Principle of operation

An optical fiber is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide (non-conducting 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 step-index fiber,
or gradual, in graded-index fiber.

Index of refraction

Main article: Refractive index

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
kilometres (186 thousand 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
1.46[citation needed]. The core value is typically 1.48[citation needed]. 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).

[edit] Total internal reflection

Main article: Total internal reflection

When light traveling in a dense medium hits a boundary at a steep angle (larger than the "critical
angle" for the boundary), the light will be completely reflected. This effect is used in optical
fibers to confine light in the core. Light travels along the fiber bouncing back and forth off of the
boundary. 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.
[edit] Multi-mode fiber

The propagation of light through a multi-mode optical fiber.

A laser bouncing down an acrylic rod, illustrating the total internal reflection of light in a multi-
mode optical fiber.
Main article: Multi-mode optical fiber

Fiber with large core diameter (greater than 10 micrometers) may be analyzed by geometrical
optics. Such fiber is called multi-mode fiber, from the electromagnetic analysis (see below). In a
step-index multi-mode fiber, rays of light are guided along the fiber core by total internal
reflection. Rays that meet the core-cladding boundary at a high angle (measured relative to a line
normal to the boundary), greater than the critical angle for this boundary, are completely
reflected. The critical angle (minimum angle for total internal reflection) is determined by the
difference in index of refraction between the core and cladding materials. Rays that meet the
boundary at a low angle are refracted from the core into the cladding, and do not convey light
and hence information along the fiber. The critical angle determines the acceptance angle of the
fiber, often reported as a numerical aperture. A high numerical aperture allows light to propagate
down the fiber in rays both close to the axis and at various angles, allowing efficient coupling of
light into the fiber. However, this high numerical aperture increases the amount of dispersion as
rays at different angles have different path lengths and therefore take different times to traverse
the fiber.
Optical fiber types.

In graded-index fiber, the index of refraction in the core decreases continuously between the axis
and the cladding. This causes light rays to bend smoothly as they approach the cladding, rather
than reflecting abruptly from the core-cladding boundary. The resulting curved paths reduce
multi-path dispersion because high angle rays pass more through the lower-index periphery of
the core, rather than the high-index center. The index profile is chosen to minimize the difference
in axial propagation speeds of the various rays in the fiber. This ideal index profile is very close
to a parabolic relationship between the index and the distance from the axis.

[edit] Single-mode fiber

The structure of a typical single-mode fiber.

1. Core: 8 µm diameter
2. Cladding: 125 µm dia.
3. Buffer: 250 µm dia.
4. Jacket: 400 µm dia.
Main article: Single-mode optical fiber

Fiber with a core diameter less than about ten times the wavelength of the propagating light
cannot be modeled using geometric optics. Instead, it must be analyzed as an electromagnetic
structure, by solution of Maxwell's equations as reduced to the electromagnetic wave equation.
The electromagnetic analysis may also be required to understand behaviors such as speckle that
occur when coherent light propagates in multi-mode fiber. As an optical waveguide, the fiber
supports one or more confined transverse modes by which light can propagate along the fiber.
Fiber supporting only one mode is called single-mode or mono-mode fiber. The behavior of
larger-core multi-mode fiber can also be modeled using the wave equation, which shows that
such fiber supports more than one mode of propagation (hence the name). The results of such
modeling of multi-mode fiber approximately agree with the predictions of geometric optics, if
the fiber core is large enough to support more than a few modes.

The waveguide analysis shows that the light energy in the fiber is not completely confined in the
core. Instead, especially in single-mode fibers, a significant fraction of the energy in the bound
mode travels in the cladding as an evanescent wave.

The most common type of single-mode fiber has a core diameter of 8–10 micrometers and is
designed for use in the near infrared. The mode structure depends on the wavelength of the light
used, so that this fiber actually supports a small number of additional modes at visible
wavelengths. Multi-mode fiber, by comparison, is manufactured with core diameters as small as
50 micrometers and as large as hundreds of micrometers. The normalized frequency V for this
fiber should be less than the first zero of the Bessel function J0 (approximately 2.405).

[edit] Special-purpose fiber

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 polarization-
maintaining 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.

[edit] Mechanisms of attenuation

Light attenuation by ZBLAN and silica fibers

Main article: Transparent materials

Attenuation in fiber optics, also known as transmission loss, is the reduction in intensity of the
light beam (or signal) with respect to distance traveled through a transmission medium.
Attenuation coefficients in fiber optics usually use units of dB/km through the medium due to the
relatively high quality of transparency of modern optical transmission media. The medium is
usually a fiber of silica glass that confines the incident light beam to the inside. Attenuation is an
important factor limiting the transmission of a digital signal across large distances. Thus, much
research has gone into both limiting the attenuation and maximizing the amplification of the
optical signal. Empirical research has shown that attenuation in optical fiber is caused primarily
by both scattering and absorption.

[edit] Light scattering

Specular reflection

Diffuse reflection

The propagation of light through the core of an optical fiber is based on total internal reflection
of the lightwave. Rough and irregular surfaces, even at the molecular level, can cause light rays
to be reflected in random directions. This is called diffuse reflection or scattering, and it is
typically characterized by wide variety of reflection angles.

Light scattering depends on the wavelength of the light being scattered. Thus, limits to spatial
scales of visibility arise, depending on the frequency of the incident light-wave and the physical
dimension (or spatial scale) of the scattering center, which is typically in the form of some
specific micro-structural feature. Since visible light has a wavelength of the order of one
micrometre (one millionth of a meter) scattering centers will have dimensions on a similar spatial
scale.

Thus, attenuation results from the incoherent scattering of light at internal surfaces and
interfaces. In (poly)crystalline materials such as metals and ceramics, in addition to pores, most
of the internal surfaces or interfaces are in the form of grain boundaries that separate tiny regions
of crystalline order. It has recently been shown that when the size of the scattering center (or
grain boundary) is reduced below the size of the wavelength of the light being scattered, the
scattering no longer occurs to any significant extent. This phenomenon has given rise to the
production of transparent ceramic materials.

Similarly, the scattering of light in optical quality glass fiber is caused by molecular level
irregularities (compositional fluctuations) in the glass structure. Indeed, one emerging school of
thought is that a glass is simply the limiting case of a polycrystalline solid. Within this
framework, "domains" exhibiting various degrees of short-range order become the building
blocks of both metals and alloys, as well as glasses and ceramics. Distributed both between and
within these domains are micro-structural defects which will provide the most ideal locations for
the occurrence of light scattering. This same phenomenon is seen as one of the limiting factors in
the transparency of IR missile domes.[28]

At high optical powers, scattering can also be caused by nonlinear optical processes in the fiber.
[29][30]

[edit] UV-Vis-IR absorption

In addition to light scattering, attenuation or signal loss can also occur due to selective absorption
of specific wavelengths, in a manner similar to that responsible for the appearance of color.
Primary material considerations include both electrons and molecules as follows:

1) At the electronic level, it depends on whether the electron orbitals are spaced (or "quantized")
such that they can absorb a quantum of light (or photon) of a specific wavelength or frequency in
the ultraviolet (UV) or visible ranges. This is what gives rise to color.

2) At the atomic or molecular level, it depends on the frequencies of atomic or molecular

vibrations or chemical bonds, how close-packed its atoms or molecules are, and whether or not
the atoms or molecules exhibit long-range order. These factors will determine the capacity of the
material transmitting longer wavelengths in the infrared (IR), far IR, radio and microwave
ranges.

The design of any optically transparent device requires the selection of materials based upon
knowledge of its properties and limitations. The lattice [disambiguation needed] absorption characteristics
observed at the lower frequency regions (mid IR to far-infrared wavelength range) define the
long-wavelength transparency limit of the material. They are the result of the interactive
coupling between the motions of thermally induced vibrations of the constituent atoms and
molecules of the solid lattice and the incident light wave radiation. Hence, all materials are
bounded by limiting regions of absorption caused by atomic and molecular vibrations (bond-
stretching)in the far-infrared (>10 µm).

Thus, multi-phonon absorption occurs when two or more phonons simultaneously interact to
produce electric dipole moments with which the incident radiation may couple. These dipoles
can absorb energy from the incident radiation, reaching a maximum coupling with the radiation
when the frequency is equal to the fundamental vibrational mode of the molecular dipole (e.g.
Si-O bond) in the far-infrared, or one of its harmonics.

The selective absorption of infrared (IR) light by a particular material occurs because the
selected frequency of the light wave matches the frequency (or an integer multiple of the
frequency) at which the particles of that material vibrate. Since different atoms and molecules
have different natural frequencies of vibration, they will selectively absorb different frequencies
(or portions of the spectrum) of infrared (IR) light.

Reflection and transmission of light waves occur because the frequencies of the light waves do
not match the natural resonant frequencies of vibration of the objects. When IR light of these
frequencies strikes an object, the energy is either reflected or transmitted.

[edit] Manufacturing
[edit] 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.

[edit] Silica

Silica exhibits fairly good optical transmission over a wide range of wavelengths. In the near-
infrared (near IR) portion of the spectrum, particularly around 1.5 μm, silica can have extremely
low absorption and scattering losses of the order of 0.2 dB/km. A high transparency in the 1.4-
μm 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.

Silica can be drawn into fibers at reasonably high temperatures, and has a fairly broad glass
transformation range. One other advantage is that fusion splicing and cleaving of silica fibers is
relatively effective. Silica fiber also has high mechanical strength against both pulling and even
bending, provided that the fiber is not too thick and that the surfaces have been well prepared
during processing. Even simple cleaving (breaking) of the ends of the fiber can provide nicely
flat surfaces with acceptable optical quality. Silica is also relatively chemically inert. In
particular, it is not hygroscopic (does not absorb water).

Silica glass can be doped with various materials. One purpose of doping is to raise the refractive
index (e.g. with Germanium dioxide (GeO2) or Aluminium oxide (Al2O3)) or to lower it (e.g.
with fluorine or Boron trioxide (B2O3)). Doping is also possible with laser-active ions (for
example, rare earth-doped fibers) in order to obtain active fibers to be used, for example, in fiber
amplifiers or laser applications. Both the fiber core and cladding are typically doped, so that the
entire assembly (core and cladding) is effectively the same compound (e.g. an aluminosilicate,
germanosilicate, phosphosilicate or borosilicate glass).

Particularly for active fibers, pure silica is usually not a very suitable host glass, because it
exhibits a low solubility for rare earth ions. This can lead to quenching effects due to clustering
of dopant ions. Aluminosilicates are much more effective in this respect.

Silica fiber also exhibits a high threshold for optical damage. This property ensures a low
tendency for laser-induced breakdown. This is important for fiber amplifiers when utilized for
the amplification of short pulses.

Because of these properties silica fibers are the material of choice in many optical applications,
such as communications (except for very short distances with plastic optical fiber), fiber lasers,
fiber amplifiers, and fiber-optic sensors. The large efforts which have been put forth in the
development of various types of silica fibers have further increased the performance of such
fibers over other materials.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]

[edit] 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 (3200–3600 cm−1), which is present in nearly all oxide-based
glasses.

An example of a heavy metal fluoride glass is the ZBLAN glass group, composed of zirconium,
barium, lanthanum, aluminium, and sodium fluorides. Their main technological application is as
optical waveguides in both planar and fiber form. They are advantageous especially in the mid-
infrared (2000–5000 nm) range.

HMFGs were initially slated for optical fiber applications, because the intrinsic losses of a mid-
IR fiber could in principle be lower than those of silica fibers, which are transparent only up to
about 2 μm. However, such low losses were never realized in practice, and the fragility and high
cost of fluoride fibers made them less than ideal as primary candidates. Later, the utility of
fluoride fibers for various other applications was discovered. These include mid-IR
spectroscopy, fiber optic sensors, thermometry, and imaging. Also, fluoride fibers can be used
for guided lightwave transmission in media such as YAG (yttria-alumina garnet) lasers at 2.9
μm, as required for medical applications (e.g. ophthalmology and dentistry).[39][40]

[edit] Phosphates

The P4O10 cagelike structure—the 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.

Phosphate glasses can be advantageous over silica glasses for optical fibers with a high
concentration of doping rare earth ions. A mix of fluoride glass and phosphate glass is
fluorophosphate glass.[41][42]

[edit] Chalcogenides

The chalcogens—the elements in group 16 of the periodic table—particularly 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.

[edit] 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.[43]

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.

[edit] Coatings

The light is "guided" down the core of the fiber by an optical "cladding" with a lower refractive
index that traps light in the core through "total internal reflection."

The cladding is coated by a "buffer" that protects it from moisture and physical damage. The
buffer is what gets stripped off the fiber for termination or splicing. These coatings are UV-cured
urethane acrylate composite materials applied to the outside of the fiber during the drawing
process. The coatings protect the very delicate strands of glass fiber—about the size of a human
hair—and allow it to survive the rigors of manufacturing, proof testing, cabling and installation.

Today’s glass optical fiber draw processes employ a dual-layer coating approach. An inner
primary coating is designed to act as a shock absorber to minimize attenuation caused by
microbending. An outer secondary coating protects the primary coating against mechanical
damage and acts as a barrier to lateral forces. Sometimes a metallic armour layer is added to
provide extra protection.

These fiber optic coating layers are applied during the fiber draw, at speeds approaching
100 kilometers per hour (60 mph). Fiber optic coatings are applied using one of two methods:
wet-on-dry, in which the fiber passes through a primary coating application, which is then UV
cured, then through the secondary coating application which is subsequently cured; and wet-on-
wet, in which the fiber passes through both the primary and secondary coating applications and
then goes to UV curing.

Fiber optic coatings are applied in concentric layers to prevent damage to the fiber during the
drawing application and to maximize fiber strength and microbend resistance. Unevenly coated
fiber will experience non-uniform forces when the coating expands or contracts, and is
susceptible to greater signal attenuation. Under proper drawing and coating processes, the
coatings are concentric around the fiber, continuous over the length of the application and have
constant thickness.

Fiber optic coatings protect the glass fibers from scratches that could lead to strength
degradation. The combination of moisture and scratches accelerates the aging and deterioration
of fiber strength. When fiber is subjected to low stresses over a long period, fiber fatigue can
occur. Over time or in extreme conditions, these factors combine to cause microscopic flaws in
the glass fiber to propagate, which can ultimately result in fiber failure.

Three key characteristics of fiber optic waveguides can be affected by environmental conditions:
strength, attenuation and resistance to losses caused by microbending. External fiber optic
coatings protect glass optical fiber from environmental conditions that can affect the fiber’s
performance and long-term durability. On the inside, coatings ensure the reliability of the signal
being carried and help minimize attenuation due to microbending.