Khulna University of Engineering and Technology

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

ECE 4203
Optical Fiber Communcations




Lecture 2 - 3



Ray Theory of Transmission:
Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
Acceptance Angle, Numerical Aperture


Lecture 2-3 Ray Theory of Transmission
A transparent dielectric rod, typically of silica glass with a refractive index of around 1.5,
surrounded by air, proved to be an impractical waveguide due to its unsupported structure,
especially when very thin waveguides were considered in order to limit the number of optical
modes propagated, and the excessive losses at any discontinuities of the glass-air interface. It
was required that the smooth surface of a single fiber kept clean of moisture, dust, oil, etc. to
prevent leakage. Light also might leak from one fiber to another (cross-talk) as large numbers
of fibers are packed in close proximity. Applications of glass optical waveguides as optical
imaging and medical diagnosis led to proposals for a clad dielectric rod in mid-1950s in order
to overcome these problems. This structure is illustrated in Fig.2.1, which shows a
transparent core with a refractive index n
1

surrounded by a transparent cladding of
slightly lower refractive index n
2
. The
cladding supports the waveguide structure
whilst also, when sufficiently thick,
substantially reducing the radiation loss into
the surrounding air. At the cladding-air
interface, the light field decays to negligibly
Figure 2.1 Optical fiber waveguide with n
2
n
1
. small.

2.1 Total internal reflection

The refractive index of a
dielectric medium is defined as the
ratio of the velocity of light in a
vacuum to the velocity of light in
the medium. When a ray is
incident on the interface between
two dielectrics of differing
refractive indices, e.g. glass-air as
shown in Fig.2.1, it travels more
slowly in the optically dense glass
than in the less dense air, and the
refractive angle is larger than the
incident angle. Total internal
reflection (TIR) occurs provided
that the incident angle is greater
than the critical angle
1 2
1
/ sin n n
c

= | , i.e. the glancing angle is sufficiently small.

A meridional ray passes through the axis of the fiber core. This type of ray is the
simplest to describe and is generally used when illustrating the fundamental transmission
properties of optical fiber. A meridional ray might undergo several thousand reflections per
meter. | tan / D L N = .
Typically, D ~ 10m,
(seldom used in size much
smaller than this,
available as small as
2m), the glass core has
an index n
1
of 1.62 and
the cladding n
2
~ 1.52.
Example 2.1 The refractive index of glass is 1.5 and assuming that of the cladding is 1,
determine the critical angle of TIR. If the ray has a shallow (glancing) angle 19.47 and the
core is 50 m thick, how many reflections does it have in 1 m. (Answer:

81 . 41 =
c
| and N =
7,071/m)


2.2 Acceptance angle

We now concern about light rays entering the fiber from air. Only rays with a sufficiently
shallow grazing angle at the core-cladding interface are transmitted by TIF. It is clear that
not all rays entering the fiber core will continue to be propagated down its length.
There is a maximum

a
(a for air), for which
the internal ray will
impinge at the critical
angle
c
| . Any rays B
incident on the input face
at an angle to the fiber
axis larger than
a
will
strike the internal core-
cladding interface at
angle less than
c
| and
will not have TIF. B is
refracted into the cladding and eventually lost by radiation. This situation is shown by
Fig.2.4. The maximum angle
a
to the fiber axis at which light may enter the fiber in order to
be propagated is often referred to as the (total) acceptance angle for the fiber. Start with
f f c
n n u u |
2
1 2
sin 1 ) 90 sin( / sin = = =

(
f
is the refractive angle, f for fiber)
i.e.
a
n
n
n n u
2
2
1
2
0
1 2
sin 1 / =
and
2
2
2
1
0
1
sin n n
n
a
= u . (2.1)

This is a relationship of the acceptance angle and the refractive indices of the three media
involve, namely the core, cladding and air.


2.3 Numerical aperture

The quantity
a
n u sin
0
is defined as the numerical aperture, or NA
NA =
a
n u sin
0
. (2.2)
Its square is a measure of the light-gathering power of the system. The term originates in
microscopy, where the equivalent expression describes the corresponding capabilities of the
objective lens. The NA is independent of the fiber core diameter and will hold for diameters
as small as 8 m. However, for smaller diameters Eq.(2.1) breaks down as the geometric
optics approach is invalid. This is because the ray theory model is only a partial description
of the character of light. It describes the direction a plane wave component takes in the fiber
but does not take into account interference between such components. When interference
phenomena are considered it is found that only rays with certain discrete characteristics
propagate in the fiber core. Thus the fiber will only support a discrete number of guided
modes. This becomes critical in small core diameter fibers which only support one of a few
modes. Hence, electromagnetic mode theory must be applied in these cases.

The index difference of a waveguide is usually characterized by a normalized parameter

The numerical aperture can be expressed as


For typical multimode fibers, we have ~ 1 3 %, NA ~ 0.2 0.4

It has been defined the relative aperture as D/f, the ratio between the aperture diameter D
and the focal length f. Its inverse is the focal ratio or f-number, often written f/# as a single
symbol, that is D f f / /#= . The NA should clearly relate to the f-number of the system, and,
in fact,

) ( 2
1
/#
NA
f = . (2.3)

In the air n
i
= 1 and the largest value of NA is 1, NA 1. Fibers with a wide variety of
numerical apertures, from about 0.2 up to and including 1.0, are commercially obtainable.


Example 2.2 A silica optical fiber with a core diameter large enough to be considered by ray
theory analysis has a core refractive index of 1.50 and a cladding refractive index of 1.47.
Determine: (a) the critical angle at the core-cladding interface; (b) the NA for the fiber;
(c) the acceptance angle in air for the fiber.


2.4 Skew rays

Besides the meridional rays in the optical waveguide, there is another category of ray
exists which is transmitted without passing through the fiber axis. These rays, which greatly
outnumber the meridional rays, follow a helical path through the fiber, as illustrated in Fig.
2.6, and are called skew rays. When projecting into the cross-section, each reflection gives a
change in the direction of 2
as shown in Fig.2.6(b). The
point of emergence of skew
rays from the fiber in air will
depend on the number of
reflections they undergo
rather than the input
conditions to the fiber. When
the light input to the fiber is
nonuniform, skew rays will
therefore tend to have a
smoothing effect on the
distribution of the light as it
is transmitted, giving a more
uniform output. More reflec-
tions, better the smoothing.
The acceptance conditions of skew rays are now considered. To calculate the acceptance
angle for a skew ray it is necessary to define the direction of the ray in two perpendicular
planes. The geometry of the situation is shown in Fig.2.7. A skew ray is incident on the end
face of a fiber core at the point A at an incident angle
s
. The normal at the point A is AT
parallel to the core axis (so
does SR). The ray is refracted
at the air-core inter-face before
traveling to the point B in the
same incident plane ABT.
However, the normal at the
point B is now the BR along the
core radius and the incident
plane is ABR which makes an
angle at the cross-section
RBT. The incidence (and
reflection) angle at the point B
is |,
c
| | > . The new incident angle satisfies
u | cos sin cos = . (2.4)

For the critical angle |
c
,
| |
2 / 1
2
1 2
) / ( 1 cos cos sin n n
c
= s | u (2.5)
The maximum input axial angle for skew rays is

0
1
sin
sin
n
n
as
u
u = = | |
2 / 1
2
1 2
0
1
0
1
) / ( 1
cos cos
cos
n n
n
n
n
n
c
=

|
(2.6)
where
a
is the acceptance angle for skew rays. The acceptance condition for skew rays are:
u cos sin
2
2
2
1 0
n n n NA
as
= = . (2.7)


By comparison with Eq.(2.1), skew rays are accepted at larger axial angles in a given fiber
than meidional rays, depending upon the value of cos. In fact cos = 1 for meidional rays
and
as
reduces to
a
. Thus
a
defines the maximum conical half angle for the acceptance of
meridional rays but it defines the minimum input angle for skew rays. As shown by
Fig.2.6(b), skew rays tend to propagate only in the annular region near the outer surface of
the core, and do not fully utilize the core as a transmission medium. However, they are
complementary to meridional e the light-gathering capacity of the fiber. This increased light-
gathering ability may be significant for large NA fibers, but for most communication design
purposes the expressions given in Eqs.(2.1) and (2.2) for meridional rays are considered
adequate.

Example 2.3 An optical fiber in air has an NA of 0.4. Compare the acceptance angle for
meridional rays with that for skew rays which change direction by 100 at each reflection.

Assignment

1. A typical relative refractive index difference for an optical fiber designed for long
distance transmission is 1%. Estimate the NA and the solid acceptance angle in air for the
fiber when the core index is 1.46. Further, calculate the critical angle at the core-cladding
interface within the fiber. It may be assumed that the concepts of geometric optics hold
for the fiber.