ARTICLE IN PRESS

Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67

www.elsevier.com/locate/optlastec

New aspects in bandwidth measurements considering

the effects of DMD
Christian-Alexander Bungea,, Winfried Lieberb, Dan Curticapeanb,c
a
Technical University Berlin, Sekr. HFT-4, Einsteinufer 25, D-10587 Berlin, Germany
b
University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, Badstr. 24, D-77652 Offenburg, Germany
c
Laboratoire des Systèmes Photoniques, École Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, Bd. S. Brant,
F-67400 Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France

Received 5 November 2004; received in revised form 7 April 2005; accepted 13 May 2005
Available online 1 July 2005

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effects of differential mode delay (DMD) on the bandwidth of multimode optical fibres. First an
analytical solution for the computation of the differential mode time delay is presented. The electrical field of each mode is
calculated by the numerical solution of the Helmholtz equation. Based on this solution the modal power distribution as well as the
fibre’s impulse response under different launching conditions can be obtained.
Next, the refractive-index profile of two fibres is modelled on the basis of DMD measurements. It is shown that these
measurements provide enough information to predict the fibre’s propagation characteristics under different launch conditions
(excitation conditions).
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Differential mode delay; Bandwidth of multimode fibres; Refractive-index profile; Launching conditions

1. Introduction be examined. A bandwidth test under a new launching

As bit rates increase up to gigabits per second in
short-reach applications, such as local area networks,
more and more links are being based on multimode glass
fibres. While mainly light-emitting diodes (LED) have
been used at lower data rates, gigabit per second
transmission requires lasers due to their faster modula-
tion speed. These lasers show substantially different
launching conditions. LEDs excite a large number of
modes, while lasers launch the light on a small spot
exciting only a few fibre modes. For this reason the
bandwidth measured under an overfilled launching
condition no longer provides sufficient information
about the fibre quality [1]. New quality tests have to
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 30 314 22 437;
fax: +49 30 314 24 626.
E-mail address: christian-alexander.bunge@tu-berlin.de
(C.-A. Bunge).
condition, more similar to the laser launch, and the
application of the DMD measurement is discussed [2].
In this paper, the DMD measurement technique will
be discussed. First it is presented as to how the mode
delay times and the mode power distribution under
different launching conditions can be obtained. Next it
is shown by two examples that DMD measurements
provide enough information for the construction of the
refractive-index profile. This proves that the DMD
measurement is a good and reliable test of the fibre
quality.
2. Theoretical considerations
In order to investigate the DMD effects on multimode
fibres it is necessary to study their modal behaviour.
Therefore the electrical mode fields and their modal

0030-3992/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optlastec.2005.05.007
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
62 C.-A. Bunge et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67

delay are calculated. The investigated fibres are assumed Here the spot size is determined by wDMD ; xr stands for
to show power-law profiles with deviations. Eq. (1) the offset from the centre. After calculating the overlap
shows the definition of a power-law profile [3,4]: integrals over the area A of the exciting electrical field
8 h
g i2 ðE DMD Þ with all mode fields ðE l;p Þ the mode power
< n2 1
2D r
>
8rpa; distribution is known and can be used for the
2 core
n ðrÞ ¼ a (1) determination of the impulse response:
>
: n2core ½1
2D2 8r4a:
R 2

A jE DMD E l;p j dA
Here ncore is the refractive index at the fibre axis. D C l;p ¼ R 
R  . (4)
stands for the profile height, the normalised difference of A jE DMD E DMD j dA A jE l;p E l;p j dA
the refractive-index between the core and the cladding. E l;p ðrÞ describes the electrical mode field of the LPl;p
Finally, the parameter a describes the core radius of the mode. Since the impulse response of a fibre originates
fibre, and g stands for the profile exponent. from the fact that the signal is transmitted by a set of
The considered deviations from a pure power-law modes with different modal delays it is necessary to
profile are profiles with two (see Eq. (2a)) or, know the mode power distribution and the modal delays
respectively, three different exponents (see Eq. (2b)) in to calculate the impulse response. The modal delay can
the inner and the outer core region: be obtained from the group velocity:
8
h r ig1
a g2
g1 2  
>
> 2 t;1 L dbl;p L dbl;p dl Ll2 dbl;p
> n
> core 1
2D 8rpat;1 ; tl;p ¼ ¼ ¼
. (5)
>
< a a c0 dk c0 dl dk 2pc0 dl

h i
r g2 2
n2 ðrÞ ¼ n2 8at;1 prpa; (2a)
>
> core 1
2D In this equation c0 is the velocity of light, bl;p is the
>
> a
>
: n2 ð1
2DÞ2 8r4a; propagation constant of the mode, l stands for the
core
wavelength, L represents the fibre length, and k is the
8

r g1
a g2
g1 wave number. In order to obtain the modal delay the
> 2 t;1
>
> n core 1
2D derivative dbl;p =dl must be determined. The propaga-
>
> a a tion constant bl;p is defined as follows [5]:
>
>
a g3
g2 2
>
> t;2
>
>  8rpat;1 ; V 2 Bl;p
>
> a
<

r g2
a g3
g2 2 b2l;p ¼ k20 n2core
2Dk20 n2core Bl;p ¼ k20 n2core
. (6)
n2 ðrÞ ¼ n2 t;2 a2
> core 1
2D 8at;1 prpat;2 ;
>
> a a Here V is the fibre parameter, and Bl;p defines the
>
>

r  g3  2
>
> n2 normalised propagation constant [5]. The first derivative
>
>
> core 1
2D 8at;2 pr;
>
> a is therefore:
>
: n2 ð1
2DÞ2 8r4a:  2 2 
core dbl;p 1 dðk0 ncore Þ 1 dðV 2 Bl;p Þ dV 2
¼
2 . (7)
(2b) dl 2bl;p dl a dV 2 dl
In the above equations at;1 is the radius of transition The three derivatives in the right-hand term of Eq. (7)
from the inner region with exponent g1 to the outer can be easily determined as follows:
region with exponent g2 . at;2 defines the transition  
dðk20 n2core Þ 8p2 ncore dncore ncore
between the intermediate region with exponent g2 to the ¼
, (8)
outer region of the core with exponent g3 . Based on the dl l2 dl l
scalar wave equation, the modal fields of the fibres can R1 2
be calculated. When the electrical fields have been dðV 2 Bl;p Þ 0 NðrÞE l;p ðrÞr dr
¼ R 1 ¼ Rl;p , (9)
obtained the mode power distribution can be derived by dV 2 2
0 E l;p ðrÞr dr
calculation of the overlap integrals of the electrical mode
  
field and the electrical field at the input of the fibre. dV 2 2pa 2 dncore dnclad
In order to simulate a DMD measurement the ¼2 ncore
nclad
dl l dl dl
excitation has to be modelled in terms of electrical 2 2

n
nclad
fields. The main principle of the DMD measurement is a
core . ð10Þ
selective excitation of a set of modes in the multimode l
fibre by a single-mode fibre with a well-defined radial Here Rl;p is the Rayleigh fraction defined in [5], and NðrÞ
off-set xr [2]. In our calculations the electrical field of the stands for the normalised refractive-index profile func-
offset single-mode fibre is modelled by a Gaussian tion [5]. The Rayleigh fraction can be integrated quite
electrical field with a laterally shifted centre: easily from the obtained electrical fields and will
  therefore lead to smaller errors than a derivation which
½r cos j
xr 2 þ ½r sin j2 is usually performed in order to obtain the modal time
E DMD ðr; jÞ ¼ exp
. (3)
w2DMD delays (e.g. in Ref. [3]). All the above equations can be
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
C.-A. Bunge et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67 63

combined to lead to the following expression for the 3. Experimental set-up

modal time delay of the LPl;p mode:
   The experimental part of this work concerns the
Lk0 dncore
tl;p ¼
ncore l
ncore measurement of the base-band frequency response in the
bl;p c0 dl time domain [6–10].
 
dncore A schematic presentation of the measurement system
þ Rl;p ncore ncore
l
dl is shown in Fig. 1. The radiation source is a multiple
  quantum well (MQW) Fabry–Perot laser diode which
dnclad
þRl;p nclad l
nclad . ð11Þ outputs short-duration pulses. The spectral width of the
dl
pulses is less then Dl ¼ 5 nm (FWHM) at 1310 nm, i.e.
Using the definition of the group refractive index, sufficiently narrow in order to assure a negligible
chromatic dispersion [11].
dn
ng ¼ n
l . (12) The launching condition used is the transversal offset
dl launch (OL). In this technique the near field of the single
Eq. (11) can be simplified as follows: mode fibre scans the end face of the test fibre for
 different radial offset positions. Using a fusion splicer
Lk0 with image processing we realise both the alignment of
tl;p ¼ ncore ng;core ð1
Rl;p Þ
bl;p c0 the fibres and the control of the transversal offset. The

nclad ng;clad photo detail in Fig. 1 presents a measurement of the
þRl;p . ð13Þ transversal offset of 5 mm.
ncore ng;core
The receiver is a high-speed PIN detector with an
The last fraction containing the refractive indices and active area large enough to accept all guided modes of
group refractive indices can be written in the following the fibre under test (see Fig. 1). The signal received is
way applying some further calculations: recorded by a sampling oscilloscope and stored as a
nclad ng;clad ncore lðdD=dlÞ function of time for both the system input pulse and the
¼ 1
2D þ output of the test fibre. The input response of the
ncore ng;core ncore
lðdncore =dlÞ
measurement system is of about 65 ps.
¼ 1
2D þ PD. ð14Þ The calculated Fourier transforms of the stored data,
normalised to the zero-frequency, are used as input for
In the last simplification, the definition of the profile
the transfer function [9].
dispersion P was used. It describes the influence of the
wavelength on the profile height D:
ncore l dD 4. Measurement and simulation results
P¼ . (15)
ng;core D dl
The investigated fibres show a core diameter of
Using Eq. (14) and after normalising by t0 ¼ Lng;core =c0 , 62:5 mm and a numerical aperture of approximately
Eq. (13) can be converted into 0.27. The most important parameters are summarised in
tl;p
t0 1
2Rl;p D þ Rl;p PD Table 1.
t0l;p ¼
¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1. (16) It is well understood that in the case of central-index
t0 1
2DBl;p
depression (dip) the lowest-order modes will propagate
The differential mode time delay can now be computed much faster than the higher-order modes, which hardly
using Eq. (16). Therefore the electrical field and the show any influence of the dip [1]. The investigated fibres
accompanying propagation constant bl;p or its normal- did not show pulse splitting under central launch. This
ised value Bl;p will be calculated by numerically solving gives rise to the conclusion that no dips are present.
the Helmholtz equation. Then the modal power In order to simulate the behaviour of the fibres, their
distribution will be obtained using the overlap integrals refractive indices are estimated from refractive near-field
in Eq. (4). After the calculation of the modal time delay (RNF) and differential mode delay (DMD) measure-
the impulse response for the certain excitation condition ments. From the RNF one can assess the principal
can be expressed as follows: profile shape, i.e. one can decide whether there is a dip
present or several different profile exponents are present.
X pmax
l max X
The DMD measurements provide further information
hðtÞ ¼ C l;p dðt
tl;p Þ. (17)
about the shape of the profile. A dip only influences the
l¼0 p¼0
pulse for central launching and leads to a pulse that
In Eq. (17) dðtÞ stands for a Dirac impulse which is arrives earlier. The profile exponent can be estimated by
weighed by the coupling coefficient C l;p and shifted by the curvature of the centroids of the pulses. For large
the time delay tl;p . exponents off-set pulses arrive late; in the case of very
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
64 C.-A. Bunge et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67

15 GHz Photo-Detector
SM-Pigtail DUT
(Length 10 m) Fibre A and B

Pulse- 1300 nm
Generator MQW Fabry-Perot
Laser
(FWHM ≈ 50 ps)
20 GHz-Sampling Scope

Modal Excitation
Offset Launch (OL)
transversal offset
Data Acquisition
& FFT ⇒ BW

launch
conditions

Fig. 1. Measurement set-up.

Table 1 mediate region up to at;2 ¼ 8 mm and g3 ¼ 2:00 in the

Important parameters of investigated fibres
Fibre A Fibre B
(laser-performance-
optimised)
Core diameter 62:6 mm 62:1 mm
Length 2372 m 3037 mm
Numerical aperture .269 .270
Bandwidth-length product 800 MHz  km 1460 MHz  km
(EMD) at 1:3 mm
small exponents they will arrive earlier than the pulse for
central launching. If the exponent changes, one can also
perceive a change of the curvature. Following these
guidelines the type of profile was chosen, and some
initial parameters were assumed. Then the parameters
were changed until simulations fit to the measurement
results. This ensured that we obtained a physically
reasonable solution of the few possible ones.
The calculated pulses for spatial offsets of 0, 8, and
16 mm are shown in Fig. 2. As a comparison, the
measured pulses are also included. The refractive index
of fibre A, a conventional multimode fibre, is assumed to
consist of two different exponents: g1 ¼ 30 near the fibre
axis up to a radius of at;1 ¼ 6 mm and g2 ¼ 1:94 in the
outer region (Fig. 2a). Fibre B, a laser-optimised fibre,
even shows three different exponents: g1 ¼ 30 in the
inner region up to at;1 ¼ 5 mm, g2 ¼ 1:94 in the inter-
outer region of the core (Fig. 2b). The relatively large
value of the exponent near the fibre axis indicates a flat
area that is additional to the two outer regions of
different profile exponents and was chosen since it does
not have a strong influence on central launching but has
a reasonable effect on launching off-sets of several
micrometres; the exponent of g ¼ 1:94 is the optimum
for l ¼ 1:3 mm [12].
The launching with spatial offset excites a well
controlled subset of all guided modes. In the case of
central launching and a spot radius of wDMD ¼ 4:5 mm
approximately 90% of the power is guided by the
fundamental mode ðLP0;1 Þ. The small second pulse
comes from the LP0;2 mode. The modal power distribu-
tions for the three investigated launching conditions are
shown in Fig. 3. They are valid for both fibres since the
mode power distribution does not change very much for
different refractive-index profiles [1]. The principal
mode groups at the x-axis define the set of modes with
approximately the same propagation constant. In pure
power-law profiles all modes of the same principal mode
group exhibit equal modal delays [4]. Lower-order mode
groups concentrate the power around the fibre axis;
higher-order mode groups carry more power near the
core-cladding interface. The index within the mode
group indicates the circumferential order of the mode.
In the case of an offset of xr ¼ 8 mm the bulk power is
launched into the first four mode groups. LP1;1 mode
and LP2;1 modes contain 31% and 22% of the total
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
C.-A. Bunge et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67 65

0 µm 8 µm 16 µm w = 4.5
m, 0
m offset

1 Measured pulse

0.8 0
m
100.00%
Signal [a.u.]

0.6
8
m 50.00%

0.4
0.00% 10
9
1 8
0.2 16
m 3 7 p
5 ou
Prin 7
9 5
6
n Gr
cipa
l Mo 11 4 i thi
de N 13 15 3 xw
0 umb 17 2 I n de
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 er 19 1

(a) Time [ns]

w = 4.5
m, 8
m offset

0
m 8
m 16
m

1
Measured pulse

0
m 40.00%
0.8
Signal [a.u.]

20.00%
0.6
8
m
0.00% 10
0.4 9
1 8
3 7 u p
5 6 ro
Prin 7
cipa 9 5 h i nG
11
0.2 16
m l Mo
de N 13 15 3
4 wit
2 ex
umb
er
17
19 1 Ind

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
w = 4.5
m, 16
m offset
(b) Time [ns]

Fig. 2. (a) Measured and calculated impulse responses for offsets of

xr ¼ 0, 8, and 16 mm for a normal fibre (Fibre A). (b) Measured and
calculated impulse responses for offsets of xr ¼ 0, 8, and 16 mm for a
laser-optimised fibre (Fibre B). 15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

power, respectively. Since both fibres exhibit pulse 0.00% 10

9
splitting for the 8 mm offset there must be a time delay 1
3 7
8
p
5 ou
within the first four mode groups. These modes carry Prin 7 5
6 Gr
cipa 9
11 h in
part of the power within both regions with different l Mo 13 3
4 wit
de N 15 ex
umb 17
19 1
2 Ind
exponents, and they are therefore influenced by both er
domains and show a quite complex behaviour. This can
Fig. 3. Mode power distribution for the three calculated launching
be seen in Fig. 4. While the first two principal mode conditions.
groups suffer a DMD of approximately 2 ns the next
mode groups show a rather small DMD of 0.5–1.5 ns.
Therefore the input pulse splits into two.
In the case of the 16 mm offset, a relatively large The influence of the inner regions on their modal delay
number of modes will be excited. The maximum of is relatively small. In Fig. 4 it can be seen that the mode
approximately 10% of the total power is launched into delay differences between neighbouring mode groups
LP1;3 , LP2;3 and LP2;2 . These modes show a smaller and within each mode group are relatively small. The
difference of propagation delays as in the case of pulse broadening can be explained by both effects.
xr ¼ 8 mm. Therefore no pulse splitting occurs. The The measured bandwidths of the studied fibres
pulse only broadens. The measured and the calculated exhibit a minimum for offsets around xr ¼ 8 mm (see
pulses show delay differences between the excited modes Fig. 5). While the conventional fibre A shows a
which are smaller than for an offset of 8 mm. This can be bandwidth minimum for offsets between 7 and 13 mm,
explained by the fact that almost all of these modes the bandwidth of laser-optimised fibre B drops sharply
carry most of the power within the most outer region. for small offsets of 4 mm. The bandwidth then increases
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
66 C.-A. Bunge et al. / Optics & Laser Technology 39 (2007) 61–67

5 effects in the cladding region seem to have an influence

Fibre A on the pulse—an effect that is not included in our
Fibre B model. The measured effects, however, could be
4
obtained from the numerical simulations. The calculated
impulse responses and bandwidths are very similar to
Time delay [ns]

3 the measured results (Figs. 2a and b); the simulated

refractive-index profiles seem to be quite close to the
2 actual profiles.
It is therefore possible to evaluate deviations of the
refractive-index profile from DMD measurements. Since
1
the mode power distribution does not depend very much
on the refractive-index profile of the fibre under test [1]
0 one can measure the delay times of the mode groups
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 directly and can therefore assess the refractive-index
Principal Mode Group
profile of a fibre by this type of measurement.
Fig. 4. Modal time delays of the simulated fibres A and B.

5. Conclusion

Fibre A This paper presents some theoretical issues related to

the DMD effects in multimode fibres (the calculation of
the electrical mode fields and their modal delay) and a
set of experimental results regarding the bandwidth of
multimode fibres in the time domain at a wavelength of
Normalized Bandwidth

1:3 mm with transversal offsets. The transversal offset

1 launch excites a small but well-controlled subset of
0.5
0
0 5 10
Offset
Fig. 5. Measured normalised bandwidths of the studied fibres A and B
for launching with radial offset [14].
only slowly for larger offsets. This gives rise to the
conclusion that the laser-optimised fibre B provides a
well-controlled refractive-index profile near the fibre
axis but a rather mediocre profile near the core-cladding
interface. So these fibres have an optimum profile in the
centre of the core, where most of the power propagates
under laser excitation. The outer area near the core-
cladding interface does not have much influence under
laser launch and can therefore show larger deviations
from the optimum profile.
Although the calculated impulse responses for fibre A
are not completely identical, the pulse shape for central
launch and the formation of three single pulses for 8 mm
offset can be predicted. For the 16 mm offset, some
Fibre B
guided modes. It is therefore capable of assessing the
differential mode delay (DMD) of each subset of modes
directly.
Both the calculated and measured results clearly show
Fibre A
large DMDs in the intermediate mode groups. This
provides an indication of possible bandwidth degrada-
15 20 25 tion in the case of broad or offset launching conditions.
µm However, launching conditions inducing very broad
power distributions, like overfilled launch (OFL) [2], can
Fibre B
also lead to relatively high bandwidths because they
mainly excite higher-order modes and profile deviations
in the inner regions of the fibre will only have a weak
influence on the bandwidth [13].
It can be concluded that OFL and other standardised
launching conditions like restricted-mode launch
(RML) [14] will not inevitably be worst-case excitations
although proven to be insufficient for the estimation of
laser-based links, such as supposed for Gigabit Ethernet
connections [1]. The offset launching technique is an
inexpensive solution for tuning the bandwidth in
Gigabit Ethernet links [15].
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