9

UNIT III OPTICAL SOURCES AND DETECTORS

Sources: Intrinsic and extrinsic material-direct and indirect band gaps-LED-
LED structures- surface emitting LED-Edge emitting LED-quantum efficiency
and LED power-light source materials-modulation of LED- LASER diodes-
modes and threshold conditions-Rate equations-external quantum efficiency-
resonant frequencies-structures and radiation patterns-single mode laser-
external modulation-temperature effort.
Detectors: PIN photo detector-Avalanche photo diodes-Photo detector noise-
noise sources-SNR-detector response time-Avalanche multiplication noise-
temperature effects- comparisons of photo detectors.
 REQUIREMENTS
• Small physical dimensions to suit the fiber
• Narrow beam width to suit fiber NA
• Narrow spectral width (or line width) to reduce
chromatic dispersion
• Fast response time (high bandwidth) to support
high bit rate
• High output power into the fiber for long reach
without repeaters
CONSIDERATIONS …
• Ability to directly modulate by varying driving current

• Linearity (output light power proportional to driving

current)  important for analog systems

• Stability  LED better than LASER

• Reliability (life time) and cost

 SOLID STATE (SEMICONDUCTOR)
LIGHT SOURCES
• Light Emitting Diode (LED)  Simple forward biased PN junction

hc
1.24
E g h   eV
  ( m)
• LASER  Specialized LED with stimulated emission to provide :
• low line width, low beam width, high power and coherency
 SEMICONDUCTOR
PHYSICS
• LEDs and laser diodes consist of a pn
junction constructed of direct-
bandgap III-V materials.
• When the pn junction is forward
biased, electrons and holes are
injected into the p and n regions,
respectively.
• The injected minority carriers
recombine either radiatively (a
photon of energy E = h is emitted)
The pn junction is known as the
or nonradiatively (the active or recombination region.
recombination energy is dissipated
as heat).
• INTRINSIC AND EXTRENSIC MATERIAL

• MAJORITY AND MINORITY CARRIERS

• Injection and extraction
DIRECT AND INDIRECT BAND GAP
SEMICONDUCTORS
The band gap represents the minimum energy difference between
the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band.
In a direct band gap semiconductor, the top of the valence band and
the bottom of the conduction band occur at the same value of
momentum
DIRECT AND INDIRECT BAND GAP
SEMICONDUCTORS (contd…)
DIRECT AND INDIRECT BAND GAP
SEMICONDUCTORS (contd…)
In an indirect band gap semiconductor, the maximum energy of the
valence band occurs at a different value of momentum to the
minimum in the conduction band energy.
 WHAT IS LED?

t o rs
nd uc ty
ico uali
Semring q t!
b l i gh
to

LED are semiconductor p-n junctions that under forward bias conditions can emit
radiation by electroluminescence in the UV, visible or infrared regions of the
electromagnetic spectrum. The quantum of light energy released is approximately
proportional to the band gap of the semiconductor.
 Introduction:
• The principal light sources used for fiber optic communications are heterojunction structured
semiconductor LASER diodes and LEDs.

• A heterojunction consists of two adjoining semiconductor materials with different band gap
energies.

• These devices are suitable for fiber transmission systems because they have adequate output
power for a wide range of applications.

• Their optical power output can be directly modulated by varying the input current to the device,
they have a high efficiency, and dimensional characteristics are compatible with those of the
optical fiber.

• A major difference between LEDs and LASER diodes is that the optical output from an LED is
incoherent and LASER is coherent.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs):
• For optical communication system requiring bit rates less than
approximately 100-200 Mbps, together with multimode fiber coupled
optical power in the tens of Microwatts, semiconductor 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 fields.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs):
• For optical communication system requiring bit rates less than
approximately 100-200 Mbps, together with multimode fiber coupled
optical power in the tens of Microwatts, semiconductor 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 fields.
• LED STRUCTURE

LED must have

high radiance output

a fast emission response time

a high quantum efficiency

Carrier and optical confinement.

Homojunction

Single and double heterojunction

 HETEROJUNCTION
A Heterojunction is an interface between two adjoining single crystal semiconductors
with different band gaps.

Sandwiching a thin layer between normal p-type and n-type layers.

The middle layer may or may not doped.

Carrier confinement occurs due to band gap discontinuity of the junction.such a

junction is called Heterojunction and the device is called double heterostructure.

Heterojunctions are two types

(1) Isotype (n-n or p-p)
(2) Antisotype (p-n)
HETEROJUNCTION
Sandwiching a thin layer between normal p-type and
n-type layers.
The middle layer may or may not doped.
Carrier confinement occurs due to band gap
discontinuity of the junction.such a junction is called
Heterojunction and the device is called double
heterostructure.
HETEROJUNCTION (contd…)
A Heterojunction is an interface between two
adjoining single crystal semiconductors with different
band gaps.
Heterojunctions are two types
(1)Isotype (n-n or p-p)
(2)Antisotype (p-n)
 In optical communication bit rate is 100 – 200 Mb
 LED CONSTRUCTION
Efficient light emitter is also an efficient absorbers of
radiation therefore, a shallow p-n junction required.
Active materials (n and p) will be grown on a lattice
matched substrate.
The p-n junction will be forward biased with contacts
made by metallisation to the upper and lower
surfaces.
Ought to leave the upper part ‘clear’ so photon can
escape.
The silica provides passivation/device isolation and
carrier confinement

EFFICIENT LED
Need a p-n junction (preferably the same semiconductor material only
different dopants)

 Recombination must occur  Radiative transmission to give out the

‘right coloured LED’

 ‘Right coloured LED’  hc/ = Ec-Ev = Eg

 so choose material with the right Eg

 Direct band gap semiconductors to allow efficient recombination

 All photons created must be able to leave the semiconductor


Correct band gap Direct band
gap
Materials
Requirements

Efficient radiative Material can be

pathways must made p and n-
exist type
  UV-ED  ~0.5-400nm
Direct band gap
Eg > 3.25eV
materials
 LED -  ~450-650nm
e.g. GaAs not Si Eg = 3.1eV to 1.6eV
 IR-ED-  ~750nm- 1nm
Eg = 1.65eV

Candidate
Materials

Materials with refractive Readily doped n or p-

index that could allow types
light to ‘get out’
 TYPES OF LEDS USED IN OPTICAL
FIBER COMMUNICATION

•Surface Emitter LEDs

•Edge Emitter LEDs
 SURFACE EMITTER LED (SLED)

• Also known as front emitters

 CONSTRUCTION

• Circular active area is 50μm in diameter and 2.5μm

thick.
 EMISSION PATTERN
• 120o half-power beam width.

• Lambertian pattern

• Power distribution is described by PD = P Cos θ

• source is equally bright

• Thus the power is down to 50% of its peak when θ = 60o

so that half power beam width is 120o
 WORKING

• When the SLED is forward-biased,

photons are generated in the p-GaAs
layer.
• The emission from the top surface is
ensured by the upper n+ AlGaAS and
lower p+ AlGaAs layers of the hetero-
structure.
• Therefore, radiance of the device in the
forward direction is very high.
 WORKING (contd…)
• Although the fiber is properly aligned to optimize the
coupling of the emitted radiation with the fiber, there is
some loss due to the Lambertian distribution of
radiation intensity.
• The hetero-structure provides a means for confining
charge carriers and optical power in the active region so
that radiative recombination takes place.
• Difference between refractive index of adjacent layers
confines the optical power in the central GaAs.
• SLED is more suitable for use with multimode fibers.
EDGE EMITTING LED (ELED)
 CONSTRUCTION
(Active region)

• Edge emitters consist of an active junction region,

which is the source of the incoherent light
• This active region lies between two guiding layers
 CONSTRUCTION(contd…)

(Guiding layers)

• The guiding layers both have a refractive index.

• This structure forms a waveguide
THE WAVEGUIDE
 CONSTRUCTION

(Contact stripes)

• To match the typical fiber core diameters (50 to 100μm), contact

stripes for the edge emitters are 50 to 70μm wide.
• Lengths of the active region are 100 to 150μm.
 CONSTRUCTION(contd…)

(Stripe Geometry)

• The stripe geometry made by selective metallization of the top

surface through a window opened in a SiO2 layer allows high
current injection densities for the same drive current.
• In other words, the power conversion efficiency is improved.
 EMISSION PATTERN
• ELED radiates a Lambertian pattern in the
plane parallel to the edge and produces a
beam that is much narrower in the plane
perpendicular to the edge.
• This emission pattern is more directional
than that of the SLED
• In the plane parallel to the junction, the
emitted beam is lambertian (varying as Cos
θ) with half power beam width of θІІ = 1200.
• In the plane perpendicular to the junction
with half power beam width of θ˩ = 25-350.
 ADVANTAGES
• Enhanced waveguiding of the edge emitter
enables to couple more power to a low
(NA) fiber than a comparable surface
emitter.
• The stripe geometry allows higher carrier
injection densities for a given drive current.
• Substantially, this gives better modulation
bandwidth of the order of several MHz.
• ELED can be used with a single mode fiber
 BANDGAP ENERGY
The source emission wavelength depends on the bandgap
energy of the device material.

39
SURFACE AND EDGE
EMITTING LED

Generally an LED is a broadband light source 40

Light source
materials
• Direct band gap
• Radiation recombination
• Binary compounds-III-V materials
• Group III materials (Al,Ga,In)
• Group V materials (P,As,Sb)
• Ternary and Quarternary combinations –for optical sources.
• For operations in the 800-900 nm spectrum. The principle material used is the
ternary alloy.

• Some tertiary alloys Gal-x –Alx As are also used. Emission spectrum of Gal-x –Alx
As LED is shown in Figure.
• The peak output power is obtained at 810 nm. The width of the emission

spectrum at half power(0.5) is referred as full width half maximum (FWHM)

spectral width. For the given LED FWHM is 36nm.

• The bandgap energy Eg can be controlled by two compositional

parameters x and y, within direct bandgap region. The quaternary alloy In 1-x

Gax Asy P1-y is the primary material used in such LEDs.

• GaAlAs and InGaAsP-light sources

• The fundamental quantum mechanical relationship between gap energy E and frequency v is given as –

where energy E is in joules and wavelength is in meters. Expressing the gap energies Eg in electron volts and
wavelength in micrometers for this application.

Different materials and alloys have different band gap energies.

• In ternary alloy, GaAlAs the band gap energy Eg and the crystal lattice
spacing a0 are determined.

• GaAs (Eg=1.43ev & a0=5.64A)

• GaAl (Eg=2.16ev & a0=5.66A)

• Two expressions relating Eg and x,y are

Quantum Efficiency and LED Power:
• The excess carrier density decays exponentially,

n=noe –t/τ

• The excess carrier can recombine either radiatively or non-radiatively

• Total rate= externally supplied rate + thermally generated rate.

• The externally supplied rate is J/qd.

• The thermally generated rate is n/τ.

• The rate equation for carrier recombination in an LED ,
dn/dt=J/qd- n/τ -----1

• The equilibrium condition is found by setting eq 1 equal to zero,

n=J τ/qd -----2
• If the current is injected into the LED is I and q is the electron charge then the
total number of recombinations per second is,
• Optical power generated internally in LED is given as,
 EXTERNAL EFFICIENCY
• Not all the light internally generated exits the LED
• The actual light output depends on:

• the refractive index of the active region,

• the refractive index of the surrounding material

• incident angle of light to the interface

# of photons emitted from LED

ext 
# of LED internally generated photons
FRESNEL REFLECTION
• If the refractive index n of the medium separating the source
and the fiber end is different from the core index n1, then, for
perpendicular fiber end faces, the power coupled into the
fiber reduces by the factor
2
 n1  n2  4n1 n2
R   T
 n1  n2  (n1  n2 ) 2
• R is the Fresnel reflection or the reflectivity at the
fiber-core end face; T is the transmissivity (R+T = 1)
• The reflection coefficient r = (n1 - n)/(n1 + n) relates
the amplitudes of the incident and reflected wave.
 n2

Light
emission
cone
n1

c
but Φc=sin -1(n2/n1)
1
ext  
4 0
T ( )(2 sin  )d

4n1n2
T ( ) : Fresnel Transmissi on Coefficien t T (0)  [4-12]

(n1  n2 ) 2
1
If n2 1  ext  [4-13]
n1 (n1  1) 2
Pint
LED emitted optical powr, P ext Pint  [4-14]
n1 (n1  1) 2
MODULATION OF AN LED
• The response time of an optical source determines how fast
an electrical input drive signal can vary the light output level
• If the drive current is modulated at a frequency ω and P0 is the
power emitted at zero modulation frequency, the optical
output power of the device will vary as
3-dB bandwidths
P( f ) Po / 1  (2f ) 2

Optical Power  I(f); Electrical Power  I2(f)

Electrical Loss = 2 x Optical Loss

MODULATION OF LED
• The frequency response of an LED depends on:
1- Doping level in the active region
2- Injected carrier lifetime in the recombination region,  i .
3- Parasitic capacitance of the LED
• If the drive current of an LED is modulated at a frequency of ω, the
output optical power of the device will vary as:
 p()   I() 
Electrical BW 10log   20 log  
[4-15]

 p ( 0 )   I ( 0 ) 
p : electrical power, I : electrical current

• Electrical current is directly proportional to the optical power, thus we

can define electrical bandwidth and optical bandwidth, separately. [4-16]

 P ( )   I ( ) 
Optical BW 10 log   10 log  I ( 0) 
 P ( 0 )   
DRAWBACKS OF LED
• Large line width (30-40 nm)
• Large beam width (Low coupling to the fiber)
• Low output power
• Low E/O conversion efficiency
Advantages
• Robust
• Linear
Injection Laser Diode(ILD):
• The laser is a device which amplifies the light, hence the LASER is an

acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

• The operation of the device may be described by the formation of an

electromagnetic standing wave with a cavity (optical resonator) which

provides an output of monochromatic highly coherent radiation.

Principle:

• Material absorb light rather than emitting. These different fundamental

process occurs between the two energy states of an atom.

1)Absorption 2) Spontaneous emission 3)Stimulated emission

• Laser action is the result of three process absorption of energy packets(photons)
spontaneous emission, & stimulated emission. These processes are represented
by two-energy-level diagrams.

Where,

E1 is the lower state level. Or ground state energy

E2 is the higher state level. Or excited state energy

• Quantum theory states that any atom exists only in certain discrete energy state,
absorption or emission of light causes them to make a transition from one state
to other.

• The frequency of the absorbed or emitted radiation f is related to the difference

in energy E between the two states.
• If E1 is the lower state level and E2 is the higher state level.

hv 12=E=(E2 - E1 )=h.f

where, h=6.626 * 10 -34

• An atom is initially on the lower energy state,when the photon with

energy (E2 - E1) is incident on the atom it will be exited into the higher

energy sate E2 through the absorption of the photon.

• When the atom is initially in the higher energy state E2 , it can make a

transition to the lower energy state E1 providing the emission of a photon

at a frequency corresponding to E=hf. The emission process can occur in
two ways:

A) By spontaneous emission in which the atom returns to the lower energy

state in random manner.

B) By stimulated emission when a photon having equal energy to the

difference between the two states (E2 – E1) interacts with the atom
causing it to the lower state with the creation of the second photon.
• Spontaneous emisson gives incoherent radiation while stimulated emisson
gives coherent radiation.Hence the light associated with emitted photon is
of same frequency of incident photons, and in same phase with same
polarisation.

• It means that when an atom is stimulated to emit light energy by an incident

wave,the liberated energy can add to the wave in constructive manner.

• The emitted light is bounced back and forth internally between two
reflective surface.

• The bouncing back and forth of light wave cause their intensity to reinforce
and build up. The result is a high brilliance, single frequency light beam
providing amplification.
LASER diode modes and Threshold conditions
• Modes are described in terms of
Longitudinal modes
Lateral modes
Transverse modes
Advantages of LASER Diode:
• Simple economic design

• High optical power

• Production of light can be precisely controlled

• Can be used at high temperatures

• Better modulation capability

• High coupling efficiency

• Low spectral width

• Ability to transmit optical output power between 5 and 10 mW.

• Ability to maintain the intrinsic layer characteristics over long periods.

Structures and Radiation patterns

• Three optical confinement method.

• Electrode stripe-< 8 micrometer wide.
• Refractive index of the active layer
• Gain guided laser
• Emits optical power exceeding 100mW.

• Fig.b & c-index guided lasers

• Supports transverse mode / longitudinal mode-known as single mode lasers
• index guided lasers -positive index or negative index structures.
• index guided lasers – 4 fundamental structure
• Buried heterostructure
• A selectively diffused construction
• A varying thickness structure
• A bent-layer configuration
pin Photodetector

The high electric field present in the depletion region causes photo-generated carriers to
Separate and be collected across the reverse –biased junction. This give rise to a current
Flow in an external circuit, known as photocurrent.
Energy-Band diagram for a pin photodiode
Photocurrent
• Optical power absorbed, P(xin
) the depletion region can be written in terms
of incident optical power, P:
0

  s ( ) x
P( x)  P0 (1  e ) [6-1]

• Absorption coefficient  s ( )strongly depends on wavelength. The upper

wavelength cutoff for any semiconductor can be determined by its energy
gap as follows:
1.24
 c ( m )  [6-2]
E g (eV)

• Taking entrance face reflectivity into consideration, the absorbed power in

the width of depletion region, w, becomes:

(1  R f ) P( w)  P0 (1  e   s (  ) w )(1  R f )
Optical Absorption Coefficient
Responsivity
• The primary photocurrent resulting from absorption is:

q
I p  P0 (1  e   s (  ) w )(1  R f ) [6-3]
h

• Quantum Efficiency:

# of electron - hole photogener ated pairs


# of incident photons
[6-4]
IP / q

P0 / h

• Responsivity: IP q
  [A/W] [6-5]

P0 h
Responsivity vs. wavelength
Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
APDs internally multiply the
primary photocurrent before it
enters to following circuitry.
In order to carrier multiplication
take place, the photogenerated
carriers must traverse along a
high field region. In this region,
photogenerated electrons and
holes gain enough energy to
ionize bound electrons in VB
upon colliding with them. This
multiplication is known as Optical radiation
impact ionization. The newly
created carriers in the presence of Reach-Through APD structure (RAPD)
high electric field result in more showing the electric fields in depletion
ionization called avalanche region and multiplication region.
effect.
Responsivity of APD

• The multiplication factor (current gain) M for all carriers generated in the
photodiode is defined as:
IM
M  [6-6]
Ip
I
M
• Where is the average value of the total multiplied output current & is
the primary photocurrent. IP

• The responsivity of APD can be calculated by considering the current gain

as:

q [6-7]
 APD  M  0 M
h
Current gain (M) vs. Voltage for different optical wavelengths
Photodetector Noise & S/N

• Detection of weak optical

signal requires that the
photodetector and its
following amplification
circuitry be optimized for a
desired signal-to-noise ratio.
• It is the noise current which
determines the minimum
optical power level that can
be detected. This minimum
detectable optical power
defines the sensitivity of
photodetector. That is the
optical power that generates
a photocurrent with the S signal power from photocurre nt

amplitude equal to that of N photodetec tor noise power  amplifier noise power
the total noise current
(S/N=1)
Signal Calculation
• Consider the modulated optical power signal P(t) falls on the photodetector
with the form of:
P (t )  P0 [1  ms(t )] [6-8]

• Where s(t) is message electrical signal and m is modulation index. Therefore

the primary photocurrent is (for pin photodiode M=1):
q
i ph  MP (t )  I P [ DC value]  i p (t )[ AC current ] [6-9]
h

• The root mean square signal current is then:

2 2 2 [6-9]
is  i p M  s 2

2 2 m 2 I P2
ip  p  for sinusoidal signal [6-10]
2
Noise Sources in Photodetecors
• The principal noises associated with photodetectors are :
1- Quantum (Shot) noise: arises from statistical nature of the production
and collection of photo-generated electrons upon optical illumination. It has
been shown that the statistics follow a Poisson process.
2- Dark current noise: is the current that continues to flow through the
bias circuit in the absence of the light. This is the combination of bulk dark
current, which is due to thermally generated e and h in the pn junction, and
the surface dark current, due to surface defects, bias voltage and surface
area.
• In order to calculate the total noise presented in photodetector, we should
sum up the root mean square of each noise current by assuming that those
are uncorrelated.

• Total photodetector noise current=quantum noise current +bulk dark

current noise + surface current noise
Noise calculation (1)
• Quantum noise current (lower limit on the sensitivity):

2 2
iQ  Q 2qI P BM F ( M ) 2
[6-11]

F ( M )  M x 0  x 1.0
• B: Bandwidth, F(M) is the noise figure and generally is

• Bulk dark current noise:

2
i
DB
2
DB 2qI D BM 2 F ( M ) [6-12]

Note that for pin photodiode

I D is bulk dark current M 2 F ( M ) 1

• Surface dark current noise: IL is the surface current.

[6-13]
2
i DS  DS
2
2qI L B
Noise calculation (2)
• The total rms photodetector noise current is:

2 2 2 2 2
iN  N  iQ  i DB  i DS
2q( I P  I D ) BM 2 F ( M )  2qI L B [6-14]

• The thermal noise of amplifier connected to the photodetector is:

2 2 4k B TB
iT  T  [6-15]
RL

RL k B 1.38 10  23 JK -1
input resistance of amplifier, and is Boltzmann
cte.
S/N Calculation
• Having obtained the signal and total noise, the signal-to-noise-ratio can be
written as:

2
S iP M 2
 [6-16]
N 2q( I P  I D ) BM 2 F ( M )  2qI L B  4k B TB / RL

• Since the noise figure F(M) increases with M, there always exists an
optimum value of M that maximizesx the S/N. For sinusoidally modulated
signal with m=1 and F ( M )  M :
x 2 2qI L  4k B T / R L [6-17]
M opt 
xq ( I P  I D )
Photodetector Response Time
• The response time of a photodetector with its output circuit depends mainly
on the following three factors:
1- The transit time of the photocarriers in the depletion region. The transit
time t depends
d
on the carrier drift velocity v and the depletion layer
d
width w, and is given by:
w
td  [6-18]
vd
2- Diffusion time of photocarriers outside depletion region.
3- RC time constant of the circuit. The circuit after the photodetector acts
like RC low pass filter with a passband given by:

1
B [6-19]
2RT CT
RT  Rs || RL and CT C a  C d
Photodiode response to optical pulse

Typical response time of the

photodiode that is not fully depleted
Various optical responses of photodetectors:
Trade-off between quantum efficiency & response time
• To achieve a high quantum
efficiency, the depletion layer
width must be larger than 1/  s
(the inverse of the absorption
coefficient), so that most of the
light will be absorbed. At the same
time with large width, the
capacitance is small and RC time
constant getting smaller, leading to
faster response, but wide width
results in larger transit time in the
depletion region. Therefore there
is a trade-off between width and
QE. It is shown that the best is:

1 /  s  w 2 /  s
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON AVALANCHE GAIN
Comparison of photodetectors