ASSIGNMENT NUMBER –1 ( OFC)

ANKIT RAJ

ROLL NO 94

1)What is the working principal of optoelectronic source?

A typical Optoelectronic Communication System consists of components namely:

 Light Source

 Optical Transmitter

 Photo Coupler

 Optical Fiber, Wave-guide

 Transducer

 Optical Receiver or Detector

Light Source

The light emitted from the source acts as an input to the Optical Transmitter. LEDs and Laser Diodes are used as the
light source depending upon the application. They generate input electrical signals for the communication system.

Optical Transmitter

The Optical Transmitter converts the signal received from a Laser Diode or LED to an optical output.
Photo Coupler

The Photo Couplers transfers the electrical signals between two isolated circuits through the transmission channel that
may be Optical fiber, wave-guide or free space. It also provides high insulation voltage.

Optical Fiber, Wave-guide

It acts as a transmission medium and guides electromagnetic waves in optical spectrum.

Transducer

Transducer modulates the signal proportional to the incident light and the signal further undergoes coupling through
the channel.

Optical Receiver or Detector

Photo-diodes and Photo-transistors are generally used as Optical Detectors. The light detector converts the incident
light in to electrical signal and it is further processed or stored to receive information. The electrical signal generated
is either a Photo-current or a Photo-voltage.
Fig. 3 – Block Diagram of Optoelectronics Communication System
Optoelectronic Devices

An optoelectronic device comprises of various semiconductor alloys that lay on substrates. Different semiconductor
layers are deposited sequentially on the substrate during the expansion of multi-quantum well of laser active regions.

These layers are deposited altering between barrier and well regions. Holes and electrons combine in the well region
to produce laser light. Barrier regions are used for confining holes and electrons inside the well.

Optoelectronic devices include:

 Information Displays using LED’s

 Photo Diodes

 Remote Sensing System

 Solar Cells

We will now look at some of the common Optoelectronic devices used today.

Photo-diodes
This semiconductor light sensor generates electricity or voltage when light touches the junction. The Junction here is
an active p-n junction, operated in the reverse bias condition. When an excited photon strikes the photo-diode,
electron-hole pairs are created.

Electrons then diffuse into the p-n junction to generate an electric field. This electric field equals the negative voltage
found across an unbiased diode. This process is termed as inner photoelectric effect. Photo-diodes can be used in three
formats:

 Photo-voltaic: As solar cells

 Forward biased: As LED

  Reverse biased: As photo detector
They are used in different types of circuitry and applications like medical instruments, cameras, communication
devices, safety and industrial equipment.

Fig. 4 – Structure of Photo-diode

Solar Cells
This photo-voltaic cell does direct conversion of solar energy into electricity. Sunlight is composed of photons. When
these photons collide with the silicon atoms of solar cell, energy transfer takes place from photons to the lose electrons.
These high energy electrons then flow into external circuits.
Solar Cells consists of only two layers. The first one is laden with electrons that are always ready to jump to the second
layer. The second layer has a few missing electrons and hence can accommodate electrons from the first layer.

Solar Cells are advantageous as it is cost-effective and zero fuel supply. They demand minimal maintenance. They are
used in rural electrification, ocean navigation systems and electric power generation in space.

Fig. 5 – Structure of Solar Cell

Laser Diodes
Laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is a source of directional, coherent and highly
monochromatic light. It functions under the conditions of stimulated emission. A laser beam is typically 4*0.6 mm and
extends to a distance of 15 meters. Semiconductor Lasers or Injection Lasers are commonly used today.

Upon applying voltage across P-N junction, a population inversion of electrons occur. Laser beam is then available from
this semiconductor region. The end points of p-n junction in a Laser Diode have a polished surface. These polished
surfaces are reflective in nature and helps the emitted photons to reflect back, thereby creating more pairs of electrons.
Thus the newly generated photons will have equal phase as previous photons.

Fig. 6 – Structure of Laser Diode

Applications of Optoelectronics

Optoelectronic semiconductor devices have a major impact on almost all areas of Information Technology. These
devices can be classified based on their functional roles like output, input, processing, transmission, memory and
others.
Many technologies and physical properties are exploited by applications using Optoelectronics. Several such
applications have come to our understanding and control only during the previous decade.

Below mentioned are some of the applications of Optoelectronic devices:

 LED’s have revolutionized lighting system and used in areas like computer components, watches, medical
devices, fiber optic communication, switches, household appliances, consumer electronics and 7 segment
displays

 Solar Cells are used in several solar energy based projects for measurement systems, auto irrigation system,
solar power charge controller, Arduino based solar street lights, and sun tracking solar panels
  Optical Fibers are used in telecommunication, fiber lasers, sensors, bio-medicals and other industries

 Laser Diodes find their use in military applications, surgical procedures, optical memories, CD players, local
area networks and in electrical projects like RF controlled robotic vehicles

Advantages of Optoelectronics

The advantages of Optoelectronics are:

 Optoelectronics have helped the military and Aerospace industry immensely. The transmitted Over- Air RF
links might not reach the intended receivers due to confined spaces, tunnels or in seagoing vessels and to
overcome this, they use optical repeaters and fiber optic networks.

 Optoelectronics has given a new dimension in designing satellites of future.

 It provides a high bandwidth for communications.

 The optoelectronic devices consume less power.

Disadvantages of Optoelectronics

The disadvantages of Optoelectronics are:

 The optoelectronic devices are temperature sensitive.

 Coupling requires precise alignment of Optoelectronic components which is complex.

 Integration of Optoelectronic elements on to a substrate is difficult.

2)What is the significance of responsivity of photodetector?

The responsivity (or radiant sensitivity) of a photodiode or some other kind of photodetector is the ratio of
generated photocurrent and incident (or sometimes absorbed) optical power (neglecting noise influences), determined
in the linear region of response. In the case of photodiodes, the responsivity is typically highest in a wavelength region
where the photon energy is somewhat above the band gap energy, and declining sharply in the region of the bandgap,
where the absorption decreases. It can be calculated according to

where h ν is the photon energy, η is the quantum efficiency, and e the elementary charge. For example, a photodiode
with 90% quantum efficiency at a wavelength of 800 nm, the responsivity would be ≈ 0.58 A/W. For avalanche
photodiodes and photomultipliers, there is an additional factor for the internal current multiplication, so that values far
above 1 A/W are possible. Note that the current multiplication is usually not subsumed in the quantum efficiency.

The responsivity is usually defined for the steady state. The photodiode response typically falls off for signal frequencies
above some detection bandwidth.

The term sensitivity is often used instead of responsivity, but that is not recommended, since the term can also have
other meanings. It should be avoided particularly when a clear quantitative meaning is intended.
A photodetector should ideally be operated in a spectral region where its responsivity is not far below the highest
possible value, because this leads to the lowest possible detection noise and thus to a high signal-to-noise ratio and
high sensitivity.
If some detector has a voltage rather than a current output, one can define its responsivity as the ratio of output
voltage and optical power. This leads to units of V/W (volts per watt). If a photodiode is combined with some detector
electronics generating a voltage output, the output voltage is the photocurrent times the so-called transimpedance of
the electronics. In the simplest case, one uses a shunt resistor, and the transimpedance is then its resistance.

Thermal detectors usually have a responsivity with a weak wavelength dependence in a broad spectral range – in
contrast to photon detectors like photodiodes, where the responsivity typically drops sharply for photon energies
around the band gap energy.

3)What are the different types of photodetector ? explain the working principal of any one of them.

. Types of photodetectors
Light incident on a material can cause various changes in them, depending on the phenomenon of conversion of light
to any measurable signal, photodetectors can be classified as

image.png584×336 2.8 KB

Phenomenon Mechanism

Photons cause electrons to shift from the conduction band of a material to valence band
photoelectric effect
producing free electrons in a vacuum or gas.

Photons cause electrons to transition to mid-gap states then decay back to lower bands,
Thermal
making phonon which is heat.

Photons induce changes in polarization states of suitable materials, that can change the index
Polarization
of refraction or other polarization effects.

Photochemical Photons induce a chemical change in a material

 Phenomenon Mechanism

Weak interaction photons induce secondary effects such as in photon drag. detectors or gas pressure changes
effects in Golay cells.

Configurations of Photodetectors

Arrangement of the sensors in a photodector, there are two types of configuration.

 1-D array - to measure the distribution of light along a line – Eg: spectrophotometer

 2-D array- form images from the pattern of light – Eg: image sensor

Properties of Photodetectors

The figure of merit for the selection of photodetectors are as follows

Parameters Description

Spectral response The response of a photodetector as a function of photon frequency

Quantum
The number of carriers (electrons or holes) generated per photon
efficiency

Responsivity The output current divided by total light power falling on the photodetector.

Noise-equivalent The amount of light power needed to generate a signal comparable in size to the noise of the
power device.

Detectivity The square root of the detector area divided by the noise equivalent power.

The output current of a photodetector divided by the current directly produced by the photons
Gain
incident on the detectors, i.e., the built-in current gain.

Dark current The current flowing through a photodetector even in the absence of light

Response time The time needed for a photodetector to go from 10% to 90% of final output.

The intrinsic noise voltage or current as a function of frequency. This can be represented in the
Noise spectrum
form of a noise spectral density.

Nonlinearity The RF-output is limited by the nonlinearity of the photodetector

Photodetector devices
Based on each phenomenon, there are various devices to choose from to be used in different application

Photoemission or photoelectric

Device Description

Detect photons and particles with sufficient energy to ionize gas atoms or molecules. Electrons
Gaseous ionization
and ions generated by ionization cause a current flow which can be measured. Experimental
detectors
particle physics
 Device Description

A setup with multiple tubes that encloses a photocathode which emits electrons when
Photomultiplier illuminated, the electrons are then amplified by a chain of dynodes. A dynode is a vacuum tube
that serves as an electron multiplier through secondary emission.

A tube with photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, such that the tube
Phototubes
conducts a current proportional to the light intensity.

Microchannel plate Silicon-based photomultipliers used for detection of single particles (electrons, ions and
detectors neutrons) and low intensity impinging radiation (ultraviolet radiation and X-rays).

Semiconductor

Device Description

Image sensors usually made using cmos fabrication process, commonly used in cell phone
Active-pixel sensors
cameras, web cameras, and some dslrs.

Operating in direct-conversion (or photoconductive) mode at room temperature, unlike

Cadmium zinc telluride some other materials (particularly germanium) which require liquid nitrogen cooling. High
radiation detectors sensitivity for x-rays and gamma-rays, due to the high atomic numbers of Cd and Te, and
better energy resolution than scintillator detectors.

Used to record images in astronomy, digital photography, and digital cinematography.

Charge-coupled devices
Used instead of photographic plates a predecessor to cryogenic detectors.

Detection occurs when an infrared photon of sufficient energy kicks an electron from the
HgCdTe infrared
valence band to the conduction band. Such an electron is collected by a suitable external
detectors.
readout integrated circuits (ROIC) and transformed into an electric signal.

LEDs Reverse-biased to act as photodiodes.

Photoresistors/ Light
Change resistance according to light intensity. Normally the resistance of LDRs decreases
Dependent Resistors
with increasing intensity of incident light
(LDR)

Operate in photovoltaic mode or photoconductive mode,they are often combined with

Photodiodes low-noise analog electronics to convert the photocurrent into a voltage that can be
digitized.

Phototransistors Amplifying photodiodes.

Quantum dot
photoconductors or Detecting wavelengths in the visible and infrared spectral regions.
photodiodes

Semiconductor
Used in gamma and X-ray spectrometry and as particle detectors
detectors

Silicon drift detectors X-ray radiation detectors used in x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and electron microscopy
Photovoltaic

Device Description

Photovoltaic cells or A combination of layers of semiconducting material that can produce a voltage across it
solar cells and supply an electric current when light is incident on it

Thermal

Device Description

Measure the power of incident electromagnetic radiation by heating of a material that has
Bolometers temperature-dependent electrical resistance. A microbolometer is a specific type of bolometer
used as a detector in a thermal camera.

Cryogenic Sensitive to measure the energy of single x-ray, visible and infrared photons. Used in space
detectors applications

Pyroelectric Detect photons through the heat they generate and the subsequent voltage generated in
detectors pyroelectric materials.

Thermopiles Detect electromagnetic radiation through heat, then generating a voltage in thermocouples.

Detect photons by the heat they generate in a gas-filled chamber, causing the gas to expand and
Golay cells
deform a flexible membrane whose deflection is measured.

Photochemical

Device Description

Photoreceptor cells Used in bionics for the retina that detect light through biological function.

A chemical reaction that results in splitting silver halide molecule into an atom of metallic
Chemical detectors -
silver and a halogen atom. The photographic developer causes adjacent molecules to
photographic plates
split similarly.

Polarization

Device Description

photorefractive effect Used in holographic data storage.

Polarization-sensitive Use optically anisotropic materials to detect photons of a desired linear

photodetectors polarization

Application of photodetectors
Photodetectors have application in various fields from industries to medical and residential to commercial uses.
1. Sensing applications
2. Communication couplers for electrical isolation between circuits

3. As recording element.
4);Explain the SNR of a photodetector.

The quality of optical and other measurements is often characterized with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR, S/N ratio). This
is generally understood to be the ratio of the detected powers (not amplitudes), and is often expressed in decibels.
Usually, the definition refers to electrical powers in the output of some detector. In the context of image processing,
the signal-to-noise ratio is often defined in a different way: as the ratio of the mean pixel value and its standard
deviation (for constant illumination).

In optical measurements, a common situation is that some light beam impinges a photodetector such as a photodiode,
which produces a photocurrent in proportion to the optical power, with some electronic noise added. Depending on the
situation, the signal-to-noise ratio may be limited either by optical noise influences (including shot noise) or by noise
generated by the detector electronics. Some examples are given below.

The signal-to-noise ratio often limits the accuracy with which some measurement can be done. For digital signals, it
can limit the reliability of detecting correctly, which can be quantified with a bit error rate. The latter situation is
common in optical fiber communications, where some required bit error rate can only be achieved with a sufficiently
high signal-to-noise ratio at the detector.

The Power of Noise

The power of noise is spread over some range of noise frequencies, and can be described with a power spectral density.
Assuming white noise for simplicity, where the power spectral density is independent of noise frequency, the noise
power is proportional to the detection bandwidth. If some signal is available for a longer time, the noise influence on a
measurement can be reduced by averaging over a longer time interval. This can also be described as a reduction of the
detection bandwidth (because changes of the signal within that interval could no longer be detected), which implies
that the total noise power is reduced and thus the signal-to-noise ratio is increased (see Figure 1). Note also that the
minimum possible detection bandwidth roughly equals the inverse measurement time.

Figure 1: An optical signal at 1043.4 nm, which is contaminated with some level of white noise (resulting from amplified
spontaneous emission in an amplifier), has been recorded with two different values of the resolution bandwidth (RBW).
This bandwidth affects the noise level, but not the signal level. Consequently, a better signal-to-noise ratio (≈ 32 dB) is
achieved with the smaller resolution bandwidth.

Figure 2: Same as in Figure 1, but with averaging over 10 traces, so that the average noise power (the power spectral
density) is better approximated. Note that this kind of averaging does not improve the signal-to-noise ratio; it only
reduces the uncertainty in the noise level, but not the noise level as such.

Example 1: Optical Measurement Limited by Thermal Noise

When an optical signal with a relatively low optical power such as 1 μW impinges a photodiode, and this photodiode
is operated with some reverse bias and a resistor for converting the photocurrent into a voltage signal, the noise of
that signal is normally dominated by thermal noise from the resistor or by excess noise from further electronic
components.

If the signal is some weak sinusoidal modulation of the optical power, the detected electrical signal power is
proportional to the square of the signal amplitude, i.e., to the square of the amplitude of the optical power modulation.
Doubling the overall optical power would double that amplitude and quadruple the detected signal power, whereas
the noise power remains constant. This means that the signal-to-noise ratio would then be increased by a factor of 4,
corresponding to 6 dB.
Example 2: Shot-noise-limited Optical Measurement

When an optical signal with a sufficiently high optical power (for example, 10 mW) impinges a photodiode equipped
with high-quality electronics, electronic noise influences are often negligible, even if the optical signal in contaminated
only by shot noise.
If we again assume the signal to be a weak sinusoidal modulation of the optical power, doubling the overall optical
power would still increase the detected signal power by a factor of 4, but it would also double the noise power resulting
from shot noise. In effect, the signal-to-noise ratio would be doubled, corresponding to an increase by 3 dB.

Measures for Improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Optical Measurements

In optical measurements, the signal-to-noise ratio may be increased with various types of measures:

 A first possibility is to remove any avoidable noise sources. For example, optical power measurements on light
beams can be affected by influences of ambient light, which should thus be eliminated for example by
 switching room lights off, covering windows with dark curtains, or by using black tubes and/or optical
bandpass filters in front of photodetectors.

 An important aspect is the correct selection of a suitable type and model of photodetector. Depending on the
situation, different properties can be relevant. For example, the dark current of a photodiode can be important
for very low-level measurements, but normally not for shot-noise-limited measurements at higher powers.

 Generally, it is helpful to increase the optical input power. However, the optical power usually has to stay
below the level where saturation effects in the detector (the photodiode or the electronics) or in a measured
object occur. As shown in the examples above, increases in optical power are particularly effective in the
regime where the noise is dominated by detector noise.

 One way to increase the optical input power is to use an optical preamplifier, for example a fiber amplifier.
Unfortunately, amplifiers have the side effect of adding some level of excess noise, which can be described
with the noise figure. If if an originally shot-noise-limited signal is contaminated by some level of excess noise
from a preamplifier, the resulting signal-to-noise ratio of the detection may be increased by the use of the
amp lifer if the noise would otherwise have been dominated by detector noise.

 Optical heterodyne detection is a method for achieving shot-noise-limited measurements even for very low
signal powers. It involves the superposition of the weak signal with a stronger local oscillator beam.

 As mentioned above, noise influences on continuously available signals may be reduced by averaging over a
longer measurement time, which implies a lower detection bandwidth. For repetitive pulsed signals, one may
average over multiple pulses.

 Simple averaging has the disadvantage that the measurement is sensitive to noise at low frequencies, which
is often strong (→ 1 / f noise, pink noise). A possible solution is lock-in detection: the signal is modulated, for
example by chopping (quickly switching) the beam, and thus transferred to a higher frequency where the
power spectral density of noise influences (for example, electronic noise) is lower. A phase-sensitive amplifier,
also using the modulation signal, can then extract the signal. In the same way as for simple averaging, the
achievable reduction in measurement bandwidth is limited by the measurement time.

 When an optical signal (for example, in laser absorption spectroscopy) is imprinted on a laser beam which
itself has some noise, balanced photodetection can be a solution. Here, the original beam is split into two
beams of equal power with a 50:50 beam splitter, and only one of these beams obtains the signal (for
example, by passing through a multipass gas cell). The powers of both beams are then detected, and the
detector setup reacts only to the difference of the photocurrents. This approach largely eliminates the
influence of noise of the original beam.

 Sensitive measurements are difficult in some long-wavelength spectral regions, where high-
performance photodetectors are not available. A possible solution is upconversion of the signal to a shorter-
wavelength region, allowing one to use high-performance photodiodes, for example. The upconversion
process may be based on sum frequency generation in a nonlinear crystal.

5)What is the difference between LED and LASER

The following table compares LED vs Laser with respect to various comparison factors and outlines the difference
between LED and laser diode.
specification Light Emitting Diode Laser Diode

Working operation It emits light by spontaneous emission. It emits light by stimulated emission.

The emitted light is incoherent i.e. photons are It possesses a coherent beam with identical
Coherent/Incoherent in random phase among themselves. phase relation of emitted photons.

Emitted light power is relatively low, Linearly Output power is high (Few mW to GW) ,
Output power proportional to drive current Proportional to current above the threshold

It requires small applied bias and operates It requires high driving power and high injected
Bias/Current under relatively low current densities. current density is needed.

Coupled power Moderate High

Speed Slower Faster

Output pattern Higher Lower

Fiber Type Multimode only Singlemode and multimode

Ease of use Easier Harder

Lifetime Longer Long

Wider, 25 to 100 nm Narrower, <10-5 to 5 nm

Spectral width (10 to 50 THz) (<1 MHz to 2 MHz)

Modulation
Bandwidth Moderate, Tens of KHz to tens of MHz High, Tens of MHz to tens of GHz

Available
Wavelength 0.66 to 1.65 mm 0.78 to 1.65 mm

E/O Conversion
Efficiency 10 to 20 % 30 to 70 %
 Must be rendered eye-safe, especially for λ <
Eye Safety Generally considered eye-safe 1400 nm

Cost Low Moderate to High