in multimode fibers, the core diameter and the relative refractive index difference are larger than in the single mode fiber. In the case of multimode graded index fiber, signal distortion is very low because of self-focusing effects. Here the light rays travel at different speeds in different paths of the fiber because of the parabolic variation of refractive index of the core. As a result, light rays near the outer edge travel faster than the light rays near the centre of the core. In effect, light rays are continuously refocused as they travel down the fiber and almost all the rays reach the exit end of the fiber at the same time due to the helical path of the light propagation. Launching of light into the fiber and fabrication of the fiber are easy. These fibers are generally used in local area networks. (e) Special Purpose fibers: Some special-purpose optical fiber is constructed with a non-cylindrical core and/or cladding layer, usually with an elliptical or rectangular cross-section. These include polarizationmaintaining fiber and fiber designed to suppress whispering gallery mode propagation. Photonic-crystal fiber is made with a regular pattern of index variation (often in the form of cylindrical holes that run along the length of the fiber). Such fiber uses diffraction effects instead of or in addition to total internal reflection, to confine light to the fiber's core. The properties of the fiber can be tailored to a wide variety of applications.

IV. Dispersion and Losses in Fibres:

Dispersion in the fiber means the broadening of the signal pulse width due to dependence of the refractive index of the material of the fiber on the wavelength of the carrier. If we send digitized signal pulses in the form of square pulses, they are converted into broadened gaussian pulses due to dispersion. The dispersion leads to the distortian (or) degradation of the signal quality at the output end due to overlapping of the pulses. There are two kinds of dispersion mechanisms in the fiber: (i) Intramodal dispersion and (ii) Intermodal dispersion. The dispersion effects can be explained on the basis of behavior of group velocities of the guided modes in the optical fiber. Group velocity is the velocity at which the energy in a particular mode travels along the fiber. The propagation constant Group velocity: , therefore

Since,

Using,

Therefore,

where Ng is called the group index of the fiber. Thus the group velocity and phase velocity (vp = (C=n1)) are different in the optical fiber. Otherwise an optical fiber is a dispersive medium. Intramodal dispersion arises due to the dependence of group velocity on the wavelength. Further it increases with the increase in spectral width of the optical source. This spectral width is the range of wavelengths emitted by the optical source. For example in the case of LED, it has a large spectral width about 40 nm since it emits wavelengths from 830 870 nm with the peak emission wavelength at 850 nm. In the case of laser diode which has a very narrow spectral width, the spectral width is about 1 or 2 nm only. Thus the intramodal dispersion can be reduced in an optical fiber using single mode laser diode

as an optical source. Intramodal dispersion arises due to the dispersive properties of the optical fiber material (material dispersion) and the guidance effects of the optical fiber (waveguide dispersion). (a) Material dispersion (or) chromatic dispersion: This dispersion arises due to the variation of the refractive index of the core material with the wavelength or frequency of light. It is directly proportional to the frequency bandwidth of the transmitted pulse. A material exhibits material dispersion when d2n1=d l 2 6= 0. For pure silica, the material dispersion tends to zero at the wavelength of 1.3 mm. Further by using an optical source with a narrow spectral width, the material dispersion can be reduced. For shorter wavelengths around 0.6 mm to 0.8 mm, the material dispersion exponentially rises to a higher value. (b)Waveguide dispersion: This dispersion arises due to the finite frequency bandwidth and the dependence of the mode group velocity on the frequency of light. Higher the frequency bandwidth of the transmitted pulse, higher will be the waveguide dispersion. The amount of waveguide dispersion depends on the fiber design like core radius, since the propagation constant b is a function of a=l . In the case of single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion arises when d2b =dl 2 6= 0. In the case of multimode fibers, most of the modes propagate far from the cutoff value. Therefore then all are almost free from waveguide dispersion. (c) Intermodal dispersion (or) multimode dispersion: Intermodal dispersion or multimode dispersion arises due to the variation of group velocity for each mode at a single frequency. Different modes arrive at the exit end of the fiber at different times. So there is multimode dispersion and hence there is broadening of the signal pulses. Dispersion in different fibers: Among the three dispersions, multimode dispersion > material dispersion > waveguide dispersion. Based on the dispersion effects, one can get the following results: (i) The multimode step index fibers exhibit a large value of dispersion due to the enormous amount of multimode dispersion which gives the greatest pulse broadening. At the same time the multimode graded index fiber exhibits an overall dispersion which is 100 times lesser than the multimode step index fibers dispersion. This is due to the shaping of the refractive index profile in a parabolic manner. (ii) In the case of single mode step index fibers, they have only intramodal dispersion. Further among the intramodal dispersions, the waveguide dispersion is the dominant one. The material dispersion in them is almost negligible due to axial ray propagation and small core radius. When we compare it with the dispersion in the multimode graded index fiber, the dispersion in the single mode fiber is negligible. That is why single mode fibers are highly useful in long distance communication systems.

V.

Manufacturing

(a) Materials
Glass optical fibers are almost always made from silica, but some other materials, such as fluorozirconate, fluoroaluminate, and chalcogenide glasses as well as crystalline materials

like sapphire, are used for longer-wavelength infrared or other specialized applications. Silica and fluoride glasses usually have refractive indices of about 1.5, but some materials such as the chalcogenides can have indices as high as 3. Typically the index difference between core and cladding is less than one percent. Plastic optical fibers (POF) are commonly step-index multi-mode fibers with a core diameter of 0.5 millimeters or larger. POF typically have higher attenuation coefficients than glass fibers, 1 dB/m or higher, and this high attenuation limits the range of POF-based systems. (i) Silica

Silica exhibits fairly good optical transmission over a wide range of wavelengths. In the nearinfrared (near IR) portion of the spectrum, particularly around 1.5 m, silica can have extremely low absorption and scattering losses of the order of 0.2 dB/km. A high transparency in the 1.4-m region is achieved by maintaining a low concentration of hydroxyl groups (OH). Alternatively, a high OH concentration is better for transmission in the ultraviolet (UV) region. (ii) Fluorides

Fluoride glass is a class of non-oxide optical quality glasses composed of fluorides of various metals. Because of their low viscosity, it is very difficult to completely avoid crystallization while processing it through the glass transition (or drawing the fiber from the melt). Thus, although heavy metal fluoride glasses (HMFG) exhibit very low optical attenuation, they are not only difficult to manufacture, but are quite fragile, and have poor resistance to moisture and other environmental attacks. Their best attribute is that they lack the absorption band associated with the hydroxyl (OH) group (32003600 cm1), which is present in nearly all oxide-based glasses. (iii) Phosphates

The P4O10 cagelike structurethe basic building block for phosphate glass. Phosphate glass constitutes a class of optical glasses composed of metaphosphates of various metals. Instead of the SiO4 tetrahedra observed in silicate glasses, the building block for this glass former is Phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), which crystallizes in at least four different forms. The most familiar polymorph (see figure) comprises molecules of P4O10.

(iv)

Chalcogenides

The chalcogensthe elements in group 16 of the periodic tableparticularly sulfur (S), selenium (Se) and tellurium (Te)react with more electropositive elements, such as silver, to form chalcogenides. These are extremely versatile compounds, in that they can be crystalline or amorphous, metallic or semiconducting, and conductors of ions or electrons. Chalcogenides fibers are useful for far infrared transmission but are hard to produce.

(b) Process

Illustration of the modified chemical vapor deposition (inside) process Standard optical fibers are made by first constructing a large-diameter "preform", with a carefully controlled refractive index profile, and then "pulling" the preform to form the long, thin optical fiber. The preform is commonly made by three chemical vapor deposition methods: inside vapor deposition, outside vapor deposition, and vapor axial deposition.[50] With inside vapor deposition, the preform starts as a hollow glass tube approximately 40 centimeters (16 in) long, which is placed horizontally and rotated slowly on a lathe. Gases such as silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4) or germanium tetrachloride (GeCl4) are injected with oxygen in the end of the tube. The gases are then heated by means of an external hydrogen burner, bringing the temperature of the gas up to 1900 K (1600 C, 3000 F), where the tetrachlorides react with oxygen to produce silica or germania (germanium dioxide) particles. When the reaction conditions are chosen to allow this reaction to occur in the gas phase throughout the tube volume, in contrast to earlier techniques where the reaction occurred only on the glass surface, this technique is called modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD). The oxide particles then agglomerate to form large particle chains, which subsequently deposit on the walls of the tube as soot. The deposition is due to the large difference in temperature between the gas core and the wall causing the gas to push the particles outwards

(this is known as thermophoresis). The torch is then traversed up and down the length of the tube to deposit the material evenly. After the torch has reached the end of the tube, it is then brought back to the beginning of the tube and the deposited particles are then melted to form a solid layer. This process is repeated until a sufficient amount of material has been deposited. For each layer the composition can be modified by varying the gas composition, resulting in precise control of the finished fiber's optical properties. In outside vapor deposition or vapor axial deposition, the glass is formed by flame hydrolysis, a reaction in which silicon tetrachloride and germanium tetrachloride are oxidized by reaction with water (H2O) in an oxyhydrogen flame. In outside vapor deposition the glass is deposited onto a solid rod, which is removed before further processing. In vapor axial deposition, a short seed rod is used, and a porous preform, whose length is not limited by the size of the source rod, is built up on its end. The porous preform is consolidated into a transparent, solid preform by heating to about 1800 K (1500 C, 2800 F). The preform, however constructed, is then placed in a device known as a drawing tower, where the preform tip is heated and the optic fiber is pulled out as a string. By measuring the resultant fiber width, the tension on the fiber can be controlled to maintain the fiber thickness.

VI. Advantages of optical fibre communication

1. Wider bandwidth: The information carrying capacity of a transmission system is directly proportional to the carrier frequency of the transmitted signals. The optical carrier frequency is in the range 1013 to 1015 Hz while the radio wave frequency is about 106 Hz and the microwave frequency is about 1010 Hz. Thus the optical fiber yields greater transmission bandwidth than the conventional communication systems and the data rate or number of bits per second is increased to a greater extent in the optical fiber communication system. Further the wavelength divisionmultiplexing operation by the data rate or information carrying capacity of optical fibers is enhanced to many orders of magnitude. 2. Low transmission loss: Due to the usage of the ultra low loss fibers and the erbium doped silica fibers as optical amplifiers, one can achieve almost lossless transmission. In the modern optical fiber telecommunication systems, the fibers having a transmission loss of 0.002 dB/km are used. Further, using erbium doped silica fibers over a short length in the transmission path at selective points, appropriate optical amplification can be achieved. Thus the repeater spacing is more than 100 km. Since the amplification is done in the optical domain itself, the distortion produced during the strengthening of the signal is almost negligible. 3. Dielectric waveguide: Optical fibers are made fromsilica which is an electrical insulator. Therefore they do not pickup any electromagnetic wave or any high current lightning. It is also suitable in explosive environments. Further the optical fibers are not affected by any interference originating from power cables, railway power lines and radio waves. There is no cross talk between the fibers even though there are so many fibers in a cable because of the absence of optical interference between the fibers. 4. Signal security: The transmitted signal through the fibers does not radiate. Further the signal cannot be tapped from a fiber in an easy manner. Therefore optical fiber communication provides hundred per cent signal security.

5. Small size and weight: Fiber optic cables are developed with small radii, and they are flexible, compact and lightweight. The fiber cables can be bent or twisted without damage. Further, the optical fiber cables are superior to the copper cables in terms of storage, handling, installation and transportation, maintaining comparable strength and durability.

VII. Summary
The operation of optical fibres depends on total internal reflection and the index of refraction of that fibre material. Types of fibres include step index and graded index and single and multimode fibres. Material dispersion, waveguide dispersion, and intermodal dispersion are the main sources for losses in fibres. Fibres are made of eithersilica, fluorides, phosphates, or chalcogenides. Common processing methods for preforms are inside vapour deposition, outside vapour deposition, and vapour axial deposition. Optical fibres are popularly used due to advantages like wide bandwidth, signal security, small size, small weight, low transmission losses etc.