DISPERSION – WHAT WE KNOW SO

FAR
Optical pulse
This is distorted as it propagates along a fibre
signal travelling through an optical fibre can be degraded due to:

• Attenuation (leads to loss of power)

• Nonlinearity (we have not discussed this yet) and

• Dispersion – leads to pulse spreading. Pulses become wider as they cover more distance in
the fibre, for example:
Pulses overlap to cause
a bit error
1 0 1 1 1 1
Bit stream
at fibre Bit stream
input at fibre
output
t t
Tb

L σ • rms pulse spread per

Rule of thumb BT L ≤ L
distance
4σ • Units: ns/km
types of fibre and refractive index profile

Note: Standard single mode

fibre is step-index
5
E
Silica fibres

Single-mode (Step index) Multimode (Step index)

• Do not have modal dispersion • Exhibit modal dispersion (also

(because they are single mode) called intermodal dispersion)
• This does not mean that they
have no dispersion at all.

Multimode (Graded index)



• Minimises modal dispersion

 http://fobasics.blogspot.com.cy/?view=classic
Step-index multimode fibres suffer from modal dispersion because the different modes
(rays of light) travel different distances in covering the length of the fibre.

Note: the different colours are used simply to show different ray paths. A purely
monochromatic source will still lead to modal dispersion.

δτ n1  n1 − n2  (NA )
2
=   ≈
L c  n2  2c n2
 Dispersion

Modal Dispersion
Chromatic Dispersion Polarization-mode
Also called: Dispersion (PMD)
Intermodal Dispersion Also called:
Multimode Dispersion Mostly a problem for
Intramodal Dispersion single-mode fibres that are
Occurs in: compensated for chromatic
Occurs in: single-mode and dispersion,
Multimode fibres multimode fibres
NOT in single-mode and at long distances

Material Waveguide
Dispersion Dispersion
Due to nonlinear wavelength Due to light propagating in cladding
dependence of refractive index of fibre, can be engineered with
with wavelength different refractive index profiles
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF DISPERSION
 Modal dispersion in a few words

• There must be more than one mode for this type of dispersion

• Input light is launched into a multimode fibre, exciting multiple modes of

propagation. Because the core diameter is sufficiently large, we can use ray
optics to model the propagation.

• Different modes have the same speed (strictly speaking the same group
velocity), but they travel different distances relative to fibre length.

• This leads to different arrival times at the output and thus pulse spreading.

• A graded index profile helps to reduce modal dispersion.

 Chromatic dispersion in a few words

• Also called intramodal – within a mode. Essentially occurs due to the light
being launched into the fibre being having a spread of wavelengths (i.e.
“colours”, hence the name chromatic dispersion).

• Has two components:

• Material dispersion (due to refractive index dependency on wavelength)
• Waveguide dispersion

• Occurs in both multimode and single-mode fibres, but we neglect it in

multimode fibres because their intermodal dispersion is larger. But we
cannot neglect it in single-mode fibres.
Chromatic dispersion in a few words – material dispersion

Optical sources (even lasers) are not purely

monochromatic, but instead they have a spectral width if
we look at their optical spectrum

Hence different wavelengths (or different “colours”,

hence the name chromatic) will be present in the input
pulse.

t t
IN OUT
v g (λ2 )
Leading to
Silica has a nonlinear variation v g (λ1 ) < vg (λ2 ) pulse spreading
of refractive index with
wavelength Hence different wavelengths
travel at different group velocities
Chromatic dispersion in a few words – waveguide dispersion

• Because of the small core diameter (typically 8 μm) relative to the wavelength of the
light, light launched into a single-mode fibre actually travels with a mode field diameter
that is larger than the core diameter.

• Hence part of the optical power is coupled into the cladding, which has a lower
refractive index than the core, leading to a higher velocity.

• The mode field diameter increases with wavelength, leading to more power being
coupled into the cladding and thus a higher overall group velocity.

Material and waveguide dispersion

combine to give overall chromatic
dispersion
 Polarisation mode dispersion (PMD) in a few words
Light can travel in two
orthogonal states of polarisation;
if these see different values of
refractive index (due to
birefringence), then pulse
spreading occurs:

Birefringence can be caused either by material or waveguide effects.

Waveguide PMD is essentially due to manufacturing variations leading to non-

concentric cores, elliptical cores or elliptical fibre:
Comparing chromatic & modal dispersion, single and multimode fibres

• Chromatic (intramodal) dispersion also exists in multimode fibres, but for this type of fibre
the biggest cause of dispersion is modal dispersion.
- For multimode fibres, we usually ignore chromatic dispersion when we calculate the total dispersion.

• For chromatic dispersion

- Material dispersion makes a larger contribution compared to waveguide dispersion.

Multimode fibres

Caused
by: Material dispersion
Modal dispersion Chromatic (intramodal)
Waveguide dispersion

Single-mode fibres

Multimode fibres have worse dispersion performance compared to single mode.

 1

Optical fibre
© U. of Washington

If we have a pulse of light which is not monochromatic (it contains a group of

wavelengths), then we will have dispersion:

CHROMATIC DISPERSION
 n2

n1
1 n
O

n
In single-mode fibres, there is no intermodal dispersion (because there is only one mode
of propagation).

However, we have chromatic (intramodal) dispersion

Material dispersion Waveguide dispersion

Chromatic dispersion Due to refractive

Due to nonlinear index profile of the
relationship between fibre. Changes with
• Dispersion due to fact that group
n and λ velocity changes with wavelength λ.
 Dispersion for a standard single mode fibre (silica)

• Dispersion is minimised at 1310 nm. Note: unit is ps/(nm.km)

• But dispersion is non-zero at 1550 nm, which is the wavelength of minimum

attenuation.