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Optical Fiber Characteristics

Graded index fiber works by creating a refractive index profile where the refractive index gradually decreases from the center of the core to the outer edge. This is done by doping the core material with different concentrations of dopants. The decreasing refractive index profile allows higher order modes to travel faster than they would in a step index fiber, where the core has a uniform higher refractive index than the cladding. In a graded index fiber, the higher the mode number, the further from the center it travels. And since the refractive index is lower further from the center, the higher modes travel faster than they would otherwise. This engineered refractive index profile helps compensate for the longer path lengths of higher order modes, equalizing the transit times across

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32 views

Optical Fiber Characteristics

Graded index fiber works by creating a refractive index profile where the refractive index gradually decreases from the center of the core to the outer edge. This is done by doping the core material with different concentrations of dopants. The decreasing refractive index profile allows higher order modes to travel faster than they would in a step index fiber, where the core has a uniform higher refractive index than the cladding. In a graded index fiber, the higher the mode number, the further from the center it travels. And since the refractive index is lower further from the center, the higher modes travel faster than they would otherwise. This engineered refractive index profile helps compensate for the longer path lengths of higher order modes, equalizing the transit times across

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Optical Fiber

Characteristics
Part I
In this lecture
1. Bandwidth
2. Modes
3. Total internal reflection
4. Refractive Index Profiles
5. Dispersion
6. Modal Dispersion
Bandwidth
Bandwidth measures the data-carrying capacity of an optical fiber
and is expressed as the product of the data frequency and the
distance traveled (MHz-km or GHz-km, typically). For example, a
fiber with a 400-MHz-km bandwidth can transmit 400 MHz for a
distance of 1 km, or it can transmit 20 MHz of data for 20 km. The
primary limit on bandwidth is pulse broadening, which results from
modal and chromatic dispersion of the fiber. Typical values for
different types of fiber follow:
Optical fibers usually are specified by their size, given as the outer
diameter of the core, cladding and coating. For example, a
62.5/125/250 would refer to a fiber with a 62.5-µm diameter core, a
125-µm diameter cladding and a 0.25-mm outer coating diameter.
Modes
 One of the most important characteristics used to distinguish
types of fiber is the number of potential paths light can take
through it.
 It may seem that light would go straight through the fiber
core, following all of its curves, until it comes out the other
end.
 The light itself is a complex combination of electrical and
magnetic waves, and their wavelengths can be many
times smaller than the core of the fiber.
 Light actually has many potential paths, or modes it can
follow, depending upon the size of the core and the light’s
angle of entry.
Total internal reflection
Total internal reflection (TIR) is the basis for fiber optic transmission

 TIR depends on the principle that light passing


through a medium of a given Refractive Index (RI)
will be reflected off the interface with a medium of a
lower refractive index if it hits the interface at or
above the critical angle, which is determined
by the difference between the refractive indices of the
two media.
 So, optical fiber is manufactured with a core having an
RI slightly higher than that of the cladding surrounding
it.
 As a result, light entering the end of the fiber will be
reflected off the interface with the cladding, and guided
through the fiber.
This angle of incidence is known as the critical angle; it is
the largest angle of incidence for which refraction can
still occur.
For any angle of incidence greater than the critical
angle, light will undergo total internal reflection.
Continue
Continue
The number of modes possible in a length of fiber depends on the
diameter of the core,
the wavelength of the light, and the core’s
numerical aperture.
The numerical aperture can be calculated using
this formula:

For example, if the core has an RI of 1.48 and the cladding


has an RI of 1.46, we can calculate:
Refractive Index Profiles
What happens when the light rays entering a fiber take slightly different paths,
some entering at sharper angles, some at shallower angles?

 The light can follow modes ranging from a


straight line through the fiber (zero-order mode)
to a low number of reflections (low-order mode)
to a high number of reflections (high-order mode).
defines the relationship between
The refractive index profile
the refractive index of the core and that of the cladding.
There are two criteria used to define the relationship:
the mode, and the index, which describes the interface
between the core and the cladding.
When the core has one refractive index (RI) and the
cladding another, this is known as step-index fiber.
Continue
If the fiber has a large enough diameter, there is room
for the light to take a number of different possible
paths, or modes, by way of reflection This is referred to
as multimode fiber.
There are three main refractive index profiles are:
Multimode step-index fiber
Multimode graded-index fiber
Single-mode step-index fiber
Assignment 5
Are there SINGLE MODE GRADED-INDEX FIBERS ?
Dispersion
Dispersion is the spreading of light as it travels away from its source.
The light spreads because different components of it travel at slightly different
velocities, depending on the conditions in the medium through which it is
traveling and the wavelengths that make up the light.
Continue
There are different kinds of dispersion, however, and
the kind that is taking place depends on several factors
in the fiber and in the light itself.
 The greatest effect of dispersion is that as the light
spreads, it can degrade or destroy the distinct pulses of
the digital signals in the light by making them overlap
each other.
The effect grows more pronounced as the distance the
light travels increases.
Continue
To prevent signal loss due to dispersion, it is necessary
to keep the pulses far enough apart to ensure that they
do not overlap.
This limits the signals to a bit rate that is low enough
to be only minimally affected.
Restricting the bit rate places a limit on the fiber’s
bandwidth , or the amount of information it can carry.
Continue
 The types of dispersion that affect optical fiber are:
Modal dispersion
Material dispersion
Waveguide dispersion
Chromatic dispersion
Polarization-mode dispersion
Modal dispersion
Modal dispersion results from light taking different paths, or modes, as it passes
through the fiber
The number of modes the light can take is determined by the diameter of the fiber
core, the refractive indices of the fiber core and cladding, and the wavelength of the
light.
The ray that goes straight down the center of the core without reflecting,
arrives at the other end first, other rays arrive later. Thus light entering the
fiber at the same time exit the other end at different times. The light has
spread out in time.
The spreading of light is called modal dispersion
Modal dispersion is the dominant source of dispersion in
multimode fibers.
Modal dispersion does not exist in single mode fibers.
Continue
Modal dispersion comes from the fact that the index profile
of the multimode fiber is not perfect.
Depending on the mode, some parts of the light will pass
through the fiber more quickly than others.
The difference in travel time can cause parts of the light
pulses to overlap each other, or in extreme cases to arrive in
a different order from the order they were transmitted.
The signal is then no longer usable.
Continue
The graded index profile was chosen to theoretically allow all
modes to have the same group velocity or transit speed along the
length of the fiber.
By making the outer parts of the core a lower index of refraction
than the inner parts of the core, the higher order modes speed
up as they go away from the center of the core, compensating for
their longer path lengths.

 The formula for determining the refractive


index of a material: n = c / v, where n is the
refractive index, c
is the speed of light in a vacuum, and
v is the speed of the wavelength of
light through the material.
Continue
Methods for overcoming modal dispersion include:

1- Lower bit rate increases the gap between bits in the
signal.
While dispersion will still affect them, they will not overlap one
another, and will still be usable.
The drawback of this method is a reduction in bandwidth, reducing
the fiber’s ability to carry data.
 2- Graded index fiber
Question1 of this week

How Graded index fiber works?

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