Chapter 3

OPTICAL TRANSMITTERS

Fiber-Optic Communications Systems, Third Edition.

Govind P. Agrawal

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CONTENTS
Describe the basic concepts of Emission and Absorption
Processes, pn Junctions,
Discuss the operation principle of Light-Emitting Diodes
Describe the PowerCurrent Characteristics
Discuss the details of LED Spectrum, LED Structures.
Do the Lab 3 Determining the critical parameters of LED

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CONTENTS
Laser Diodes: Optical Gain, Feedback and Laser
Threshold, Laser Structures.
Control of Longitudinal Modes: Distributed Feedback
Lasers (DFB), Coupled-Cavity Semiconductor Lasers,
Tunable Semiconductor Lasers.

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OPTICAL TRANSMITTER
The role of the optical transmitter is to convert

the

electrical input signal into the optical output one and then
launch

it

into

the

optical

ber

working

as

communication channel.
The major component of optical transmitters is an
optical source.

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Emission and Absorption Processes

(a) absorption;
(b) spontaneous emission
c) stimulated emission.
The absorption and emission processes of the two energy states of an atom

The energy levels E1 the ground state and E2 the excited

state of atoms.
- If h = Eg = E2 E1, the photon is absorbed by the atom, which
ends up in the excited state.
-

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PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT EMISSION

-The excited atoms eventually return to their normal ground state

and emit light in the process.
-Light emission can occur through two fundamental processes
known as spontaneous emission and stimulated emission.
- Light wavelength emitted:

where:
h=6.625.10-34 js (Planck Constant)

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c=3.108 m/s (the speed of light)

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PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT EMISSION (cont)

Spontaneous emission: photons are emitted in random directions

with no phase relationship among them.(Incoherent light)

Stimulated emission: In contrast, is initiated by an existing photon.

The emitted photon matches the original photon not only in phase but
also in its other characteristics, such as the direction of propagation,
same phase. (Coherent light)

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LED

Spontaneous emission

LASER

Stimulated emission
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FEATURES OF LED AND LASER

LED

Laser

1. Spontaneous emission

1. Stimulated emission.

2. The incoherent light

2. The coherent light

3. Double-heterostructure to confine
3. Double-heterostructure to
the carriers in resonant cavity.
confine the carriers in resonant
cavity.
4. With 2 reflectors + injected
mechanism to confine and amplify
4. Without reflector
photon for generating coherent
light.
5. Larger spectrum: several nm to
tens of nm
5. Narrower spectrum: 0.05 nm to

several nm
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Spectral Width of LED and LASER

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LIGHT SOURCE: P-N JUNCTION

P-N junction generate light:
- Active area.
2 conditions of semiconductor:
- Direct bandgap
- Confinement structure.

Frequency of photon:
= Eg/h=(E2 E1)/h

Electrons in the conduction band and holes in the valence band can
recombine and emit a photon through spontaneous emission or
stimulated emission.
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Direct and Indirect bandgap

Direct bandgap GaAs (a) Indirect bandgap of Si (b )

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HETEROSTRUCTURE

A heterostructure=junction of two materials with different energy bandgap.

The Double Heterostructure connes electrons and holes to active

layer where light is generated as a result of electron hole
recombination.
Confinement carriers Increasing light power
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HETEROSTRUCTURE

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HETEROSTRUCTURE

The active layer also has a slightly larger refractive index than that of
the surrounding p-type and n-type cladding layers .
Larger n1 of active layer same structure of fiber Total internal
reflection law confinement light Increasing light power
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LED (Light-Emitting Diodes)

Emits light through spontaneous emission, a phenomenon referred
to electroluminescence.

Radiative recombination of electronhole pairs in the depletion

region generates light; some of it escapes from the device.

The emitted light is incoherent with a relatively wide spectral width

(3060 nm) and a relatively large angular spread.
LED is used in system with bit rate under 200 Mbps.
Wide spectral width of LED:

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TYPES OF LED
Surface LED

EDGE LED

The surface-emitting or edge-emitting, depending on whether the

LED emits light from a surface that is parallel to the junction plane or
from the edge of the junction region.
Both types can be made using a heterostructure design in which the
active region is surrounded by p- and n-type cladding layers.
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Schematic of a Surface-Emitting LED

Surface Light Emitting Diode: SLED

light collected from the one surface, other attached to a
heat sink
easy to couple light with multimode fibers
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Schematic of a Surface-Emitting LED

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Schematic of a Edge-Emitting LED

Edge Light Emitting Diode: ELED

like stripe geometry lasers but no optical reflectors
easy make coupling light with multimode and single mode
fibers
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Schematic of a Edge-Emitting LED

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LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES
Power-Current Characteristics and LED Spectrum

(a) Powercurrent curves at several temperatures; (b) spectrum of the

emitted light for a typical 1.3-m LED. The dashed curve shows the

theoretically calculated spectrum.

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LASER DIODE
LASER = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
Radiation.
Laser light is monochromatic, coherent, and moves in the same
direction.
A semiconductor Laser is a Laser in which a semiconductor
serves as a photon source.
The most common semiconductor material that has been used in
lasers is Gallium Arsenide.

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Laser Structures

A broad-area semiconductor laser. The active layer is sandwiched between

p-type and n-type cladding layers of a higher-bandgap material

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External
electron
Injectiom

Conduction Band

Ec

B12

A21
Stimulated
photon
Absorption

Nonradiative
Recombination
Spontaneous
emssion

Stimulated
emssion

External hole
Injectiom

Ev
Valence Band

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B21

Population Inverse
At equilibrium, the carriers have the same speed
between the two states. According to Einstein

expression, we have:

A21N 2 B21N 2 S B12 N1S RP

(3.5)

S: photon energy density [J/m3.Hz],

N1 and N2 [1/m3]: densities at E1 and E2 respectively.
B12: stimulated absorption rate coefficient [1/sec],
B21: stimulated emission rate coefficient [1/sec],
A21: spontaneous emission rate coefficient [1/sec].
3.sec]
Rp:
External
Pump
Rate
[1/m
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Population Inverse
A21N 2 B21N 2 S B12 N1S RP

(3.5)

The left side of the equation (3.5) show full speed from
E2 to E1, and the right side is full speed from E1 to E2.

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Population Inverse
Therefore, to increase the light intensity, we must have:

B21N 2 B12 N1

(3.7)

This condition is called the population inversion.

When

B21 = B12 N2 > N1

To achieve the population inversion external pumping

speed RP should be > spontaneous emission rate. This

can be represented by altering the expression (3.5) as

follows:

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RP A21N 2
S
B21N 2 B12 N1

(3.8)

Population Inverse
RP A21N 2
S
B21N 2 B12 N1

Since S> 0 RP > A21N2 when

B21N 2 B12 N1

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SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS (SL)

SLs emit light through stimulated emission; high powers (~10mW),

the coherent light, high coupling efficiency (~50%) into SMF.

A narrow spectral width (0.05-0.1)nm Rb (~10 Gb/s)

Most FOCS use SLs

Optical Gain
Stimulated emission can dominate only if the condition of

population inversion is satisfied.

When the injected carrier density in the active layer exceeds a
certain value, known as the transparency value, population
inversion is realized and the active region exhibits optical gain.
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SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS

Optical Gain

(a)

Gain spectrum of a 1.3-m InGaAsP laser at several carrier densities N.

(b)

Variation of peak gain gp with N. The dashed line shows the quality of a
linear fit in the highgain region.
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Feedback and Laser Threshold

The optical gain alone is not enough for laser operation.
Optical feedback is neededconverts an amplifier into an
oscillator In most lasers FabryPerot (FP) cavity formed
by using two mirrors.
Laser threshold condition: compensates a certain fraction of

photons generated by stimulated emission is lost because of

cavity losses and needs to be replenished on a continuous
basis.

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Feedback and Laser Threshold

If the optical gain is not large enough to compensate for the
cavity losses, the photon population cannot build up a
minimum amount of gain is necessary for the operation of a
laser.
A simple way to obtain the threshold condition is to study
how the amplitude of a plane wave changes during one round
trip.

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SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
Feedback

and Laser Threshold

Structure of a semiconductor laser and the FabryPerot cavity

associated with it. The cleaved facets act as partially reflecting mirrors
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Geometry of Laser Cavity

Condition: nL=m/2
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2 Ln
m
m
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SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS

Gain and loss profiles in semiconductor lasers. Vertical bars

show the location of longitudinal modes.

The laser threshold is reached when the gain of the longitudinal

mode closest to the gain peak equals loss.
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Fabry-Perot Spectrum

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2 Ln
m
m
2m
1
1
1
L m m1 2 Ln{
} 2 Ln 2
m m 1
m
2 Ln

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Example
Laser cavity InGaAsP has characteristics: length: 500
m, refractive index: 3.63 and wavelength range
[1540 nm-1560 nm]. Find space between two sequent
longitudinal modes and number of modes that it can
have. Calculate this space in [GHz].

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CONTROL OF LONGITUDINAL MODES

Distributed Feedback (DFB) and Bragg reflector (DBR) laser structures.

The shaded area shows the active region and the wavy line indicates the
presence of a Bragg grating.
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Coupled-Cavity Semiconductor Lasers

Coupled-cavity laser structures: (a) external-cavity laser; (b)

cleaved-coupledcavity laser; (c) multisection DBR laser
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Tunable Semiconductor Lasers

Modern WDM lightwave systems require single-mode, narrowlinewidth lasers whose wavelength remains fixed over time.
DFB lasers satisfy this requirement but their wavelength stability
comes at the expense of tunability.
Multisection DBR laser: three sections: active, phase-control,
Bragg; independent bias by injecting different amounts of
currents.
The current injected into the Bragg section: change B = 2n
through carrier-induced changes in the refractive index n.

The current injected into the phase-control section: change the

phase of the feedback from the DBR through carrier-induced
index changes in that section. the range of change: 1015 nm
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