Micro bending Loss

Micro bending Loss: microscopic bends of the fiber axis that can arise when the fibers are incorporated into cables. The power is dissipated through the micro bended fiber, because of the repetitive coupling of energy between guided modes & the leaky or radiation modes in the fiber. One method of minimizing micro bending losses is by extruding a compressible jacket over the fiber. When external forces are applied to this configuration the jacket will be deformed but fiber will tend to stay relatively straight.

Signal distortion in optical fibers

An optical signal becomes increasingly distorted as it travels along a fiber is a consequence of intramodal dispersion and intermodal delay effects. Group velocity: is the speed at which energy in a particular mode travels along the fiber The group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the overall shape of the wave's amplitudes known as the modulation or envelope of the wave propagates through space.

Dispersion
In optics, dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency or alternatively when the group velocity depends on the frequency. Dispersion is sometimes called chromatic dispersion to emphasize its wavelength-dependent nature, or group-velocity dispersion (GVD) to emphasize the role of the group velocity The most familiar example of dispersion is probably a rainbow, in which dispersion causes the spatial separation of a white light into components of different wavelengths. GVD causes pulses to spread in optical fibers, degrading signals over long distances Intramodal dispersion is pulse spreading that occurs within a single mode. Because intramodal dispersion depends upon wavelength its effect on signal distortion increases with spectral width of optical source. Spectral width is the band of wavelength over which source emits light.

Group Velocity
Wave Velocities: 1- Plane wave velocity: For a plane wave propagating along z-axis in an unbounded homogeneous region of refractive index n 1 , which is represented by exp( j t  jk1 z ) , the velocity of constant phase plane is:
v! [ c ! k1 n1
[3-4]

2- Modal wave phase velocity: For a modal wave propagating along z-axis represented by exp( j t  j F z ) , the velocity of constant phase plane is:

F 3- For transmission system operation the most important & useful type of velocity is the group velocity, V g . This is the actual velocity which the signal information & energy is traveling down the fiber. It is always less than the speed of light in the medium. The observable delay experiences by the optical signal waveform & energy, when traveling a length of l along the fiber is commonly referred to as group delay.

vp !

[3-5]

Group Velocity & Group Delay

The group velocity is given by:

d Vg ! dF
The group delay is given by:

[3-6]

l dF Xg ! !l Vg d

[3-7]

It is important to note that all above quantities depend both on frequency & the propagation mode. In order to see the effect of these parameters on group velocity and delay, the following analysis would be helpful.

Intramodal dispersion
It is a pulse spreading that occurs within a single mode. Two main causes of intramodal dispersion are as follows 1. Material dispersion: arises from variations of the refractive index of the core material as a function of wavelength. This causes wavelength dependence of the group velocity and pulse broadening occurs when different wavelength follows same path 2. Waveguide dispersion : occurs because a single mode fiber confines only about 80 % of optical power in core. Dispersion thus arises since 20% of light propagating in the cladding travels faster than the light in core. The other factor giving rise to pulse spreading is intermodal delay, which is result of each mode having a different value of the group velocity at a single frequency.

Information capacity determination

A result of the dispersion induced signal distortion is that a light pulse will broaden as it travels along the fiber . As shown in fig. this pulse broadening will eventually cause a pulse to overlap with neighboring pulses. After a certain amount of overlap adjacent pulse no longer be individually distinguished at the receiver and errors will occur. which is called intersymbol interference A measure of information capacity of an optical fiber for digital transmission is usually specified by the bandwidth distance product in GHz.km./MHz.km For multi-mode step index fiber this quantity is about 20 MHz.km, for graded index fiber is about 2.5 GHz.km & for single mode fibers are higher than 10 GHz.km.

Group delay
Let us examine the signal that modulates an optical source. We shall assume that the modulated optical signal excites all modes at the input end of fiber. Each mode thus carries equal amount of energy through the fiber, each mode contains all the spectral components in the wavelength . The signal may be considered as modulating each of these spectral components in the same way. As the signal propagates along the fiber, each spectral component can be assumed to travel independently and to undergo a time delay or group delay per unit length in the direction of propagation.

How to characterize dispersion?

Group delay per unit length can be defined as:
X dF 1 dF P2 dF ! ! !  L d c dk 2T c d P
g

Here L is distance travelled by the pulses, is the propagation constant since the group velocity depends on the wavelength, each spectral component of any particular mode takes a different amount of time to travel a certain distance. As a result of this difference in time delays the optical signal pulse spreads out with time as it transmitted over fiber. Thus quantity we are interested in is the amount of pulse spreading that arises from group delay variations.

If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, then the delay difference per unit wavelength along the propagation path is approximately d X g
dP

For spectral components which are HP apart, symmetrical around center wavelength, the total delay difference HX over a distance L is:
2 L dF 2 d F HP 2P P HX ! HP !  2 dP dP 2T c dP

dX g

dX d ! H[ ! d[ d[

L V g

d 2F H[ ! L d[ 2

H[

is called GVD parameter, and shows how much a light pulse broadens as it travels along an optical fiber. The more common parameter is called Dispersion, and can be defined as the delay difference per unit length per unit wavelength as follows:

d 2F F2 | d[ 2

d 1 dX g D ! ! L dP dP

1 V g

!  2T c F 2 P2

[3-17]

In the case of optical pulse, if the spectral width of the optical source is characterized by its rms value of the Gaussian pulse W P , the pulse spreading over the length of L, W g can be well approximated by:

Wg }

dX g dP

W P ! DLW P

[3-18]

D has a typical unit of [ps/(nm.km)].

Material Dispersion
Input v g (P 1 ) Emitter ery short light pulse v g (P 2 )
Cladding Core

utput

Intensity Spectrum, P

Intensity

Intensity Spread, X

P1

Po

P2

t X

ll excitation sources are inherently non-monochromatic and emit ithin a spectrum, P, o avelengths. Waves in the guide ith di erent ree space avelengths travel at di erent group velocities due to the avelength dependence o n 1 . The aves arrive at the end o the iber at di erent times and hence result in a broadened output pulse.
1999 S. . Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice all)

Material Dispersion
The refractive index of the material varies as a function of wavelength, n(P ) Material-induced dispersion for a plane wave propagation in homogeneous medium of refractive index n:

P2 dF P2 d 2T dF X mat ! L ! ! L L P n (P ) d 2Tc dP 2Tc dP L dn ! n  P c dP

The pulse spread due to material dispersion is therefore:

[3-19]

dX mat LW P d 2 n Wg } WP ! P 2 ! LW P Dmat (P ) dP c dP
Dmat (P ) is material dispersion

[3-20]

Material Dispersion Diagrams

Waveguide Dispersion
Waveguide dispersion is due to the dependency of the group velocity of the fundamental mode as well as other modes on the V number. In order to calculate waveguide dispersion, we consider that n is not dependent on wavelength. Defining the normalized propagation constant b as:

F 2 / k 2  n2 F / k  n2 b! } 2 2 n1  n2 n1  n2
2

[3-21]

solving for propagation constant:

F } n2 k (1  b()
Using V number:

[3-22]

V ! ka(n1  n2 )1/ 2 } kan2 2(

[3-23]

Waveguide Dispersion
Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be expressed as:

X wg

d (Vb) L ! n2  n2 ( dV c

[3-24]

Waveguide dispersion in single mode fibers

For single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion is in the same order of material dispersion. The pulse spread can be well approximated as:

W wg

n2 L(W P d 2 (Vb) } W P ! LW P Dwg (P ) ! V dP cP dV 2

Dwg ( P )

dX wg

[3-25]

Polarization-mode Dispersion
The effects of fiber birefringence on the polarization states of an optical signal are another source of pulse broadening. This is particularly critical for high rate longhaul transmission links that are designed to operate near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber. Birefringence can result from intrinsic factors such as geometric irregularities of the fiber core or internal stresses on it. External factors such as bending, twisting or pinching of the fiber can also lead to birefringence.

Polarization Mode dispersion

Intensity

t
Output light pulse n1 y // y ore Ex Ey Ey

(X

Ex (X = Pulse spread

n1 x // x

t
Input light pulse

Suppose that the core refractive index has different values along two orthogonal directions corresponding to electric field oscillation direction (polarizations). We can take x and y axes along these directions. An input light will travel along the fiber with Ex and Ey polarizations having different group velocities and hence arrive at the output at different times
1999 S.O. asap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)

Polarization Mode dispersion

The effects of fiber-birefringence on the polarization states of an optical are another source of pulse broadening. Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is due to slightly different velocity for each polarization mode because of the lack of perfectly symmetric & anisotropicity of the fiber. If the group velocities of two orthogonal polarization modes are v gx and v gy then the differential time delay (X pol between these two polarization over a distance L is

(X pol

L L !  vgx vgy

[3-26]

The rms value of the differential group delay can be approximated as:

(X pol } DPMD L

[3-27]

Chromatic & Total Dispersion

Chromatic dispersion includes the material & waveguide dispersions.

Dch (P ) } Dmat  Dwg

[3-28]

W ch ! Dch (P ) LW P
Total dispersion is the sum of chromatic , polarization dispersion and other dispersion types and the total rms pulse spreading can be approximately written as:

Dtotal } Dch  D pol  ... W total ! Dtotal LW P

[3-29]

Total Dispersion, zero Dispersion

Fact 1) Minimum distortion at wavelength about 1300 nm for single mode silica fiber. Fact 2) Minimum attenuation is at 1550 nm for sinlge mode silica fiber. Strategy: shifting the zero-dispersion to longer wavelength for minimum attenuation and dispersion.

Pulse broadening in graded index waveguides

The rms pulse broadening in a graded index fiber can be obtained from the sum Where is the rms pulse width resulting from intermodal delay distortion and is the rms pulse width resulting from pulse broadening within each mode. the intermodal delay distortion can be found out using relationship connecting intermodal delay to pulse broadening as where the group delay mode. depends upon the order of the

since the parameter general

vm

denotes the roots of the modal equation in

The quantities averages of is And

and and

are then defined as the over the mode equation, that

Where Pvm is the optical power contained in the mode of the order(v, m) and M is the number of fiber modes For simplicity if we omit the subscript v and m then

..

The group delay is the time it takes energy in a mode having a propagation constant to travel a distance L. to evaluate it we use following expression for

Optimum single mode fiber & distortion/attenuation characteristics

Fact 1) Minimum distortion at wavelength about 1300 nm for single mode silica fiber. Fact 2) Minimum attenuation is at 1550 nm for sinlge mode silica fiber. Strategy: shifting the zero-dispersion to longer wavelength for minimum attenuation and dispersion by Modifying waveguide dispersion by changing from a simple step-index core profile to more complicated profiles. There are four major categories to do that: 1- 1300 nm optimized single mode step-fibers: matched cladding (mode diameter 9.6 micrometer) and depressed-cladding (mode diameter about 9 micrometer) 2- Dispersion shifted fibers. 3- Dispersion-flattened fibers. 4- Large-effective area (L A) fibers (less nonlinearities for fiber optical amplifier applications, effective cross section areas are typically greater than 100 Qm 2 ).

Single mode fiber dispersion

Single mode fiber dispersion

Single mode Cut-off wavelength & Dispersion

Fundamental mode is Dispersion:

E11 or P01 with V=2.405 and P c !

2T a V

n1  n 2
[3-30]

dX D (P ) ! } Dmat (P )  Dwg (P ) dP W ! D (P ) LW P
For non-dispersion-shifted fibers (1270 nm 1340 nm) For dispersion shifted fibers (1500 nm- 1600 nm)

[3-31]

[3-32]

Dispersion for non-dispersion-shifted fibers (1270 nm 1340 nm)

S0 P0 2 X (P ) ! X 0  (P  ) 8 P

2
[3-33]

X 0 is relative delay minimum at the zero-dispersion wavelength P0

is the value of the dispersion slope in ps/(nm .km) .
2

, and

S0

dD S 0 ! S (P0 ) ! dP P !P0

[3-34]

PS 0 D (P ) ! 4

P0 4 1  ( P )

[3-35]

Dispersion for dispersion shifted fibers (1500 nm- 1600 nm)

S0 X (P ) ! X 0  (P  P0 ) 2 2
[3-36]

D (P ) ! (P  P0 ) S 0

[3-37]

Example of dispersion Performance curve for Set of SM-fiber

Example of BW vs wavelength for various optical sources for SM-fiber.

MFD