Optical Communications

Contents: Relevant Subjects:

1. Introduction 1. EE4110 – Optical Communication System
2. Optical Fibers Design
3. Optical Transmitters 2. EE4839 – Fiber Optical Communications
4. Optical Receivers

References
1. G. Keiser: Optical Fiber Communications,
4th edition, McGraw Hill, 2010
2. J. Hecht: Understanding Fiber Optics, 4th
ed, Prentice Hall, 2002 1 2

1. Introduction Three wavelength windows used in Telecom.

Wavelength-Frequency Relationship
C
  an d   2f (1)
f

where
 – the wavelength
C – the light velocity in free space
f – the frequency in Hz Light spectrum (wavelength in m)

 – the angular frequency

3 4
Example 1: Waveguides
The frequencies of the following
wavelengths (i) =1.55 m, (ii) = 5 cm

3x108
(i) f 6
 1.93x1014 Hz  193 THz
1.55x10

3x108
(ii) f 2
 6x109 Hz  6 GHz
5x10

(a) A rectangular waveguide

(b) A cylindrical optical fiber
5 6

Refractive Index
Refractive index of a medium is defined as:
Velocity of light in vaccum C
n  (2)
Velocity of light in the medium V

For optical fiber, n≈1.5

Fiber attenuation coefficient spectra, where A, B, C regions

are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd wavelength windows used in
telecommunications.

1st Window: At =0.85 m, =2.5 dB/km

Velocity of light in free space and glass
2nd Window: At =1.30 m, =0.5 dB/km 7 8
3rd Window: At =1.55 m, =0.2 dB/km
Optical Communication System Advantages of Optical Fibers:
- Low attenuation
Input Optical Optical Output
- Wide bandwidth (several THz)
Signal Source Detector Signal - Light weight and small size
Optical
Fiber - Immunity to EMI
 Input/Output Signal: Digital or Analog - Signal security
 Optical Sources - Low cost (for long haul and high-
– Semiconductor laser diodes (LDs)
– Light emitting diodes (LEDs) capacity systems)
 Optical Fibers
– Single-mode fibers (SMFs)
– Multi-mode fibers (MMFs)
 Optical Detectors: PIN and APD photo-detectors
9 10

Disadvantages: 2. Optical Fibers

- More difficult to handle (i.e, small Optical fiber: a cylindrical core of silica
diameter and requirement for precise glass surrounded by a cladding.
alignment makes them difficult to
GeO2-SiO2
splice and terminate).
- Inability to carry electrical current.
- Nuclear vulnerability (i.e, loss of silica
glass fibers increases when exposed to SiO2
nuclear radiation).
Schematic of an optical fibre.

11 12
Step-Index Fiber: 2.1 Ray Analysis of Optical Fibre
When a light ray encounters a boundary of two different media,
part of the ray is reflected back into the first medium and the
remainder is bent (or refracted) as it enters the second medium.

n2<n1

n2 Refracted
r ray
Graded-Index Fiber: Material
boundary
n1 in in

Reflected
Incident
ray
ray

Reflection and refraction of a light ray at the material

13 boundary 14

Snell’s Law:  When r =/2 , the incident angle is known as critical

angle, in-c. Beyond this angle, no refraction is possible
n1 sin  in  n 2 sin r (3) and the light rays become totally internally reflected.
n2
sin  in  c  (4)
Snell’s law determines the relationship n1
between the incident ray and the refracted ray
n2<n1 n2<n1
at the material interface.
n2 n2
From the snell’s law, we have:
 If n1 > n2, then r > in
n1 in-c
 As the incident angle in becomes larger, the in>in-c
refracted angle r approaches  . n1
2
15 Total internal reflection of light rays 16
 The optical fiber makes use of this total internal The optical fiber makes use of this total internal
reflection to guide the light rays travelling within the reflection to guide the light rays travelling within the
fiber core. fiber core.
Refracted ray
n2 n2
n0 n0
n1 n1

Refraction and reflection in a step-index fibre where the Refraction and reflection in a step-index fibre where the
light enters the fiber from the air of refractive index n0 light enters the fiber from the air of refractive index n0
17 18

(1) If  > c, total internal reflection occurs and By applying Snell’s law at the air-fiber interface, and relating
light reflects back into the core. It is this it with sin c  n2 / n1 , we can determine the max. entrance
total internal reflection that confines light in angle:
glass optical fiber. n0 sin in, max  n1 sin rc
(2) If  < c, the light is refracted out of the core

and is lost at the cladding. Since  r c    c , we have
2

n0 sin in, max  n12  n22 (5)

Critical angle:
The max. entrance angle in,max is related to material
n2 n  refractive indices.
sinc  or c  sin1  2  Light rays entering from the air to the fiber at angle  in,max
n1  n1  will be confined and guided in the fiber core. Hence this
19
max. entrance angle is called acceptance angle. 20
Example 2: Relative Refractive Index Difference is defined
as
n12  n22
 (6)
If n0=1, n1=1.5 & n2=1.485, find in,max . 2n12

When n1 ≈ n2,
Ans: 1
in,max  sin ( 1.5  1.485 )  12.2
2 2

(n1  n2)(n1  n2) n1  n2

  (7)
2n12 n1

and   1

21 22

Numerical Aperture (NA) of a fiber is defined
as:
NA  n0 sinin, max  n12  n22 =n1 2 (8)
NA represents the light gathering capability of
an optical fiber. Typically
As  increases, NA and hence in, max
increases. This means more light power will
be coupled into the fiber, but increases the
multipath dispersion too.

0.1  NA  0.3

Array of Multipath
Which corresponds to angles

6  in, max  17

23 24
What is wrong with the multipath of light rays?
- Different paths correspond to different
modes of light, i.e., multiple modes co-exist
and propagate in the fiber.
- Path length difference leads to different
arrival time.
- This means a narrow pulse propagating into
such a fiber will become broader Light pulse entering the fiber breaks up into various modes
which then propagate at different group velocities down the
considerably as a result of different path
fiber. At the end of the fiber, the modes combine to
lengths. constitute the output light pulse which is broader than the
input light pulse. This phenomenon is called multipath
dispersion, or intermodal dispersion.
25 26

- Fibers that cause intermodal dispersion

are called multimode fibers (MMFs)
- Fibers are called single mode fibers
(SMFs) if intermodal dispersion does
not occur.

(a) Input signal

(b) Output signal at distance L1
(c) Output signal at distance L2 (L2>L1) 27 28
2.2 Dispersion in Multimode Fibers  Longest distance is (AD + DE) at =c, which occurs
when in = in-max = sin-1(NA).
We can estimate the extent of pulse broadening by
The associated delay:
simply considering the shortest and the longest ray paths.
AD  DE L / sin c n1L
t2   
D v C/n1 Csin c
A c Hence:
B
n1L  1 
E t  t 2  t 1    1
C  sin c 
Ln1  n1  Ln1
L    1   n1  n2  (9a)
C  n2  Cn2
 Shortest distance that a ray can travel is AB = L, which or
occurs when in = 0.
The associated delay: t  n1  (n1  n2 )
L L nL   (9b)
t1    1 L  n2  C
v C / n1 C 29 30

We can relate t to the information carrying capacity of the fiber

If n1  n2 , (9a) and (9b) become (i.e, bit rate B).
Assuming the signal launched into the fiber is a sequence of
L
t  (n1  n2 ) (9c) impulses, then t 1/B.
C
Thus we have the bit-rate distance product:
t n1  n2
 (9d)
L C n2  C 
BL    (10a)
n1  n1  n2 
 t is a measure of broadening experienced by an if n1  n2
impulse launched at the fiber input.
C
 t/L is known as intermodal dispersion per unit BL  , (10b)
length of fiber, and is usually represented in the n1  n2
units of ns/km  Eq (10) provides a rough estimate of a fundamental limitation
of step-index multimode fibers (SI-MMFs)
31
 If C is in the units of km/s, then BL is in the units of (bits/s)●km
32
Example 3: Given a fiber with n1=1.5 and n2=1, find t/L, Example 4: Given a practical fiber with n1=1.48
BL and the max data rate if L is 10km. and n2=1.477, find t/L, BL and the max data
rate if L is 10km.
Ans: from eq. (9a),
Ans: from eq. (9b)
t n1 (n1  n2 ) 1.5 (1.5  1)
   2.5  106 s / km  2.5 s/km t/L  (1.48-1.477) / (3x105) =1.0x10-8 s/km=10 ns/km
L n2 C 1 3  10 5

BL (3x105)/(1.48-1.477)
n2 C 1 3  105
BL    4  105 (bits / s)  km = 1.0x108 (bit/s)•km = 100 (Mb/s)•km
n1 (n1  n2 ) 1.5 (1.5  1)
For L = 10 km, we have Bmax = 10 Mb/s.
For L = 10 km, we have Bmax = 40 kb/s.
That is, this fiber can transmit data at a bit rate
This means the fiber can transmit data at a bit rate less
less than 10 Mb/s over a distance of 10 km.
than 40 kb/s over a distance of 10 km.
33 34

Step-Index Fiber: 2.3 Graded-Index Fiber

The core refractive index decreases gradually
from its max value n1 at the core center to its
min. value n2 at the core-cladding interface.

n1[1   (r / a) ] for r<a

n(r)   (11)
 n2  n1(1   ) for r=a
Graded-Index Fiber:

n n
  1 2
n1
where  is the index profile parameter, and a is
the radius of the fiber core
35 36

Graded-index profiles for various values of 
Note:
for a step-index profile, .
for a parabolic-index profile, =2.
- The ray propagating along the fiber axis
takes the shortest path but travels most
slowly since the index is largest along the
axis.
- Hence it is possible for all rays to arrive
together at the fiber output by a suitable
choice of n(r).
- As such, intermodal dispersion can be made
much smaller than that of step-index fibers.
Ray Paths in GI-MMF
- Path is longer for more oblique rays.
- The ray velocity changes along the path, v=C/n(r).
37 38
2.4 Single Mode Fiber (SMF)
The ray analysis gives a very simplified view
of light transmission through optical fibers.
An optical fiber is a waveguide that transmits
lightwaves in one or more transmission
modes (which are the solutions of Maxwell’s
equations).
39 40
The figure below shows the field patterns of several
Propagation Modes Supported in Fibers
transverse electric (TE) modes.
Whether a mode can be supported by the fiber is described
The order of the mode is equal to the number of electric by two parameters:
field zeros across the guide (in the y direction)
guide.
(1) Normalized propagation constant, b
( / k o )  n2
b (12)
n1  n2
where
ko=2/ (known as wave number)
 is the propagation constant, whose value depends on
the mode number.

The electric field patterns of the first three modes

41 42
(m = 0, 1, 2) of traveling wave along the guide.

(2) Normalized frequency, V (Vf)

2 a 2 2 a
V n1  n22  NA (13)
 

where a is the radius of the fiber core.

The normalized frequency is also simply

called V parameter.

2.405

Relationship between b and V for a few low-order modes

43 44
A fibre with a large value of V supports many Single Mode Condition
modes.
A rough estimate of the number of modes, for V  2.405 for SI-Fiber (15a)
both SI and GI fibres are given by: 2
V  2.405 1+ for GI-Fiber (15b)

V2
M for SI-MMF (14a)  For SI fiber, to have a single-mode operation, V should be
2 < 2.405.
  V
2
 The wavelength λ is called cut-off wavelength λc if its
M  for GI-MMF (14b) corresponding V parameter is 2.405. Only wavelength >
2 2 λc can propagate as single-mode.
 In fiber transmission systems, SMFs are designed to
operate in the range of 2  V  2.4.

45 46

Example 5: Given a fiber with n1=1.5 and
n2=1.495 and core radius a=4m, find the cutoff
wavelength for single mode operation.
Ans: from (13),
2a n12  n22 2x3.14x4 1.52  1.4952
c    1.28m
V 2.405
This means that the fiber operates as a single
mode fiber for >1.28 m.
47
2.5 Dispersion in Single Mode Fibers (SMFs)
- In multimode fibers (MMFs), the intermodal
dispersion leads to considerable broadening
of short optical pulses.
- The main advantage of SMFs is that inter-
modal dispersion is absent.
- However, pulse broadening does not
disappear altogether in SMFs.
- The speed of light (group velocity)
associated with the fundamental mode (HE11)
is frequency (i.e wavelength) dependent,
since refractive index is a function of
48
wavelength
 - As a result, different spectral components of
the pulses travel at slightly different group
velocities. This phenomenon is referred to as
group-velocity dispersion (GVD) or
intramodal dispersion, or chromatic
dispersion.
- Chromatic dispersion causes broadening of
optical pulses as they propagate along a
single mode fiber, and hence limits the
information carrying capacity of SMF fibers.

Variation of refractive index n with  49 50

(a) Input signal

(b) Output signal at distance L1
(c) Output signal at distance L2 (L2>L1) 51 Dispersion in SI-MMF, GI-MMF and SMF 52
Chromatic dispersion has two contributions
known as material dispersion and waveguide
dispersion

 Material dispersion (Dm) which is due to wavelength

dependence of refractive index.

 Waveguide dispersion (Dw) which arises because

light propagation in a waveguide depends on
wavelength as well as the waveguide dimensions.
D  Dm  D w (15)
D is expressed in ps/(nm•km) and is also called
chromatic dispersion coefficient.
(note: ps/(nm•km) is also written as ps/nm/km)
53
D versus  for pure silica fiber (SiO2) 54

Note: Pulse Broadening in SMFs

• Dw is negative for all wavelengths
t  D L (16)
• Dm can be negative or positive
• D is 0 at around =1.31 m. This where L is the length of the fiber and  is spectral
wavelength is called dispersion zero width of the light source.
wavelength ZD.
Information-carrying capacity of SMFs
1
 t 
B

1
 BL  (17)
D 
55 56
Example 6: An optical source with a center ZD can be made in the range of 1.3 to 2 m by careful
control of the fiber core diameter 2a and fiber index
wavelength of 1550nm has a spectral width of profile.
2nm. Given that Dm=22 ps/nm/km and Dw=-6
ps/nm/km at wavelength 1550nm of a SMF.
Find (i) the pulse broadening, (ii) the max bit
rate, if the fiber length is 10 Km.

Ans:
(i) t  D L  22  6 (10)(2)  320 ps

(ii) B = 1/t = 3.125 Gb/s

57 58

Three different types of SMFs

(1) Standard single mode fiber (SSMF): D=0
at around =1.31m
(2) Dispersion shifted fiber (DSF): D=0 at
around =1.55m
(3) Dispersion flattened fiber: D is smaller
and flattened for =1.3 to 1.6 m

59 D versus  for three different types of fibers 60

2.6 Power Loss of Fibers
If Pin is the power launched at the input of a
fibre of length L and Pout is the power at the
output of the fiber, the power loss can be
expressed as:

Pin
FLoss  10log  L (dB) (18)
Pout
The relation between Pin and Pout can also be
where  is the fiber attenuation coefficient, and
expressed as:
is given in the units of dB/km.
Pout  Pin 1 0  L /10 ( 1 9)

61 62

Loss Mechanism in Fibers:

 Material absorption (impurities in fibers)
 Waveguide imperfection (no ideally circular)
 Rayleigh scattering (impurities and
imperfections of fibers).

Continue to Optical Comm II

63
3. Optical Transmitters
An optical transmitter converts an electrical
signal into an optical signal.
- This optical signal is then transmitted
through an optical fiber, which serves as
a communication channel.
- The major components of optical
transmitters are optical sources.
Optical sources are:
(i) Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
(ii) Laser Diodes (LDs)
64
How the light is generated in LEDs?
- The conduction properties of semiconductor
can be explained by the energy band.
- Considering Si atom, it has four electrons in
its outer shell and forms covalent bond with
its neighboring atoms in a crystal.
66
3.1 Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
A LED is a pn junction semiconductor that
emits light when it is forward biased.
65
- For pure (intrinsic) crystal at low temperature
(T=0), the valence band is fully filled and the
conduction band is empty (no free electron).
- The gap between conduction and valence
bands is called energy gap or band gap. For
example, at room temperature, the energy
gap is:
~ 1.12 eV for Si; 1.42 eV for GaAs.
> 9 eV for insulators.
~ 0 eV for metals (conduction and valence
bands are overlapped).
67
- The conduction can be greatly enhanced by Example of bond structure of extrinsic
adding impurity to intrinsic semiconductor.
semiconductors
This process is called doping and the doped
semiconductor is called extrinsic materials.
Conduction
electron

As is added. Four
electrons are
bonded by covalent
bond and one loosely
N-type Si doped with As bonded electron is
available for
conducting.
68 69

- An n-type semiconductor has a number of free

electrons and a p-type semiconductor has a number
Conduction of free holes.
hole
- When p-type and n-type semiconductors are jointed,
the majority carriers (hole in p-type or electron in n-
type) diffuse across the junction and combine with
B is added. Three the carriers of opposite polarity on the other side.
electrons are
bonded by covalent
P-type Si dopped with B bond and one hole is
created and can accept
free electrons.

70 71
- A depletion region is created where no
mobile carrier exists and an electric field
(potential barrier) is formed.
- Many useful components are made by the pn
junction such as diode, transistor, light
emitting diodes, laser diode, photo-diodes,
etc..
- When no voltage is applied, free electrons in
the n region and free holes in the p region do
not have enough energy to climb over the
barrier and move into the p or n regions.
- A forward voltage decreases the barrier by
raising the potential energy of the n side and
lowering that of the p side. As a result, free
electrons and free holes will have sufficient
energy to move into the junction.
- When a free electron meets a free hole in the
junction, the electron can fall to the valence
band and recombine with the hole. Energy
is released when this occurs.

72 73

- The energy released in the transition is Table 1: Typical values of  and Eg for
converted to optical energy (light) in the form several semiconductor compounds
of a photon. The band gap energy and the
wavelength of the light is related by: Materials Wavelength Bandgap
hC  (m) Energy
Eg  hf  (20)
 Eg (eV)
GaAs 0.9 1.4
AlGaAs 0.8 – 0.9 1.4 – 1.55
where h is plank constant, h=6.62x10-34 Js.
or InGaAs 1.0 – 1.3 0.95 – 1.24
1.24 InGaAsP 0.9 – 1.7 0.73 – 1.35
 (m)  (21)
Eg (eV)
74 75
 Optical Characteristics of LEDs
Two Different Types of LEDs
In principle, LEDs emit light in all directions. In practice, (1) Optical power of LEDs
LEDs are designed and packaged such that light is emitted
from the surface or edge.
Note:
Output optical
power increases
with the drive
current, but
decreases with the
temperature.

• Surface Emitting LED: emitted light is perpendicular to the

plane of the active layer.
Output optical power versus drive current
• Edge Emitting LED: emitted light is parallel to the plane of the
active layer with different temperatures 77
76

- Edge-emitting LED has a narrower spectral width

(2) Optical Spectrum of LEDs
due to its self-absorption.
- The width of the spectral pattern at its half-power
points is known as the full-width half-maximum
(FWHM) spectral width and denoted by .
- The spectral width  of edge emitting LEDs is
approximated by
  1.8kT 2 (22)

where
 is in m,
kT is the thermal energy in eV,
Typical spectral patterns (i.e. emission spectra) of both edge- T is the absolute temperature,
emitting and surface-emitting LEDs, where the peak wavelength is at
=1.31 m k is Bolzmann constant, k=1.38x10-23 J/K.
79
78
- Since 2, long-wavelength LEDs have larger 3.2 Laser Diodes (LDs)
spectral width than short-wavelength LEDs. The structure of a semiconductor laser diode
e.g., at T=300K, =30 nm for =0.8 m and (LD) is much like that of an LED.
=78 nm for =1.3 m
- The spectral width of an optical source is
important because it determines the contribution
to the chromatic dispersion, which in turn
determines the transmission capacity.
- Since LEDs have a wide spectral width, they are
used for short-distance optical transmission
(e.g, customer access networks).

80 81

Main differences between LEDs and LDs:

(i) Stimulated emission of photons is dominant in
LDs, whereas spontaneous emission of photons is
dominant in LEDs.
(ii) Reflectors (e.g. cleaved facets) are added to the
ends of the structure to form a Fabry-Perot cavity,
providing optical feedback.
This optical feedback
- increases the optical power (more photons are
generated by stimulated emission), Spontaneous emission:
- Electrons in the conduction band recombine with
- reduces the beam divergence and holes in the valence band randomly.
- narrows the output spectrum. - The emitted photons have random phases and
polarizations, and propagation directions. That is,
the emitted photons are incoherent.
82 - LEDs are based on this spontaneous emission. 83
Stimulated emission: Optical Characteristics of LDs
- Incoming photons stimulate the excited
electrons in the conduction band to
recombine with the holes in the valence
band.
- The emitted photons have the same
frequency, phase, polarization, and
propagation direction as the initiating one.
That is, emitted photons are coherent.
- Lasers are based on this stimulated emission

Relationship between optical output power and

84 drive current, where Ith is drive current threshold 85

- When I < Ith the LD is not lasing. It is Optical Spectrum of a typical FP-LD
operating like an LED that produces
incoherent light.
f
- When I > Ith the LD is lasing and is producing
coherent light which has both narrow
spectral range and beam width.
- In this region the relationship between P and
I is linear. Fabry-Perot cavity
modes (longitudinal
- Ith should be very low so as to prevent (spectral) modes)
overheating of the LD.

86 87
In the FP cavity, only frequencies satisfying ∆
2 L  2m (23) Gain profile (Gaussian)
can exist in the cavity.
where
 is the propagation constant and =2n/,
n is refractive index of the active region,
L is the cavity length,
m is positive integer.

From (23), we have Note:

C • The optical gain of the active layer is wavelength-
f  (24) dependent (max. gain for a specific wavelength).
2nL
• Only those longitudinal modes, whose optical gain is
2 greater than the optical loss, will be lasing; while
or   (25) others will be suppressed.
2nL 88
89

What are the problems with multi-longitudinal
mode operation?
- Pulse spreading in the fiber, resulting in
lower transmission capacity
- Mode-partition noise due to fluctuation in the
spectral excitation modes.
For high speed network, single longitudinal
operation is essential.
Single Mode Laser Diode (SM-LD)
- To have a single (longitudinal) mode
operation, we need to have a mechanism to
strengthen a specific mode (wavelength),
while suppressing all other modes
(wavelengths).
- A widely used technique: integrate a
distributed grating in the laser. This grating
acts as a filter which permits only a single
wavelength to be lasing.
- This laser is called distributed-feedback laser
(DFB-LD)

90 91
 DFB Laser and its Spectrum Typical Characteristics of Light Sources
Property LED MM-LD SM-LD
Spectral width (nm) 20 – 60 1–5 <1
Output power (mW) < 0.5 1 – 10 1 – 10
Modulation < 0.2 1–5 >5
Bandwidth (GHz)
Compatible fiber MMF MMF and SMF SMF
Coupling efficiency Very low (<10%) High (~80%) Very high (>80%)
Temperature sensitivity Low High High

Circuit complexity Simple Complex

Costs Low High
Primary use Short link Moderate link Long link,
Low data rate (< Moderate data Very high data rate
200 Mb/s) rate (< 1 Gb/s) (> 1 Gb/s)

(a) A DFB-LD and (b) its spectrum 92 MM-LD: Multi-mode LD SM-LD: Single-mode LD 93

4. Optical Receivers - An optical receiver consists of a photo-

detector (PD) followed by electrical
Photo-Detector amplifiers and signal processing circuits
- The PD is the first element of an optical
receiver, which converts the optical power
Amplifier Signal into an electrical current (signal).
processing
Rb circuit - The received optical signal is generally very
weak and distorted. Hence, the PD must meet
very high sensitivity and performance
requirements.
Schematic of optical receiver

94 95
What are the requirements for Photo-detectors?
Types of Photo-Diodes (PDs)
- High sensitivity in the operating wavelength range.
(i) pin-PD and
- Very low noise.
(ii) Avalanche photo-diode (APD).
- Sufficient bandwidth to handle the desired data
rate.
- Insensitive to variations in temperature.
The pin-PD is the most common type
- Compatible with the physical dimensions of the
optical fibre.
- Low cost compared to the other components of the
system.
- Long operating life.

96 97

A pin-PD is a PN junction sandwiched by an - The reason for having an intrinsic layer is to

intrinsic layer (very lightly n-doped). increase the width of depletion region so as
to improve the photon capturing capability.
- The intrinsic layer (region) becomes fully
depleted of carriers when a reverse bias is
applied across the device (i.e, no current
flows in the device).
- When an incident photon has energy greater
than or equal to the bandgap energy of the
material, (i.e. E = hf ≥ Eg), the photon can
give up its energy and excite an electron
from the valence band to the conduction
band.

Photons 98 99
 Quantum efficiency, , defined as:

  No. of No.
electron-hole pairs generated
of incident photons
I /e
 Pinp/(hf) (26)
where
- This process is called absorption, i.e., electrons in the valence Ip - photo-current flowing in the circuit
band absorb power from the incoming photons and get excited
to the conduction band Pin - the incident optical power
- This process generates free electron-hole pairs which gives e - the electron charge (=1.6x10-19C)
rise to a current flow (i.e. photocurrent) in the external circuit.
- As these carriers flow through the material, some electron-hole
f - the optical frequency
pairs will recombine and hence disappear.
100 101

The photo-current Ip can be expressed by

Ip   Pin (27)

e
  (2 8 )
hf

where  is called the responsivity of the PD.  is in the

units of A/W.

Typical values of :
=0.65 A/W for Si at =0.90 m
=0.45 A/W for Ge at =1.3 m
=0.60 A/W for In at =1.3 m 102