Engineering Physics

Course Code: BPHY101L; Course Type: Theory Only (TH)

Dr. Sandeep Chakraborty

Assistant Professor (Grade 2)
Department of Physics
School of Advanced Sciences (SAS)
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Campus
E-mail: sandeep.chakraborty@vit.ac.in
Phone: +91-9080717749
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as
a Transmission Medium
Losses in optical fibers:
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Dispersion in Fibers:
 In digital communication system, information to be sent
is first coded in form of pulses and then these pulse of
light are transmitted.

 The larger the number of pulses that can be sent per

second and still be resolvable at the receiver end, the
larger will be the transmission capacity of the system.

 A pulse of light sent into a fiber

broadens in time as it propagates
through the fiber.

 This phenomenon is called Pulse

Dispersion

Fig. 1. An illustration using the digital bit

pattern 1011 of the broadening of light pulses
as they are transmitted along a fiber: (a) fiber
input; (b) fiber output at a distance L1; (c)
fiber output at a distance L2 > L1
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Dispersion in Fibers:
 Dispersion of the transmitted optical signal causes distortion for both digital and analog
transmission along optical fibers.
 When considering digital modulation, then dispersion mechanisms within the fiber cause
broadening of the transmitted light pulses as they travel along the channel.
 The phenomenon is illustrated in Figure 1, where it may be observed that each pulse
broadens and overlaps with its neighbors, eventually becoming indistinguishable at the
receiver input. The effect is known as intersymbol interference (ISI).
 Thus an increasing number of errors may be encountered on the digital optical channel as
the ISI becomes more pronounced.

Pulse Dispersion Occurs Due to Several Reasons

 Intermodal dispersion: Different modes take different time to travel through a given
length of fiber; resulting in pulse broadening.
 Intramodal dispersion: Different wavelengths take different amounts of time to
propagate along the same path. This is known as material dispersion; or Intramodal
dispersion.
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:

Fig. 2 Different modes take different time to travel through a given length of fiber to
reach the detector; or receiver end; resulting in pulse broadening
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium
Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:

Multimode graded index fiber

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram showing a multimode step index fiber, multimode graded index
fiber and single-mode step index fiber, and illustrating the pulse broadening due to
intermodal dispersion in each fiber type
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium
Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:

 Figure 3 shows the three common optical fiber structures, namely multimode step index,
multimode graded index and single-mode step index, while diagrammatically illustrating
the respective pulse broadening associated with each fiber type.
 It may be observed that the multimode step index fiber exhibits the greatest
dispersion of a transmitted light pulse and the multimode graded index fiber gives a
considerably improved performance.
 Finally, the single-mode fiber gives the minimum pulse broadening and thus is
capable of the greatest transmission bandwidths which are currently in the gigahertz
range,
 Whereas transmission via multimode step index fiber is usually limited to bandwidths of
a few tens of megahertz.
 However, the amount of pulse broadening is dependent upon the distance the pulse
travels within the fiber, and hence for a given optical fiber link the restriction on usable
bandwidth is dictated by the distance between regenerative repeaters (i.e. the distance the
light pulse travels before it is reconstituted).
 Thus the measurement of the dispersive properties of a particular fiber is usually stated
as the pulse broadening in time over a unit length of the fiber (i.e. ns km−1).
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium
Intermodal dispersion in Fibers: Multimode step index fiber

Fig. 3 The paths taken by

the axial and an extreme
meridional ray in a perfect
multimode step index
fiber.

 Using the ray theory model, the fastest and slowest modes propagating in the step index
fiber may be represented by the axial ray and the extreme meridional ray (which is incident
at the core–cladding interface at the critical angle φc) respectively.

 The delay difference between these two rays when traveling in the fiber core allows
estimation of the pulse broadening resulting from intermodal dispersion within the fiber.
 As both rays are traveling at the same velocity within the constant refractive index fiber
core, then the delay difference is directly related to their respective path lengths within the
fiber.
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:

 The time taken for the axial ray to travel along a fiber of length L gives the minimum delay
time TMin
(1)

where n1 is the refractive index of the core and c is the velocity of light in a vacuum.

A
d C

𝑑 𝑑 𝑑 𝑑. 𝑛1
𝐴𝐵 = = = = Using Snell’s law
𝑐𝑜𝑠θ cos π − ϕ 𝑠𝑖𝑛ϕ𝑐 𝑛2
2 𝑐

𝐴𝐵 𝐴𝐵 𝐴𝐵.𝑛1 𝑑.𝑛1 𝑛1 (2)

Time required to travel AB = 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝑐/𝑛1
= 𝑐
= 𝑛2 𝑐
 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium
Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:
Now, considering the whole length of the fiber; (by replacing d by L in Eq. 2) we can write
the time taken by the extreme meridional as follows :

(3)

 Now the delay difference between the extreme meridional ray and the axial ray may be
obtained from Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) as follows:

(4)

(5)

where Δ is the relative refractive index difference.

 Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium
Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:
However, when Δ<< 1, then, the relative refractive index difference may also be given
approximately by:
(6)

Hence, rearranging Eq. (4); we can have:

(7)

Now again substituting Δ in terms of Numerical aperture (NA):

(8)

where NA is the numerical aperture for the fiber.

 The approximate expressions for the delay difference given in Eqs (7) and (8) are usually
employed to estimate the maximum pulse broadening in time due to intermodal
dispersion in multimode step index fibers.
Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intermodal dispersion in Fibers:

Inferences:
(9)

The rms pulse broadening can be given as: (10)

 The pulse broadening is directly proportional to the relative refractive index difference Δ
and the length of the fiber L.
 The latter emphasizes the bandwidth–length trade-off that exists, especially with
multimode step index fibers, and which inhibits their use for wideband long-haul
(between repeaters) systems.
 Furthermore, the pulse broadening is reduced by reduction of the relative refractive index
difference Δ for the fiber. This suggests that weakly guiding fibers with small Δ are best
for low-dispersion transmission.
 However, this is also subject to a trade-off as a reduction in Δ reduces the acceptance
angle θa and the NA, thus worsening the launch conditions.
Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intermodal dispersion in Fibers: Multimode graded index fiber

 Intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers is minimized with the use of graded index fibers. Hence,
multimode graded index fibers show substantial bandwidth improvement over multimode step index
fibers. The reason for the improved performance of graded index fibers may be observed by
considering the ray diagram for a graded index fiber shown below:

 Rays that are closer to the axis of the fiber will take shorter paths; but the velocity of the
rays are delayed due to the higher refractive index.
 However, the rays that are far from the axis of the fiber, they will traverse the longer
paths; but the velocity of the rays are faster due to the lower value of the refractive index.
 Due to this, the delay time gets reduced in the multimode graded index fiber and the
pulse broadening can be significantly reduced.
Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intramodal dispersion in Fibers: Chromatic Dispersion

 Intramodal or chromatic dispersion may occur in all types of optical fiber and results from the finite
spectral linewidth of the optical source.
 Since optical sources do not emit just a single frequency but a band of frequencies; then there may be
propagation delay differences between the different spectral components of the transmitted signal.
 This causes broadening of each transmitted mode and hence Intramodal dispersion. The delay
differences may be caused by the dispersive properties of the waveguide material (material
dispersion) and also guidance effects within the fiber structure (waveguide dispersion).

**Also known as Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD)

Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intramodal dispersion in Fibers: Material Dispersion

 Pulse broadening due to material dispersion results from the different group velocities of
the various spectral components launched into the fiber from the optical source.
 It occurs when the phase velocity of a plane wave propagating in the dielectric medium
varies nonlinearly with wavelength.
 A material is said to exhibit material dispersion when the second differential of the
refractive index with respect to wavelength is not zero (i.e. d2n/dλ2 ≠ 0).

 The pulse delay τm due to material dispersion in a fiber of length L is:

(11)

 The rms pulse broadening due to material dispersion is given by:

(12)

Where, source with rms spectral width σλ.

Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intramodal dispersion in Fibers: Material Dispersion

 It may be given in terms of a material dispersion parameter M which is defined as:

(13)

and which is often expressed in units of ps nm−1 km−1.

Figure shows the variation of the material

dispersion parameter M with wavelength
for pure silica. It may be observed that
the material dispersion tends to zero in
the longer wavelength region around 1.3
μm (for pure silica). This provides an
additional incentive (other than low
attenuation) for operation at longer
wavelengths where the material
dispersion may be minimized.
Factors Affecting the Performance of Optical Fibers as a Transmission Medium

Intramodal dispersion in Fibers: Material Dispersion

In a dispersion-managed system, positive dispersion transmission fiber alternates with

negative dispersion compensation elements, such that the total dispersion is zero end-
to-end.
 Optical Fiber in Endoscope
Endo: inside; Scopy: Viewing
 An endoscopy is a procedure where organs, joints, cavities inside your body are looked at
using an instrument called an endoscope.
 An endoscope is a long, thin, flexible tube that has a light and camera at one end. Images
of the inside of your body are shown on a television screen.

Meidcal
video-
endoscopy
machine
 Optical Fiber in Endoscope
Components of an endoscope:
1. A thin, long flexible tube; 2. A lens, or lens system; 3. A light transmitting system; 4.The
eyepiece; 5. Control system
 Optical Fiber in Endoscope
Schematic of a Scanning fiber endoscope

Kapur et al.Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 6865

 Optical Fiber in Endoscope
Early gastric cancer images: