Distortion of signals

Attenuation: Reduction in power

level
Material: absorption and
scattering
Microbending
Radiation (Macrobending)

Dispersion: Pulse broadening

Material
Intramodal
Intermodal (multimode fibers)

evolution
Attenuation:
1966: High attenuation due to caused by impurities such as iron,
copper, manganese and other transition metals.
1970: 20 dB km1
1980s: 0.2 dB km1
Dispersion
Bandwidth is limited by the signal dispersion within the fiber, which
determines the number of bits of information transmitted in a given
time period

Effects of Dispersion and Attenuation

Terminologies of communication

attenuation
input (transmitted) optical power Pi into a fiber to the output
(received) optical power Po from the fiber as:

In optical fiber communications the attenuation is usually

expressed in decibels per unit length (i.e. dB km1) following:

where dB is the signal attenuation per unit length in decibels

which is also referred to as the fiber loss parameter and L is the
fiber length.

Ans: (a) 16.0 dB,(b) 2.0 dB km1, (c) 29 dB, (d)

due to the stimulation of electron transitions

within the glass by higher energy excitations

due to oscillations of structural units such as

SiO (9.2 m), PO (8.1 m),BO (7.2 m)
and GeO (11.0 m) within the glass.

Material absorption losses in

silica glass fibers
Related to the material composition and the fabrication process for the fiber,
which results in the dissipation of some of the transmitted optical power as
heat in the waveguide.
The absorption of the light may be intrinsic (caused by the interaction with
one or more of the major components of the glass) or extrinsic (caused by
impurities within the glass).

Intrinsic absorption
Ultraviolet absorption
Infrared absorption

extrinsic absorption

Absorption peaks at 1.38, 0.95 and 0.72 m

The absorption spectrum for the hydroxyl (OH) group in silica.

Linear scattering losses

Rayleigh scattering
Dominant in low-absorption window between the ultraviolet and infrared
absorption tails.
It results from inhomogeneities of a random nature occurring on a small
scale compared with the wavelength of the light.
These inhomogeneities manifest themselves as refractive index
fluctuations and arise from density and compositional variations which are
frozen into the glass lattice on cooling.

where R is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, is the optical wavelength, n

is the refractive index of the medium, p is the average photoelastic
coefficient, c is the isothermal compressibility at a fictive temperature TF,
and K is Boltzmanns constant.
transmission loss factor (transmissivity) of
the fiber
where L is the length of the fiber.

Mie scattering
caused by fiber imperfections such as irregularities in the core
cladding interface, corecladding refractive index differences along the
fiber length, diameter fluctuations, strains and bubbles.
When the scattering inhomogeneity size is greater than /10, the
scattered intensity which has an angular dependence can be very large.
The inhomogeneities may be reduced by:
(a) removing imperfections due to the glass manufacturing process;
(b) carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber;
(c) increasing the fiber guidance by increasing the relative refractive
index difference.

Characteristics of optical fiber in non linear region

Linear effects: Systems are operated at moderate power (a few milliwatts)
and at bit rates up to about 2.5 Gb/s.
Non linear effects: at higher bit rates such as 10 Gb/s and above and/or at
higher transmitted powers.

Non linear effects

due to the interaction of light waves
with phonons (molecular vibrations)
in the silica medium.
stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)
stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)

due to the dependence of the

refractive index on the intensity
of the applied electric field.
(Kerr effects)

n(t) = n0 +n2I (t),

self-phase modulation (SPM)
Cross phase modulation (XPM)
four-wave mixing (FWM)

Nonlinear scattering
The nonlinear scattering processes are inelastic in nature because the
scattered wave does not have the same frequency as the incident wave.
The frequency shifts associated with inelastic scattering can be small
(less than 1 cm1), which typifies Brillouin scattering with an acoustic
frequency phonon. Larger frequency shifts (greater than 100 cm1)
characterize the Raman regime where the photon is scattered by local
molecular vibrations or by optical frequency phonons.
The nonlinear scattering causes the optical power from one mode to be
transferred in either the forward or backward direction to the same, or
other modes, at a different frequency. It depends critically upon the
optical power density within the fiber and hence only becomes significant
above threshold power levels.
Brillouin and Raman scattering, both of which are usually only observed
at high optical power densities in long single-mode fibers.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) may be regarded as the modulation
of light through thermal molecular vibrations within the fiber.
The scattered light appears as upper and lower sidebands which are
separated from the incident light by the modulation frequency.
The incident photon in this scattering process produces a phonon of
acoustic frequency as well as a scattered photon. This produces an optical
frequency shift which varies with the scattering angle because the
frequency of the sound wave varies with acoustic wavelength.
Other characteristics of SBS are that the Stokes wave propagates in the
opposite direction of the input light, and SBS occurs at relatively low input
powers.
The intensity of the scattered light is much greater in SBS than in SRS,
but the frequency range of SBS, on the order of 10 GHz, is much lower
than that of SRS.

Brillouin scattering is only significant above a threshold power

density.
where d and are the fiber core diameter and the operating
wavelength, respectively, both measured in micrometers, dB is
the fiber attenuation in decibels per kilometer and is the source
bandwidth (i.e. injection laser) in gigahertz.

Stimulated Raman scattering

It is caused by the interaction of light with molecular vibrations. Light
incident on the molecules creates scattered light at a longer wavelength
difference than that of the incident light.
The light generated at the lower frequencies is called the Stokes wave.
The fraction of power transferred to the Stokes wave grows rapidly as
the power of the input signal is increased. Under very high input power,
SRS will cause almost all of the power in the input signal to be transferred
to the Stokes wave.
Both the forward and backward directions.
Optical power threshold of up to three orders of magnitude higher than
the Brillouin threshold in a particular fiber.

Self phase modulation

High power signal---> refractive index variation---> velocity
change---> phase change---> Unstable continuous propagation--->
perturbation in the pulse shape---> chirping of the pulse

Cross-Phase Modulation
XPM is basically the cumulative effect of SPM on multichannel
WDM systems .
The intensity-dependent nonlinear effects are enhanced since the
combined signal from all the channels can be quite intense, even when
individual channels are operated at moderate powers.
Thus the intensity-dependent phase shift, and consequent chirping,
induced by SPM alone is enhanced because of the intensities of the
signals in the other channels.

Four wave mixing

In a WDM system using the angular frequencies 1, . . . ,n, the
intensity dependence of the refractive index not only induces phase
shifts within a channel but also gives rise to signals at new frequencies
such as 2ij and i+j k.
four-wave mixing effect is independent of the bit rate but is critically
dependent on the channel spacing and fiber chromatic dispersion.
Decreasing the channel spacing increases the four-wave mixing
effect, and so does decreasing the chromatic dispersion.

Fiber bend loss

This is due to the energy in the evanescent field at the bend exceeding the
velocity of light in the cladding and hence the guidance mechanism is
inhibited, which causes light energy to be radiated from the fiber.

radiation attenuation coefficient

where R is the radius of curvature of the fiber bend and c1, c2 are constants
which are independent of R.
critical radius of curvature
It may be observed from the expression given in Eq. (3.8) that potential
macrobending losses may be reduced by:
(a) designing fibers with large relative refractive index differences;
(b) operating at the shortest wavelength possible.

Microbending
This is due to environmental effects, particularly temperature
variations causing differential expansion or contraction.
Microbending introduces slight surface imperfections which can
cause mode coupling between adjacent modes, which in turn
creates a radiative loss which is dependent on the amount of applied
fiber deformation, the length of fiber, and the exact distribution of
power among the different modes.

Phase and group velocity

As a monochromatic lightwave propagates along a waveguide in the z
direction these points of constant phase travel at a phase velocity p
given by:
where is the angular frequency of the wave.
it is impossible in practice to produce perfectly monochromatic lightwaves,
and light energy is generally composed of a sum of plane wave components
of different frequencies.
This wave packet does not travel at the phase velocity of the individual
waves but is observed to move at a group velocity g given by:

Dispersion
causes distortion for both digital and analog transmission along optical
fibers.
fiber cause broadening of the transmitted light pulses as they travel
along the channel. each pulse broadens and overlaps with its neighbors,
eventually becoming indistinguishable at the receiver input. The effect
is known as intersymbol interference (ISI).signal dispersion alone limits
the maximum possible bandwidth attainable.
For no overlapping of light pulses down on an optical fiber link the
digital bit rate BT must be less than the reciprocal of the broadened
(through dispersion) pulse duration (2).

Intramodal dispersion
results from the finite spectral linewidth of the optical source.
there may be propagation delay differences between the different
spectral components of the transmitted signal.
The delay differences may be caused by the dispersive properties of the
waveguide material (material dispersion) and also guidance effects
within the fiber structure (waveguide dispersion).
Material dispersion
Pulse broadening due to material dispersion results from the different
group velocities of the various spectral components launched into the
fiber from the optical source.
The pulse spread due to material dispersion may be obtained by
considering the group delay g in the optical fiber which is the
reciprocal of the group velocity g

The pulse delay m due to material dispersion in a fiber of length L

For a source with rms spectral width and a mean wavelength , the
rms pulse broadening due to material dispersion m may be obtained
from the expansion of Eq. in a Taylor series about where:

As the first term in Eq. usually dominates

Hence the pulse spread may be evaluated by considering the dependence

of m on ,

Therefore, from above two equations, the rms pulse broadening due
to material dispersion is given by:

material dispersion parameter

and which is often expressed in units of ps nm1 km1.

Waveguide dispersion
This results from the variation in group velocity with wavelength for a
particular mode.
Multimode fibers, where the majority of modes propagate far from
cutoff, are almost free of waveguide dispersion and it is generally
negligible compared with material dispersion.
However, with single-mode fibers where the effects of the different
dispersion mechanisms are not easy to separate, waveguide dispersion
may be significant

Intermodal dispersion

Using Snells law of refraction at the corecladding interface

where n2 is the refractive index of the cladding. Furthermore, substituting
into previous Eq. for cos gives:
The delay difference Ts between the extreme meridional ray and the axial
ray may be obtained by subtracting

Refractive index parameter

The material dispersion parameter (DM), the waveguide dispersion

parameter (DW) and the total dispersion parameter (DT) as functions
of wavelength
for a conventional single-mode fiber

Polarizations of fundamental mode

Two polarization states exist in the

fundamental mode in a single mode
fiber

Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)

Each polarization
state has a
different velocity
PMD

Fiber birefringence
When the fiber cross-section is independent of the fiber length L in the z
direction, then the modal birefringence BF for the fiber is given by

where is the optical wavelength. Light polarized along one of the

principal axes willretain its polarization for all L. The difference in phase
velocities causes the fiber to exhibit a linear retardation (z) which
depends on the fiber length L in the z direction and is given by
It may be shown [Ref. 82] that birefringent coherence is maintained
over a length of fiber Lbc (i.e. coherence length) when:

where c is the velocity of light in a vacuum and is the source

linewidth.

The characteristic length LB for this process corresponding to the

propagation distance for which a 2 phase difference accumulates
between the two modes is known as the beat length. It is given by:

An illustration of the beat length in a single-mode optical fiber: (a) the polarization states
against (z); (b) the light intensity distribution over the beat length within the fiber

The energy transfer is at a maximum when the perturbations

have a period , corresponding to the beat length, and defined by

Hence polarization-maintaining fibers

may be designed by either:
(a) high (large) birefringence: the maximization of the fiber
birefringence may be achieved by reducing the beat length LB to
around 1 mm or less; or
(b) low (small) birefringence: the minimization of the polarization
coupling perturbations with a period of . This may be achieved by
increasing c giving a large beat length of around 50 m or more.

Polarization-maintaining fiber

HB

LB
Polarization-maintaining fiber types classified from a linear polarization
maintenance viewpoint. PM: polarization-maintaining, HB: high-birefringence, LB:
low-birefringence, SP: single-polarization, TP: two-polarization, GE: geometrical
effect, SE: stress effect

Polarization-maintaining fiber structure: (a) elliptical core; (b) sidepit

fiber; (c) elliptical stress cladding; (d) bow-tie stress regions; (e)
circular stress
regions (PANDA fiber); (f) flat fiber; (g) twisted fiber

The Kerr
effect,
also
called
the quadratic
electro-optic
effect (QEO effect), is a change in the refractive index of a material in
response to an applied electric field.
Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical effect of lightmatter interaction. An ultrashort pulse of light, when travelling in a
medium, will induce a varying refractive index of the medium due to
the optical Kerr effect. This variation in refractive index
will produce a phase shift in the pulse, leading to a change of the
pulse's frequency spectrum.
Cross-phase modulation (XPM) is a nonlinear optical effect where one
wavelength of light can affect the phase of another wavelength of light
through the optical Kerr effect.
Four-wave mixing is an intermodulation phenomenon in non-linear
optics, whereby interactions between two wavelengths produce two extra
wavelengths in the signal. It is similar to the third-order intercept point in
electrical systems.

Core and cladding losses

The refractive indices of core and cladding are different and because of this
they have different compositions. Therefore the attenuation coefficients for
core and cladding will be different. The attenuation coefficient for core and
cladding may be denoted by 1 and 2.
The loss for a step index waveguide is expressed as:

and

are fractional powers. Therefore above equations can

be written as

For graded index fibers

Where 1 and 2 are axial and cladding attenuation coefficients.

Dispersion
Shifting/Flattening

Dispersion Shifting: shift to longer wavelength by reducing the core

diameter and increasing the fractional index difference. Typical values
for the two parameters are 4.4 m and 0.012 respectively
fibers produced exhibit relatively high dopant-dependent losses at
operation wavelengths around 1.55 m. This excess optical loss, which
may be of the order of 2 dB km1, could be caused by stress-induced
defects which occur in the region of the corecladding interface

Advanced refractive index profiles for dispersion-shifted fibers: (a)

triangular profile multiple index design; (b) segmented-core
triangular profile design;
(c) dual-shaped core design

Dispersion-flattened fibers
The original W fiber structure mentioned in Section 3.12.1 was initially
employed to modify the dispersion characteristics of single-mode fibers
in order to give two wavelengths of zero dispersion,
However, drawbacks with the W structural design included the
requirement for a high degree of dimensional control so as to make
reproducible DFF, comparatively high overall fiber losses (around 0.3 dB
km1),

Dispersion-flattened fiber refractive index profiles: (a) double clad fiber

(W fiber); (b) triple clad fiber; (c) quadruple clad fiber

Dispersion measurement technique

There are two basic techniques to measure the dispersion:

By measuring frequency response H(f).
By measuring impulse response h(t).

Frequency domain technique

Signals of varying frequencies are launched into the test fiber and the
power exiting the fiber at the launched fundamental frequency is
measured.
The optical output power is denoted as Pout(f).
The fiber is then cut back or replaced with a short length of fiber of the
same type.
Signals of the same frequencies are launched into the fiber and the power
measured at exiting end is Pin(f).
The magnitude of the optical fiber frequency response is
This is 3 dB optical power frequency and is known as fiber bandwidth

Time domain technique

where i(3 dB) and o(3 dB) are the 3 dB pulse widths at the fiber
input and output, respectively, and (3 dB) is the width of the fiber
impulse response again measured at half the maximum amplitude.

attenuaton measurement technique

Optical fiber connection:

joints,couplers and isolators
Repeater spacing on optical fiber telecommunication links is a
continuously increasing parameter with currently installed
digital systems operating over spacings in the range 40 to 60
km at transmission rates of between 2.5 Gbit s1 and 10 Gbit
s1.
a transatlantic optical fiber system operating over a distance
of 6000 km employs 120 optical repeaters with a 50 km
spacing and is capable of carrying 32 wavelength division
multiplexedconnection
channels each at a transmission rate of 10 Gbit
fiberfiber
s1
1.
Fiber splices. These are semipermanent or permanent joints which
find major use in
most optical fiber telecommunication systems (analogous to electrical
soldered joints).
2. Demountable fiber connectors or simple connectors. These are
removable joints
which allow easy, fast, manual coupling and uncoupling of fibers
(analogous to
electrical plugs and sockets).
A crucial aspect of fiber jointing concerns the optical
loss associated with the connection. This joint loss is critically
dependent upon the alignment

fiber couplers are branching devices that split all the light from a main
fiber into two or more fibers or, alternatively, couple a proportion of
the light propagating in the main fiber into a branch fiber.
Fiber alignment and joint loss
optical loss encountered at the interface.
Even when the two jointed fiber ends are smooth and perpendicular
to the fiber axes, and the two fiber axes are perfectly aligned, a small
proportion of the light may be reflected back into the transmitting
fiber causing attenuation at the joint. This phenomenon, known as
Fresnel reflection
where r is the fraction of the light reflected at a single interface, n1 is
the refractive index of the fiber core and n is the refractive index of
the medium between the two jointed fibers (i.e. for air n = 1).
index-matching fluid in the gap between the jointed fibers.
A potentially greater source of loss at a fiberfiber connection is
caused by misalignment of the two jointed fibers.

The three possible types of misalignment which may occur when jointing
compatible optical fibers [Ref. 9]: (a) longitudinal misalignment; (b) latera
misalignment; (c) angular misalignment
(a) different core and/or cladding diameters;
(b) different numerical apertures and/or relative refractive index
differences;
(c) different refractive index profiles;
(d) fiber faults (core ellipticity, core concentricity, etc.).
Optical losses resulting from these three types of misalignment depend
upon the fiber
type, core diameter and the distribution of the optical power between
the propagating
modes.
It may be observed that the lateral misalignment gives significantly

Some intrinsic coupling losses at fiber joints: (a) core diameter mismatch; (b)
numerical aperture mismatch; (c) refractive index profile difference

Splices:
A permanent joint formed between two individual optical fibers in the
field or factory is known as a fiber splice.
Typical average splice insertion losses for multimode fibers are in the
range 0.1 to 0.2 dB.
1) Fusion splice
2) Mechanical splice

Optical fiber end preparation: the principle of scribe and break cutting

1) Fusion splice

It has been utilized with multimode fibers giving average splice losses

An early field trial of single-mode fiber fusion splicing over a 31.6 km

link gave mean splice insertion losses of 0.18 and 0.12 dB at
wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 m respectively

Self-alignment phenomenon which takes place during fusion splicing:

(a) before fusion; (b) during fusion; (c) after fusion

Average insertion losses as

low as 0.1 dB have been
obtained with multimode
graded index and single-mode
fibers using ceramic capillaries.
Mean splice insertion losses of
0.073 dB have been achieved
using multimode graded index
fibers with the loose tube
approach.

2) Mechanical splice

Techniques for tube splicing of optical fibers: (a) snug tube splice

(b) loose tube splice

joint
insertion
losses of
around
0.1 dB

V-groove splices

The elastomeric splice : (a) cross-section; (b) assembly

The splice loss for

the elastic tube
device was
originally reported
as 0.12 dB or less
but is generally
specified as around
0.25 dB for the
commercial
product.
Mean
splice
insertion
losses of
0.05 dB

The Springroove splice [Ref. 55]: (a) expanded overview of the splice;
(b) schematic cross-section of the splice

Normal assembly of the

splice using 50 m core
diameter fiber yields an
average loss of around
0.2 dB
Multimode fiber mechanical splice using glass capillary tubes

Multiple-fiber splicing using a silicon chip array

Fiber connectors
Types of connectors
(a) the fiber termination, which protects and locates the fiber ends;
(b) the fiber end alignment to provide optimum optical coupling;
(c) the outer shell, which maintains the connection and the fiber
alignment, protects thefiber ends from the environment and provides
adequate strength at the joint.
Cylindrical ferrule connectors
It is essential with this type of connector that the fiber end faces are
smooth and square (i.e. perpendicular to the fiber axis). This may
be achieved with varying success by:
(a) cleaving the fiber before insertion into the ferrule;
(b) inserting and bonding before cleaving the fiber close to the
ferrule end face;
(c) using either (a) or (b) and polishing the fiber end face until it is
flush with the end of the ferrule.

Ferrule connectors: (a) structure of a basic ferrule connector ;(b) structure of

a watch jewel connector ferrule

Expanded beam connectors

Schematic illustration of an expanded beam connector showing the

principle of operation

Lens-coupled expanded beam connectors: (a) schematic diagram of a

connector with two microlenses making a 1:1 image of the emitting fiber
upon the receiving one ; (b) molded plastic lens connector assembly

GRIN(Graded index)-rod lenses

Formation of a collimated output

beam from a GRIN-rod lens

Operation of
various GRIN-rod

Fiber couplers
Optical fiber couplers are often passive devices in which the power
transfer takes
place either:
(a) through the fiber core cross-section by butt jointing the fibers or
by using some
form of imaging optics between the fibers (core interaction type); or
(b) through the fiber surface and normal to its axis by converting
the guided core
modes to both cladding and refracted modes which then enable the
power-sharing
mechanism (surface interaction type).

Classification of optical fiber couplers: (a) core interaction type; (b)

surface interaction type

Multiport optical fiber couplers can also be subdivided into the following
three main
groups [Ref. 86], as illustrated in Figure
1. Three- and four-port couplers, which are used for signal splitting,
distribution
and combining.
2. Star couplers, which are generally used for distributing a single input
signal to
multiple outputs.
3. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) devices, which are a
specialized form of
coupler designed to permit a number of different peak wavelength
optical signals
to be transmitted in parallel on a single fiber

Optical fiber coupler types and functions: (a) three-port couplers;(b)

four-port coupler; (c) star coupler; (d) wavelength division multiplexing
and demultiplexing couplers

Three- and four-port couplers

Fabrication techniques for three-port

fiber couplers: (a) the lateral offset
method; (b) the semitransparent
mirror method

GRIN-rod lens micro-optic fiber

couplers: (a) parallel surface type;(b)
slant surface type

Structure and principle of operation for the fiber fused biconical taper
coupler

multimode fiber integrated waveguide three-port

coupler
Star couplers

Wavelength division multiplexing couplers

GRIN-rod lensed bandpass demultiplexer

Optical isolators and circulators

Schematic diagram of an optical fiber core containing four fiber

Bragg gratings
The reflections are dependent on the Bragg wavelength, B, given
by:
B = 2n

Optical isolation and circulation: (a) functional schematic of an optical

fiber isolator; (b) three-port optical circulator; (c) four-port optical circulator