COMM 554

Elgazeera High Institute for

Engineering and Technology

Optical Communication Systems

Lecture – 5

- Single-mode fiber dispersion

- Polarization

Dr. Ahmed Abouelmagd

 Single-mode fiber dispersion
The pulse broadening in single-mode fibers results almost
entirely from chromatic dispersion. Chromatic dispersion
results from a variation in propagation delay with wavelength,
and is affected by Fiber materials and dimensions

σλ is the source rms spectral linewidth centered at a

wavelength λ.
β is the propagation constant for a mode within the fiber core
of refractive index n1 , and,
k is the propagation constant for the mode in a vacuum.
The total dispersion parameter: DT = DM + DW + DP

DM ….. The material dispersion parameter

DW ….. The waveguide dispersion parameter DW
DP ..... The profile dispersion parameter, (variation of the refractive-index
contrast with wavelength). (e.g. less than 0.5 ps nm−1 km−1),
Dispersion slope S is the variation of the total dispersion DT
with wavelength λ:

So Dispersion slope at the wavelength of minimum

chromatic dispersion λo .
Example 3:
A typical single-mode fiber has a zero-dispersion wavelength
λo of 1.31 μm with a dispersion slope So of 0.09 ps nm−2 km−1.
- Compare the total first-order dispersion DT for the fiber at
the wavelengths λ of 1.28 μm and 1.55 μm.
- When the material dispersion DM and profile dispersion DP
at the latter wavelength λ = 1.55 μm are 13.5 ps nm−1 km−1
and 0.4 ps nm−1 km−1, respectively, determine the
waveguide DW dispersion at this wavelength.
Solution:

DT = DM + DW + DP
 Transmission modes

There are two broad classifications of transmission modes:

- radiation modes and
- guided modes.
- Radiation modes carry energy out of the core; the energy
is quickly dissipated.
- Guided modes are confined to the core, and propagate
energy along the fiber, transporting information and
power.
- If the fiber core is large enough, it can support many
simultaneous guided modes.
- Each guided mode has its own distinct velocity and can
be further decomposed into orthogonal linearly polarized
components.
- Any field distribution within the fiber can be expressed
as a combination of the modes.
 Transmission modes (due to boundary conditions)
Transverse electromagnetic (TEM) modes: (plane wave)
neither electric nor magnetic field in the direction of
propagation. (not exist in waveguides)
In waveguides:
Transverse electric (TE) modes:
no electric field in the direction of propagation. These are
sometimes called H modes because there is only a magnetic
field along the direction of propagation (H is the conventional
symbol for magnetic field).
Transverse magnetic (TM) modes:
no magnetic field in the direction of propagation. These are
sometimes called E modes because there is only an electric field
along the direction of propagation.
Hybrid modes: non-zero electric and magnetic fields in the
direction of propagation.
In rectangular waveguides, rectangular mode numbers are
designated by two suffix numbers attached to the mode type,
such as TEmn or TMmn, where m is the number of half-wave
patterns across the width of the waveguide and n is the
number of half-wave patterns across the height of the
waveguide. In circular waveguides, circular modes exist and
here m is the number of full-wave patterns along the
circumference and n is the number of half-wave patterns
along the diameter.

TEMmn ---- m and n being the horizontal and vertical orders

of the pattern.
 Polarization
Consider a single mode fiber : such that TE11 to propagate
and no other mode can propagate in this fiber.
The two orthogonal components of TE11 are:
𝑻𝑬𝑿𝟏𝟏 ….. along x-axis, and,
𝒚
𝑻𝑬𝟏𝟏 ….. along y-axis
Hence in an optical fiber with an ideal circular symmetric core,
both orthogonal components propagate with identical velocities.

Manufactured optical fibers, exhibit some birefringence resulting

from differences in the core geometry (i.e. ellipticity) resulting
from variations in the internal and external stresses, and fiber
bending. The mode orthogonal components therefore propagate
with different velocities, and have different propagation constants
βx and βy
The modal birefringence BF for the fiber

The difference in phase velocities

elliptical polarization

Coherence length (phase coherence is maintained)

δf ….. source frequency width & δλ is the source linewidth.

Beat length: the propagation distance for which a 2π phase
difference accumulates between the two modes.

Polarization coupling:
In a non perfect fiber various perturbations along the fiber length
such as strain or variations in the fiber geometry and composition
lead to coupling of energy from one polarization to the other.

The energy transfer is at a maximum when the perturbations

have a period Λ, corresponding to the beat length:

Λ = λ/BF
 𝒚
As the two orthogonal mode components 𝑻𝑬𝑿 𝟏𝟏 and 𝑻𝑬𝟏𝟏 have
different phase propagation constants βx and βy they exhibit
different specific group delays. In the time domain for a short
section of fiber, the differential group delay (DGD), Δτ = δτgL, is
defined as the group delay difference between the slow and the
fast mode comonents over the fiber lengths
 Example:
The beat length LB in a single-mode optical fiber is 9 cm when
light from an injection laser with a spectral linewidth δλ of 1 nm
and a peak wavelength λ of 0.9 μm is launched into it.
- Determine the modal birefringence BF and
- Estimate the coherence length Lbc in this situation. In addition
- Calculate the difference between the propagation constants
(βx – βy) for the two orthogonal modes and check the result.
Solution:
𝜆 0.9 10−6
𝐵𝐹 = 𝐿 = 9 10−2 = 1 × 10−5
𝐵
𝜆2 (0.9 10−6 )2
𝐿𝑏𝑐 = = = 81 𝑚
𝐵𝐹 𝛿𝜆 1 10−5 1 10−9
2𝜋 2 × 3.14
𝛽𝑥 − 𝛽𝑦 = = −2
= 69.8
𝐿𝐵 9 10
2𝜋 −5
2 × 3.14
𝛽𝑥 − 𝛽𝑦 = 𝐵𝐹 = 1 × 10 −6
= 69.8
𝜆 0.9 10
 Polarization mode dispersion

It is a random effect due to both:

- intrinsic (caused by noncircular fiber core geometry and
residual stresses in the glass material near the core region) ,
- extrinsic (caused by stress from mechanical loading,
bending or twisting of the fiber)
Result in group velocity variation with polarization state.
Polarization crosstalk CT
𝑷𝒚
CT = 10 log10 = 10 log10 tanh(hL)
𝑷𝒙
Where:
- Px and Py represent the optical power in the excited (i.e.
unwanted) mode and the coupled (i.e. launch) mode,
respectively, in an ensemble of fiber length L.
- h… The mode coupling parameter
Example:
A 3.5 km L length, of two-polarization mode PM fiber has a
polarization crosstalk CT of −27 dB at its output end.
Determine the mode coupling parameter h for the fiber.

Solution:
𝑷𝒚
CT = 10 log10 = 10 log10 tanh(hL)
𝑷𝒙
-27 = 10 log10 tanh (hL)
-2.7 = log10 tanh (hL)

tanh(hL) = 2 × 10−3
hL ≈ 2 × 10−3.
2 × 10−3
h= 3.5×103 = 5.7 × 10−7 m−1