ATTENUATION The optical fiber communication is specially useful due to very low transmission losses as compared to metallic conductors.

The signal attenuation within optical fibers is expressed in the logarithmic unit of decibel as in metallic conductors. The unit decibel is used to compare the two power levels of given wavelength. If Pi is input (transmitted) power and Po is output (received) optical power, then the number of decibels is given by Number of decibels
(dB ) = 0 log
0

Pi P0

( )

The logarithmic unit has the advantage that the operations of multiplication and division are converted into addition and subtraction, while powers and roots are converted into multiplication and division. !rom e"n. ( )
P0 = 0 ( dB # Pi
0)

In optical fiber communication, the attenuation is usually expressed in decibels per unit length (i.e., dB km ). accordingly, if dB is signal attenuation per unit length in decibels and $ is the length of optical fiber in %m, then
Pi P0

dB L = 0 log
dB =
0 log L

Pi P0

SIGNAL LOSS IN OPTICAL FIBER: &hen a signal passes through an optical fiber, there is a loss of signal (or dissipation of power) due to a number of factors depending on wavelength. In broad sense, the absorption of light may be intrinsic (caused by interaction of light with one or more ma'or components of glass) or extrinsic (caused by impurities within the glass). . Intrinsic Absorption( ) pure **. +lass has a very small intrinsic absorption due to its basic material structure in the near infrared region. ,owever, it has two ma'or absorption mechanisms in the region of optical wavelengths. The

absorption pea%s are in ultraviolet wavelength region and infrared and far infrared m. !ig. shows attenuation spectra for region normally above wavelength - intrinsic loss mechanisms in pure GeO. SiO. glass. The strong electronic absorption occurs at ultraviolet region. The absorption in infrared region is due to interaction of photons with molecular vibrations within the glass. The strong absorption bands occur due to oscillations of structural units such as
Si O (0.. m), P O (/. m), B O (-.. m) and Ge O ( .0 m) wi

thin the glass.

m, the tails of these largely far infrared absorption ,ence above .1

pea%s, tend to cause most of pure glass losses.

0.. 0

0./ ..0

0.0

.0

..

.2

.3

.4

.-

./

The affects of both these processes may be minimi5ed by proper choice of both core and cladding materials. .. Extrinsic Absorption: In practical fibers there are some external impurities. There is signal loss due to presence of these metallic impurities. Table shows absorption losses caused by part in 0 0 due to some common metallic impurities.

Impurity
Cr
2+

Loss in dB km .4 0. . 0.4/ 0. 1 0. 0.. ..-

P !" #!$ % n&t' nm 4.1 4/1 /10 00 300 410 340 -.1

C .+ Cu . + Fe . + Fe 2+ Ni V
.+

Mn 2+
3+

It is obvious that some of these impurities, namely chromium and copper in their worst valence state cause very much attenuation even more than infrared region. )nother ma'or extrinsic loss mechanism is caused by absorption due to water (6,7 ion) dissolved in glass. These hydroxyl groups are bonded into glass structure and have fundamental stretching vibrations. Lin !r Sc!tt rin& Loss s( $inear scattering mechanism causes transfer of some or all optical power of one propagating mode to the other in linear manner. This process results into attenuation of the transmitted power because the transfer may give rise to lea%y radiation which does not propagate within the fiber core. (r )u ncy r m!ins unc'!n& d* $inear processes may be of two types( (i) 8ayleigh 9cattering, and (ii) &aveguide #:icro7bend loss. R!y% i&' Sc!tt rin& ( It is a dominant intrinsic loss mechanism. It results due to random in homogeneities of dimensions smaller than the wavelength. These in7homogeneities arise from density and compositional variations fro5en into glass lattice on cooling and give rise to refractive index fluctuations. The compositional variations may be reduced by improved fabrication but the density in7homogeneities are fundamental and can not be avoided. The density fluctuations occur almost in all In %in !r proc ss s t'
dB km in the near

directions and produces attenuation proportional to

following to 8ayleigh scattering.

+ii,#!$ &uid - .icro/b nd %oss: The linear scattering may also occurs at in7 homogeneities having dimensions comparable with guided wavelength. This result due to imperfect cylindrical structure of the wavelength i.e., fiber imperfection such as irregularities in the core7cladding interface, core7cladding refractive index differences along the fiber length, diameter fluctuations, strains and bubbles. The scattering produced by in-homogeneities of dimensions comparable with the wavelength has angular dependence and is called the micro-bend scattering. ;epending on the fiber material, design and manufacture, micro7bend scattering can cause significant losses. The in7homogeneities may be reduced by7 (a) removing imperfections due to the glass fabrication process, (b) carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber, (c) Increasing the relative refractive index difference thus increasing the fiber guidance.