COLLEGE OF BUSNESS DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL &

EDUCATION INDUSTRIAL METROLOGY

ADVANCED ENGINEERING
SCIENCE

BY
NYAMWERU B.E
DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL & INDUSTRIAL METROLOGY

LMU07101

ADVANCED ENGINEERING SCIENCE

LECTURE -03
OPTICAL SOURCES & DETECTORS
 INTRODUCTORY CONCEPT ON OPTICAL SOURCES AND
DETECTORS
❑ Optical sources and detectors are fundamental components in optical systems, enabling the
generation, manipulation, and detection of light.

What is optical Source? What is optical detector?

Is an active component of optical A device that converts incident light (photons) into an
communication systems that emits light in electrical signal or another measurable output.
the form of electromagnetic radiation.
Optical detector are essential for capturing and
analyzing light in optical systems and interpretation of
Optical source provide the necessary light for various applications.
illumination or signal to initiate interaction
with materials, systems, or environments. Optical source & Optical detector are widely used in
communication systems, imaging, measurement, and
sensing technologies
❑ Natural Sources
❑ Fiber-optic communication,
❑ Artificial Sources ❑ Imaging systems,
❑ Industrial inspection tools
❑ Scientific instruments etc.
 Types of optical sources
 Wideband continuous spectra sources (Incandescent Lamps).
 Monochromatic incoherent sources (Light Emitting Diodes - LED).
 Monochromatic coherent sources (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation - LASER)

Spectral linewidth- refers to the range of wavelengths (or

frequencies) over which a light source emits.

It is typically measured at full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) SPECTRAL LINEWIDTHS

of the spectral power distribution, which represents the width
of the spectrum at half of its maximum intensity.
 General requirements for a light source for use in
optical communications
The requirements for an ideal light source are based on its ability to ensure efficient, reliable, and high-speed data
transmission.
1. The wavelength of light emitted by the optical source must be compatible with wavelength ranges where
glass optical fibers experience minimal signal loss. Range in 820nm-multimode fibers, 1300nm-for single-
mode fibers.& 1550nm-ideal for long-distance communication.

2. The sources should be capable of modulation at rates in excess of 1GHz for high data rate transmission.
3. The spectral width of the sources should be narrow in order to minimize the bandwidth limiting pulse
dispersion in the fibers. Narrow spectral width (or line width)

4. The average emitted power of the source that is needed is typically few milliwatts, although higher power
values are needed for very long continuous fiber links or if high loss fibers are used.
5. The radiance of the source should be as high as possible for effective coupling into the low-loss fiber with
small NA ( ~0.2). This means that the beam spread of the sources must be minimized.

6. The sources must have long lifetime and it must be possible to operate the device continuously at room
temperature.
7. Linearity (output light power proportional to driving current)

8. The sources must be highly reliable

 Types of optical sources ……..
(Transmitter)
A transmitter is a device or system that sends or conveys signals, energy, or information from one point
to another.

A transmitter as an optical source is a device that converts electrical signals into optical signals for
transmission through optical fibers or free-space optical communication systems.

 The starting point of the optical communication system is the transmitter where the electrical
signal convert to the optical signal by modulate the optical source. Converting the electrical signal
into the optical signal is using an electronic circuit. The circuit is a driving circuit.

 The most common devices used as the light source in optical transmitters are the light emitting
diode (LED) and the laser diode (LD).

 These devices are mounted in a package that enables an optical fiber to be placed in very close
proximity to the light emitting region in order to couple as much light as possible into the fiber.
 Transmitter……..

▪ In some cases, the emitter is even fitted with a tiny spherical lens to collect and focus
“every last drop” of light onto the fiber and in other cases, a fiber is “pigtailed” directly
onto the actual surface of the emitter.

 The most important part on this circuit is the light source, because the design of the
circuit is depending on the source.

 There are few types of semiconductor sources in communication system. The most
commonly use in the communication system is Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Laser
Diode (LD). These two types of sources has different characteristic and the driving
circuit for each type of sources should be different.

 The difference between LEDs and laser diodes is that LEDs produce incoherent light,
while laser diodes produce coherent light.
 Optical transmitter

On-OFF Modulation
Linear Modulation
Figure 1. Basic Optical Modulation Methods Intensity

The basic optical transmitter converts electrical input signals into modulated light for transmission
over an optical fiber. Depending on the nature of this signal, the resulting modulated light may be
turned on and off or may be linearly varied in intensity between two predetermined levels, as shown
in Figure 1.
 Types of optical sources ……..
(Transmitter)
Component of Transmitter

 Light source
 Driving Circuit
 Protection and voltage supply
Light Source & Semiconductor Laser

 Most common transmitter are Light

Emitting Diode (LED) and Laser
Diode (LD)
 Types of optical sources ……..
(Transmitter)
What is laser?
• A laser is a device that generates light by a process called STIMULATED
EMISSION.

• The acronym LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of

Radiation

• Semiconducting lasers are multilayer semiconductor devices that generates a

coherent beam of monochromatic light by laser action. A coherent beam
resulted which all of the photons are in phase.
 Why LASER is such a SPECIAL light source
Laser light is distinct from ordinary light sources due to several special properties
▪ Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
 These words describe a process that generates an intense beam of light,
Laser light can be concentrated into a very small area, producing extremely high power per unit area (High Intensity).

 The light is very pure - that is, all the light rays in the beam are nearly the same color. (Monochromaticity). Laser
light is nearly a single wavelength or color, meaning it has a very narrow spectral linewidth.

 The light is extremely well collimated - that is , all the rays are headed in almost exactly the same direction.
(Directionality)- Directionality refers to the ability of a laser beam to travel in a specific, well-defined direction
with minimal spread (low divergence).
 Collimation refers to how parallel the light rays in a beam are. A collimated beam has rays that do not converge
(focus) or diverge (spread) significantly over distance.

 The laser is a very special light source because the light it produces is coherent. COHERENCE concerns more
than the frequency of the radiation, not only is laser light monochromatic but the PHASE of all its constituent
photons is also the same. Laser light is coherent because the wavelengths of the laser light are in phase in space
and time.They work in unison, which makes them so effective. These characteristics make the light in a laser
beam very special
❑ Thus lasers are often termed as monochromatic and Coherent sources of light.
 Spontaneous vs Stimulated Emission
 Coherent radiation is produced when an atom undergoes stimulated emission.
 Spontaneous emission occurs when an electron makes an unprovoked transition to a lower energy level
 Stimulated emission occurs when an incoming photon induces the electron to change energy level
 For spontaneous or stimulated emission to occur, energy must be supplied to boost the electron from its
low energy state to a higher energy state
 In 1917 Einstein predicted that:
➢ under certain circumstances a photon incident upon a material can generate a another photon of
➢ Exactly the same energy (frequency)
Background
➢ Physics about laser
Phase • Stimulated emission is the basis of the
➢ Polarization
laser action.
➢ Direction of propagation
➢ In other word, a coherent beam resulted. • The two photons that have been
produced can then generate more
photons, and the 4 generated can
generate 16 etc… etc… which could
result in a cascade of intense
monochromatic radiation.
 Spontaneous vs Stimulated Emission
 Coherent radiation is produced when an atom undergoes stimulated emission.
 Spontaneous emission occurs when an electron makes an unprovoked transition to a lower energy level
 Stimulated emission occurs when an incoming photon induces the electron to change energy level
 For spontaneous or stimulated emission to occur, energy must be supplied to boost the electron from its
low energy state to a higher energy state
 In 1917 Einstein predicted that:
➢ under certain circumstances a photon incident upon a material can generate a another photon of
➢ Exactly the same energy (frequency)
Background
➢ Physics about laser
Phase • Stimulated emission is the basis of the
➢ Polarization
laser action.
➢ Direction of propagation
➢ In other word, a coherent beam resulted. • The two photons that have been
produced can then generate more
photons, and the 4 generated can
generate 16 etc… etc… which could
result in a cascade of intense
monochromatic radiation.
LASER: Basic Operation
LASER: Basic Operation,,,,,,,,,,
LASER: Basic Operation,,,,,,,,,,
 Types of laser
There are many ways to define the type of laser.

 Based on its pumping scheme a laser can be classified as :

-Optically pumped laser
- Electrically pumped laser

 On the basis of the operation mode, laser fall into classes of

-Continuous Wave Lasers
- Pulsed Lasers

 According to the materials used to produce laser light, lasers can be divided into 4
categories :
-Gas Lasers
-Solid State Lasers
-Semiconductor Lasers
- Other Laser Devices
 Semiconductor Lasers
A semiconductor laser, commonly referred to as a laser diode, is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor
material as the gain medium. These lasers generate light through the process of electrical current injection and
stimulated emission within the semiconductor material  Semiconductor laser is developed by two of
semiconductor materials that are p-type and n-
type materials in which n-type material contains
more electrons and p-type material contains more
holes.

 The materials producing the energy gap between

the two materials that is called band gap.

 Semiconductor material have conduction properties

between insulator and metals

 The conduction properties creates the energy-band that

call band gap

 There two energy bands: valance – lower, meaning less

energy and conduction – upper, meaning higher energy
 There are separate by energy gap as shown in figure 1
below
 Semiconductor Lasers………
 This band gap is the place where the recombination and
excitation process occur.
 The electron can be either at the valance band or conduction
band
 When some external energy – either through temperature or by
an external electric – is provided to the electron at the valance
band, some electron acquire enough energy to leap over energy
gap and occupy energy level at the conduction band
 This process call excitation process where electron leaves holes
(positive charge carries) at the valance band

 As a result, the electron-hole recombination process releases the

quantum of energy-a photon that called laser (Mynbaev, 2001).
 The concentration of electron and holes is known as the intrinsic
carries concentration ni
Types of laser diode commonly user in
communication system  Doping can increase the conduction and the doped semiconductor
is called an intrinsic material
 Fabry-Perot laser diode
 Distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode  Doping can increases the conduction by two method: first, doping
to adding electron concentration and create donor level as shown
in figure 2 below
 Semiconductor Lasers………

 Donor level will provide an electron to the

Electron energy
Electrons
conduction band, thus increase the electron
concentration
distribution
concentration at the conduction band
Conduction
band
Ec

Ep
No. of electron states
 Second by increase the hole concentration at
Donor level valence band by creating the acceptor level as
shown on figure 3
No. of hole states
Ev
Valance band  Accepter level will receive the electron from the
valance band, thus increase the conduction and
leave high hole concentration at valance band

 The energy produce by the semiconductor laser

is depend on the surface of the material where
there are indirect band gap and direct band gap.
 Figure 2: Donor level and electron concentration
at conduction band
 How semiconductor laser work
 This will act as photodiode as shown on figure 4
The pn junction on semiconductor material create the
depletion region  If the external battery supply connected to the junction
in forward biased, then the magnitude of the barrier
 This region create when electron from n material filled potential reduced and allow the electron to diffuse
holes at p material.
 Conduction band electron on the n side material across
 When the equilibrium state achieved its prevent from net the and recombine with the opposite charge
movement of charges
 Once across, they significantly increase the minority
 The junction or the depletion now has no mobile carrier, carriers concentration and the access carrier then
since electron and holes locked into covalent structure. recombine with the opposite charge majority carriers
 If external battery is connected to the junction in reversed  The recombination process of excess minority carriers is
biased the depletion region will increase and the minority the mechanism which optical radiation is generated
carrier flow across the junction
Minority carrier p side
flow n side

n side p side

Widened narrowed
depletion region depletion region

+ -
- +

Figure 4: Reverse biased widen the depletion region Figure 5: Forward biased lowering the barrier potential
 Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that
emits light when an electric current flows through it. When
current passes through an LED, the electrons recombine with
holes emitting light in the process. LEDs allow the current to
flow in the forward direction and blocks the current in the
reverse direction.

❑ They are widely used standard source of light in electrical

equipment. It has a wide range of applications ranging
from your mobile phone to large advertising billboards.
They mostly find applications in devices that show the The circuit consists of an LED, a voltage supply and
time and display different types of data. a resistor to regulate the current and voltage.

 LED is a semiconductor diode; the construction of the

LED is same as other diode but the other regular
diode is loss the recombination energy in the thermal.
 LED is used the recombination energy into radiation
spectrum of light.
 LEDs have relatively large emitting areas and as a
 Light-emitting diodes are heavily doped p-n junctions. result are not as good light sources as LDs.
Based on the semiconductor material used and the amount  However, they are widely used for short to moderate
of doping, an LED will emit colored light at a particular transmission distances because they are much more
spectral wavelength when forward biased. As shown in the economical, quite linear in terms of light output
figure, an LED is encapsulated with a transparent cover so versus electrical current input and stable in terms of
that emitted light can come out. light output versus ambient operating temperature.
 Light Emitting Diodes (LED)……
LEDs are of interest for fiber optics because of five inherent characteristics:
◼ They are small
◼ They possess high radiance (i.e., They emit lots of light in a small area).
◼ The emitting area is small, comparable to the dimensions of optical fibers.
◼ They have a very long life, offering high reliability.
◼ They can be modulated (turned off and on) at high speeds.
(a)
LED Structures and Configuration,
There are two possible STRUCTURE in LED: Homostructure and
heterostructure
 Homostructure configuration have drawback where the
active region is too defuse which makes the device’s
efficiency very low
 Homostructure makes the device radiates a broad light
beam and make coupling light into fiber inefficient.
 Most LED is design using heterostructure because its gives
good confinement of recombination process (b)
Two type LED configurations LED structures a) Edge emitters b) Surface
 Edge Emitting LED (ELED) emitter
 Surface Emitting LED (SLED)
 Materials and colour for LED
❑ The colour of an LED is determined by the material used in the semiconducting element. Different material also will
gives different wavelength for different application

❑ The two primary materials used in LEDs are aluminium gallium indium phosphide alloys and indium gallium nitride
alloys. Aluminium alloys are used to obtain red, orange and yellow light, and indium alloys are used to get green,
blue and white light. Slight changes in the composition of these alloys change the colour of the emitted light.

For optical communication systems requiring bit rates less than approximately 100-200 Mb/s together with multimode
fiber-coupled optical power in the tens of microwatts, semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) are usually the best
light source choice. These LEDs require less complex drive circuitry than laser diodes since no thermal or optical
stabilization circuits are needed, and they can be fabricated less expensively with higher yields.
To be useful in fiber transmission applications an LED must have
❑ 1. A high radiance (or brightness)- a measure in watts, of the power radiated into a unit solid
❑ angle per unit area of the emitting surface.
❑ 2. A fast response time - the time delay between the application of a current pulse and the onset of optical emission.
❑ 3. A high quantum efficiency - the fraction of injected electron-hole pairs that recombine
❑ radiatively.
❑ In a heterostructure LED, carrier confinement is used to achieve a high level of radiative recombination in the active
region of the device, which yields a high quantum efficiency. Optical confinement is of important for preventing
absorption of the emitted radiation by the material surrounding the pn junction. This dual confinement leads to both
high efficiency and high radiance.
 LED structures
The two basic LED configuration being used for fiber optics are surface emitters (also called Burrus or front emitters) and edge
emitters.
Surface Emitter LED (SLED)
❑ In the surface emitter, the plane of the active light-emitting region is
oriented perpendicularly to the axis of the fiber. Normally, a well is etched
through the substrate of the device, into which a fiber is then cemented in
order to accept the emitted light.
❑ The circular active area in practical surface emitters is nominally 50μm in
diameter and up to 2.5mm thick. The emission pattern is essentially
isotropic with a 1200 half-power beam width and is called a Lambertian
pattern.
In this pattern, the source is equally bright when viewed from any direction,
but the power diminishes as cosθ, θ is the angle between the viewing direction
and the normal to the surface.
The power coupled Pc into a multimode step index fiber may be estimated
from the relationship ,
where r is the Fresnel reflection coefficient at the fiber surface, A is the
smaller of the fiber core cross section or the emission area of the source and
RD is the radiance of the source.
The power coupled into the fiber is also dependent on other factors such as the
distance and alignment between the emission area and the fiber, the SLED
emission pattern and the medium between the emitting area and the fiber
 Edge emitter (ELED)
The high radiance ELED used in optical communications is
similar to a conventional contact stripe injection laser.

This structure forms a waveguide channel that directs the optical

radiation toward the fiber core.

Most of the propagation light is emitted at one end face only due
to a reflector on the other end face and an antireflection coating
on the emitting end face.

The emission pattern of this ELED is more directional than that

of the SLED. In the plane parallel to the junction, where there is
no waveguide effect, the emitted beam is lambertian with
half-power width of

In the plane perpendicular to the junction, the half-power beam width

has been made as small as 25-350 by a proper choice of the waveguide
thickness.
 Output spectrum
❑ The spectral linewidth of an LED operating at room temperature in
the 0.8 to 0.9 mm wavelength band is usually between 25 and 40nm a
t the half maximum intensity points (FWHP).

❑ For materials with smaller bandgap energies operating in the 1.1

to 1.7mm wavelength region the linewidth tends to increase to
around 50 to 160nm.

❑ Typical spectral output characteristics for InGaAsP devices.

The output spectral widths of SLEDs tend to be broader than those of
edge-emitting LEDs because of different internal-absorption effects.

❑ The output spectra tends to broaden at a rate of between

0.1 and 0.3 nm0C-1 with increase in temperature due to the
greater energy spread in carrier distributions at higher temperatures.

❑ The peak emission wavelength is also shifted by +0.3 to 0.4nm0C-1

for AlGaAs devices and by +0.6nm0C-1 for InGaAsP devices.
 Output spectrum………
Characteristic of LEDs
There are five major characteristics of LED
◼ Peak wavelength
Normalized power

◼ Spectral Width
◼ Emission pattern
FWHM
◼ Power
◼ Speed
Wavelength, λ

 Peak wavelength :The wavelength at which the source emits the most power. It should be matched to the wavelengths
that are transmitted with the least attenuation through optical fiber. The most common peak wavelength are 780, 850,
and 1310 nm.
 Spectral width: Ideally, all the light emitted from an LED would be at the peak wavelength, but in practice the light is
emitted in a range of wavelengths centered at the peak wavelength. This range is called the spectral width of the source.

 Emission Pattern: The pattern of emitted light affects the amount of light that can be coupled into the optical fiber. The
size of the emitting region should be similar to the diameter of the fiber core.

 Power: Usually achieved by coupling as much of a source’s power into the fiber as possible. The key requirement is that
the output power of the source be strong enough to provide sufficient power to the detector at the receiving end,
considering fiber attenuation, coupling losses and other system constraints. In general, LEDs are less powerful than lasers.
 Characteristic of LEDs………
❑ Emission Pattern: The pattern of emitted light affects the amount of light that can be coupled into the
optical fiber. The size of the emitting region should be similar to the diameter of the fiber core.

 Power: Usually achieved by coupling as much of a source’s power into the fiber as possible. The key
requirement is that the output power of the source be strong enough to provide sufficient power to the
detector at the receiving end, considering fiber attenuation, coupling losses and other system constraints.
In general, LEDs are less powerful than lasers.

 Speed: A source should turn on and off fast enough to meet the bandwidth limits of the system. The
speed is given according to a source’s Rise or fall time, the time required to go from 10% to 90% of peak
power. LEDs have slower rise and fall times than lasers.

Linearity is another important characteristic. Linearity represents the degree to which the optical output is
directly proportional to the electrical current input. Most light sources give little or no attention to linearity,
making them usable only for digital applications. Analog applications require close attention to linearity.

Nonlinearity in LEDs causes harmonic distortion in the analog signal that is transmitted over an analog fiber
optic link.
 Characteristic of LEDs………

 LEDs are generally more reliable than lasers, but both sources
will degrade over time.
 This degradation can be caused by heat generated by the source
and uneven current densities. LEDs are easier to use than lasers.

Power of light (mW)

 The light radiate from LED is incoherent light where there are no
optical cavity.
 The output radiation has a broad spectral width, since the
emitted photon energies ranges over the range the energy
 Without optical cavity LED light is broad spectrum width as
shown in figure 10.
 Optical cavity provide the wavelength selectivity
 The input-output characteristic or the P-I curve of LED is linear
compare to the laser diode
 LED does not have the threshold current Ith and the graph is Forward current (mA)
linear start from beginning
P-I curve for LED
Comparison between LED and LASER