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Lect 4

The document discusses different types of optical fibers including: 1) Step-index fibers which have a constant refractive index in the core and cladding regions. 2) Graded-index fibers which have a refractive index that decreases gradually from the core center to the cladding. 3) Single-mode fibers which only support one propagation mode and have small core diameters. Graded-index fibers experience less intermodal dispersion than step-index fibers due to their refractive index profile equalizing the propagation speeds of different modes.

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41 views28 pages

Lect 4

The document discusses different types of optical fibers including: 1) Step-index fibers which have a constant refractive index in the core and cladding regions. 2) Graded-index fibers which have a refractive index that decreases gradually from the core center to the cladding. 3) Single-mode fibers which only support one propagation mode and have small core diameters. Graded-index fibers experience less intermodal dispersion than step-index fibers due to their refractive index profile equalizing the propagation speeds of different modes.

Uploaded by

george samy
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Optical fiber waveguides

Lect_4
Optical fiber
4th year, Elect. Eng. Dept., ECE
Lecturer: Dr. Emad Tammam
Outline

• Cylindrical fiber modes

• Graded-index fiber

• Step-index fiber

• Single-mode fiber
• Photonic crystal fibers
Cylindrical fiber modes
• TE (where Ez = 0) and TM (where Hz = 0) modes are obtained within
the dielectric cylinder.
• The cylindrical waveguide is bounded in two dimensions rather than
one. Thus two integers, l and m, are necessary in order to specify the
modes, in contrast to the single integer (m) required for the planar
guide.
• For the cylindrical waveguide we refer to TElm and TMlm modes.
These modes correspond to meridional rays traveling within the
fiber.
• Hybrid modes where Ez and Hz are nonzero also occur. These
modes, result from skew ray propagation within the fiber, are
designated HElm and EHlm depending upon whether the components
of H or E make the larger contribution to the transverse field.
• An exact description of the modal fields in a step index fiber proves
somewhat complicated.
Linearly polarized (LP) modes
• The weakly guiding approximation where the relative
index difference Δ << 1.
• Δ is usually less than 0.03 (3%) for optical communications
fibers.
• Approximate solutions for the full set of HE, EH, TE and TM
modes may be given by two linearly polarized components.
• As Δ in weakly guiding fibers is very small, then HE–EH
mode pairs occur which have almost identical propagation
constants.
• Such modes are said to be degenerate. The superpositions
of these degenerating modes characterized by a common
propagation constant correspond to particular LP modes
regardless of their HE, EH, TE or TM field configurations.
Correspondence between the linearly polarized
modes and the traditional exact modes from which
they are formed
• There are in general 2l field maxima around
the circumference of the fiber core and m field
maxima along a radius vector.
The electric field configurations for the three
lowest LP modes
• The scalar wave equation can be written in the
form

• where ψ is the field (E or H)


• The propagation constants of the guided modes β
lie in the range:
The normalized frequency
• The normalized frequency V is given as:

• The normalized frequency is a dimensionless parameter.


• Sometimes simply called the V number or value of the fiber.
• It combines the information about three important design
variables for the fiber: namely, the core radius a, the relative
refractive index difference Δ and the operating wavelength
λ.
The normalized propagation constant

• It is also possible to define the normalized


propagation constant b for a fiber as

• The limits of β are n2 k and n1 k, hence b must lie


between 0 and 1.
Guided and unguided modes

• When β = n2k, then the mode phase velocity is


equal to the velocity of light in the cladding and
the mode is no longer properly guided.
• In this case the mode is said to be cut off and the
eigenvalue W = 0.
• Unguided or radiation modes have frequencies
below cutoff where β < kn2 , and hence W is
imaginary.
• As β is increased above n2k, less power is
propagated in the cladding until at β = n1k all the
power is confined to the fiber core.
The cutoff normalized frequency

• The cutoff point for a particular mode corresponds


to a distinctive value of the normalized frequency
(where V = Vc ) for the fiber.
• The value of Vc is different for different modes.
Distinctive light intensity distributions (mode
patterns)
Step index fibers
Step index multimode fibers

• In the step index, the refractive index distribution


is constant in each region, i.e., core and cladding.

• In multimode, the core diameter has to be large


enough to allow the propagation of many modes.
• With multimode step index fiber considerable
dispersion may occur due to the differing group
velocities of the propagating modes.
• The maximum bandwidth attainable is restricted
in the case of multimode step index fibers.
Single-mode step index fiber

• The single-mode (monomode) step index fiber


allows the propagation of only one transverse
electromagnetic mode (typically HE11 ), and
hence the core diameter must be of the order of 2
to 10 μm.

• The single-mode step index fiber has the distinct


advantage of low intermodal dispersion
(broadening of transmitted light pulses).
Advantages of multimode over single-mode fibers
• For lower bandwidth applications multimode
fibers have several advantages over single-mode
fibers. These are:
 Use of spatially incoherent optical sources
(e.g. most light-emitting diodes) which cannot
be efficiently coupled to single-mode fibers;
 Larger numerical apertures, as well as core
diameters, facilitating easier coupling to optical
sources;
 Lower tolerance requirements on fiber
connectors.
Modes over the multimode fiber

• Multimode step index fibers allow the propagation


of a finite number of guided modes.
• The number of guided modes is dependent
upon the physical parameters such as:
 Relative refractive index difference,
 Core radius of the fiber,
 Wavelengths of the transmitted light.
• There is a cutoff value of normalized frequency Vc
for guided modes below which they cannot
exist.
Modes over the multimode fiber, cont.
• Unguided (leaky) modes can travel considerable
distances along the fiber.
• Guided modes are confined to the fiber over its full
length.
• The total number of guided modes or mode volume
Ms for a step index fiber

• The optical power is launched into a large


number of guided modes, each of different
spatial field distributions, propagation constants,
etc.
Characteristics of ideal multimode fiber
 Ideal multimode step index fiber with properties (i.e. relative
index difference, core diameter) which are independent of distance.
 There is no mode coupling, and the optical power
launched into a particular mode remains in that mode and
travels independently of the power launched into the other
guided modes.
 The majority of these guided modes operate far from
cutoff, and are well confined to the fiber core
 Most of the optical power is carried in the core region and
not in the cladding.
 The properties of the cladding (e.g. thickness) do not
significantly affect the propagation of these modes.
Graded index fibers

• Do not have a constant refractive index in the core


but a decreasing core index n(r) with radial
distance from a maximum value of n1 at the axis to
a constant value n2 beyond the core radius a in
the cladding.
Fiber refractive index profiles for different
values of α
Refractive index profile and ray transmission in a multimode
graded index fiber

parabolic index profile core


Characteristics of Multimode graded index fibers

• Multimode graded index fibers exhibit far less


intermodal dispersion than multimode step
index fibers due to their refractive index
profile.
• The different group velocities of the modes tend
to be normalized by the index grading.
• The near axial rays are transmitted through a
region of higher refractive index and therefore
travel with a lower velocity than the more extreme
rays.
Refraction in the graded index fiber
Advantages of graded index fibers

• These travel in the lower index region at greater


speeds giving the same mechanism of mode transit
time equalization.
• Multimode graded index fibers with parabolic
profile cores have transmission bandwidths be
orders of magnitude greater than multimode step
index fiber bandwidths.
• Multimode graded index fibers have the
advantage of large core diameters (greater than
30 μm) coupled with bandwidths suitable for
long distance communication.
• The numerical aperture of the graded index is a
function of the radial distance from the fiber
axis. So, the comparison with the step index is
complicated.

• Graded index fibers accept less light than


corresponding step index fibers with the same
relative refractive index difference.

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