TE-440

Optical Fiber Communication

Engr. Qurat Ul Ain
quratulain@ssuet.edu.pk

Telecommunication Engineering
Department 1
 Fiber Joints
Topics to be covered
• Chapter 5: Optical Fiber Joints
• Couplers
• WDM Couplers
• Optical Isolator
• Optical Circulators

Reference: Chapter 5 & 5 J. Senior.

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 WDM Couplers
• WDM devices are a specialized coupler type which enable light from
two or more optical sources of differing nominal peak optical
wavelength to be launched in parallel into a single optical fiber
• Such couplers perform as either wavelength multiplexers or
wavelength de-multiplexers
• The important optical parameters associated with the WDM coupler
are:
• the attenuation of the light over a particular wavelength band
• the interband isolation
• the wavelength band or channel separation to avoid cross talk

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 Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)
• A fibre Bragg grating is a small optical component written into the
core of an optical fibre which consists of periodic regions of varying
refractive index.
• When illuminated by a broadband wavelength source, the periodic
regions cause the light to constructively and destructively interfere
such that a narrow wavelength range, centered about a peak
wavelength, is reflected and the remaining wavelengths are
transmitted.

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Schemetic diagram

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 FBG
• The refractive index of the fiber core is modulated with a period of
Λ.
• When a light with a broad spectrum is launched into one end of fiber containing
a fiber bragg grating, the part of the light with wavelength matching the Bragg
grating wavelength will be reflected back to the input end, with the rest of the
light passing through to the other end. This reflection phenomena is explained in
the following figure

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 Cont…
• The reflected wavelength, known as the Bragg wavelength (λB), is
given by:

where neff is the average refractive index of the grating and Λ is the period of
the grating
• Above equation implies that any variation in refractive index of the
material or the grating period produces a different Bragg wavelength,
and therefore it is possible to construct BGs capable of reflecting back
or transmitting through an optical signal at any desired wavelength.

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 Cont…
• When there is a uniform period between all the Bragg gratings then
the FBG reflects an optical signal at a particular wavelength.
• However, when the period between each Bragg grating is linearly
varied along the length of the fiber core, then the FGB is referred to
as being chirped with each grating element reflecting a different
optical wavelength.
• It should also be noted that the refractive index of an optical fiber can
vary with changes in temperature and therefore the spectral response
of FBGs is also temperature dependent.

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 WDM with FBG
• FBGs are also useful devices to perform wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) where optical signals at desired wavelengths can
be multiplexed or demultiplexed using gratings combined with simple
optical couplers.
• For example, a grating-assisted three-port optical fiber coupler can
function as an add-multiplexer for WDM transmission with a simple
setup

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 Cont…
• The coupler comprises two active parallel
waveguides of InGaAs material separated by 1
m which are buried in an indium phosphide
medium.
• Core and cladding refractive indices for the
waveguides are 3.60 and 3.41 respectively, while
the lower waveguide incorporates a
unidirectional complex FBG structure.
• It may be noted that the device operates without
any interception of through-traffic WDM
channels when another signal at wavelength λ4
is combined with the three transmission
channels λ1, λ2 and λ3 10
 Cont…
Figure here shows how a particular wavelength is removed from the
spectrum

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 Cont…

The fundamental principle behind the

operation of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is
Fresnel reflection.
Where light traveling between media of
different refractive indices may both
reflect and refract at the interface.

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Numerical

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Numerical-Solution

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 Optical isolator
• Isolator: An optical isolator is essentially a passive device which
allows the flow of optical signal power (for a particular wavelength or
a wavelength band) in only one direction preventing reflections in the
backward direction.
• Both the insertion loss and isolation determine the limitations for the
device to transmit optical power from one terminal to another.
• Optical isolators can be implemented by using FBGs.

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 Optical Circulator
• Isolators can also be connected together to form multiport devices
where, depending upon their isolation characteristics, an optical
signal can leave the device at an end terminal or it can continue to
flow towards the next connected isolator
• The resulting device is generally known as a circulator, taking its
name from the path of the optical signal which follows a closed loop
or a circle.

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 3 port Circulator
• Three isolators are interconnected to form a three-port device which
does not discard the backward reflections but directs them to
another isolator.

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 Cont…

Therefore the signal continues to travel

from isolator 1 to isolator 2 and finally it
terminates at the end terminal of isolator 3.
In order to prevent the signal going back to
the input port 1, no connection is usually
permitted between port 3 and port 1.
When a signal is transmitted from port 1 to
port 2, however, the device simultaneously
allows another optical signal to travel from
port 2 to port 3

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 4 Port Circulator
• A four-port optical circulator which operates in a similar manner to
the three-port device but incorporates an additional isolator is
displayed in Figure

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 Cont…
• Although it is also possible to produce a circulator with a larger
number of ports, the device complexity increases with increasing
number of ports and therefore in practice only three- or four-port
circulators have proved useful for optical interconnection

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Thank You

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