Photonics

Dr. SALINIGOPAL M S
Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Science
SCT, Pappanamcode

Module 1
• Photonics – Branch of science deals with the production, control and detection of
photons

Technology that combines Optics and Electronics

• Photons are particles of light.

• Photonic devices have advantages over electronic devices because of very high
speed of light.
 LED
• A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE
• Heavily doped PN junction that emits light when it is forward biased
• Semiconductor materials used define the color of the light produced
• A p-n diode specially designed to produce visible and IR light on forward biasing
is called an LED.
• Electrical energy converted to light energy
• When LED is energized it emits visible light due to the electron-hole pair recombination.
• LED operated on the principle of injection luminescence
Working of LED
On forward biasing electrons from n-region move to p-region and holes to n-region. The free
electrons are minority carriers in p-side and hole in the n-side. Biasing increases the minority
carrier population on either side and is called minority carrier injection. These excess minority
carriers make recombination with the majority carriers , eg: the excess electrons in the conduction
band of p-side recombines with majority holes in the valence band. Or the electrons make a
downward transition from upper energy level to lower level and gives out (liberates) excess
energy in the form of radiation.
If 𝐸𝑔 is band gap of semiconductor, the emitted energy is given by
ℎ𝑐
𝐸𝑔 = hν =
λ
ℎ𝑐
The wavelength of emission is given by, λ=
𝐸𝑔
• The colour of emitted light depends on the type of material used
• GaP gives green ,GaN gives blue, GaAsP gives red etc…
• Also the semiconductor should have a bandgap of ~ 1.5ev to 2.5 ev
 LED characteristics
• Junction voltage – current characteristics of an LED is similar to the I-V characteristics of
diodes
• LED starts emitting light as its forward voltage reaches at a particular level and its intensity will
further increase with the increase in applied forward voltage.
• When source voltage greater then LED’s forward voltage is applied it may damage the LED and
to avoid this a series dropping resistor is used to remove the extra voltage.
• When reverse biased it does not work.
 Advantages of LED

LEDs are extremely bright, 3 times brighter than traditional light source such as incandescent, florescent,
high intensity discharge lights
• High Energy efficiency
• Long life – life span long than 10yrs
• Reliability
• No – Noise
• Better safety and security
• No high temperature
• The response time is very less, only about 10 nanoseconds
• Helps in saving energy
• Faster in switching
• Compatible with IC technology
• Small in size and light weight
• Response time is less
Disadvantages of LED

• A slight excess in voltage or current can damage the device

• High initial price : LEDs are currently more expensive than most conventional light
sources
• Efficiency decreases ae current increases

Applications
• Can be used as light sources in optical fibre communication systems
• Used in digital displays in all modern day electronic devices
• Used as bulb in homes and industries
• Used in motorcycles and cars
• Used in mobile phones to display the message
• At the traffic light signals
Photo Detector
• Device used to convert light signals that hit the junction into a voltage or current
• Photodetectors are required at the receiving end of an optical communication link
• Essential requirements – High reliability, short response time, low bias voltage, high electrical response
• Example – photodiodes, phototransistors
• Similar to photo detector is solar cell
Photo Diodes
• It is a reverse biased semiconductor p-n diode whose reverse current increases with the increase in
intensity of light incident at the junction. The device is enclosed in a transparent case so that its junction
is exposed to radiation.
• In the absence of external radiation ,the device behaves like an ordinary reverse biased p-n junction.
• It is a type of light detector
• Convert light into current or voltage based on the mode of operation of the device
• Surface area increases – response time decreases
• Similar to regular semiconductor diodes
• Transparent enough to let light reach the delicate part
of the device
 Types of Photo Diodes

• Different types are available based on its construction and functions

• Basic principle is same
• PN Photodiode
• Schottky photodiode
• PIN photodiode
• Avalanche photodiode
 Junction Photodiode

• It is a reverse biased PN junction

• Reverse biased PN junction is exposed to light, current varies linearly with flux of light
• The complete unit is very small of the order of 1/10th of an inch
Construction
• PN junction diode, which is formed by a P type semiconductor material (like Boron) and N type
semiconductor (like Phosphorous)
• Depletion region - Space between P region and N region
• Active area – coated with antireflection coating
• Non active area – coated with thick layer of SiO2
• By adjusting the thickness of the non active area,
can control the response and speed of a photodiode
to convert the light into current
 Working
• In the absence of external radiation, the device behaves like an ordinary reverse biased p-n
junction
• If the reverse biased voltage is very low, a constant current flow through the diode. This current
is called reverse saturation current
• The motion of minority carriers form a current known as leakage current (also known as dark
current)
• It depends on the reverse biased voltage, ambient temperature and series resistance in the circuit

• When light is incident on the p-n junction of a photodiode, the atoms at the junction absorbs
energy of photon and create more electrons and holes. These additional carriers (photo carriers)
increases the reverse current called as photo current. The width of depletion region should be
increased to absorb a large quantity of light.
Applications of photodiode

• Used in scintillators, charge coupled devices, photoconductors and photomultiplier tubes

• Used in consumer electronic devices like smoke detectors, compact disc players, televisions
and remote controls

• Can be used for exact measurement of the intensity of light

• Widely used in medical field – instruments to analyze samples, used in blood gas monitors

• Much faster and more complex than normal PN junction diodes and hence are frequently used
for lighting regulation and in optical communications
 PIN Photodiode
• Type of photodiode in which a very lightly doped and wide intrinsic semiconductor is
introduced between heavily doped P and N regions
• This is to improve the sensitivity of a photodiode

• When reverse biasing is applied the depletion region extends throughout the intrinsic region.
• When light is incident on the diode, electrons are excited from the valence band to conduction
band. And this results in large number of
electron-hole pairs. These carriers do not
recombine and they get drift across by the
electric field in the intrinsic layer.
This contributes to the photo current, improve
the efficiency, speed and sensitivity
❖ Applications – used in RF and microwave switches
fibre optic network cards, to detect X-rays & gamma rays
 Solar cell
• Solar cell is a heavily doped pn junction.

• It is a p-n junction diode which converts solar energy into electrical energy.

• It is a photodiode operated at zero biasing condition.

• It works on the principle of photovoltaic effect.

• Sunlight is trapped inside the device to produce electric effect in the form of voltage.

• A single cell produce a voltage of ~ 0.6V

• Silicon based solar cells are normally used

• Normally used materials for solar cell fabrication – Silicon, GaAs, CdSe
Construction
The p-n junction is constructed using semiconducting materials such as germanium silicon,
gallium arsenide, cadmium arsenide etc..
The p-n junction is packed in a cylindrical metallic container with glass window on its top so that
light falls on both p and n type materials uniformly.
To avoid recombination of electrons and holes the thickness of p and n region is made small and
the doping is extremely high.
The anode connection is from bottom p layer and cathode from the top n layer. Antireflection
coating is made on top layer to prevent light loss due to reflection.
 Working

• When light is incident at the junction , the atoms absorb energy and electron –hole pairs are
generated in both p and n regions.
• They reach the depletion region by diffusion where they are separated by a strong potential
barrier existing there.
• The minority carriers on either sides (electrons in p-region and holes in n-region) are supported
by this barrier and their flow across the junction constitutes a current which is proportional to
the illumination and on the area of diode being exposed to light.
𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
• Efficiency, η =
𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑃 𝑚𝑎𝑥
η=
𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑋 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙

𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟

• Fill factor, f =
𝑉𝑜𝑐 𝑋 𝐼 𝑠𝑐

• f lies in the range 0.65 to 0.8

Advantages
• Do not use any fuels. So they are not dangerous
• Can be used for years without any expenditure on maintenance
• They neither produce atmosphere and noise pollution when they are working
Disadvantages
• They are brittle and may be broken into small pieces
• Due to the slow response compared to photodiodes, solar cells are not normally used as
optical diodes
• Space consumption is very large
• Solar panels must be cleaned from time to get better results
Applications
• Used in satellites and rockets as sources of power
• Used in telecommunication field
• Used in defence equipments like remote radars, remote instrumentation etc.
• Used in rural electrification, water pumping, ocean navigation aids, pocket calculators,
watches, torches, traffic signals, radios, garden lights etc
 Fibre Optics

The technology that transmits information as light pulses along a glass or plastic fiber

• Conventional methods use radio waves (~ 106 𝐻𝑧 ) and microwaves (~ 109 𝐻𝑧 )

• Laser as a carrier wave can handle 109 simultaneous connections
Optical Fibres

• It is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly
thicker than that of a human hair
• Very thin cylindrical shaped transparent dielectric material surrounded by another transparent
dielectric material of comparatively low refractive index
• Inner cylinder – core
• Outer cylinder - cladding
• Core has higher refractive index than that of cladding, 𝑛1 > 𝑛2
𝑛1 - refractive index of core, 𝑛2 - refractive index of cladding
• Light admitted through one end of the core
• Propagated by repeated total internal reflection at the boundary of core and cladding
 Types of optical fibres
• Classification depends on how the total internal reflection (TIR) is achieved
• Total internal reflection is possible by the one step difference in refractive index between core
and cladding or by very small gradually diminishing steps
• Step Index Fibre
• Graded Index Fibre
• Step Index Fibre
Graded Index Fibre
 Step Index Fibre
The refractive index of the core is uniform
throughout its bulk
Refractive index decreases from n1 to n2
abruptly at the core cladding boundary
Variation profile is like step
The diameter of the core is about 10μm
The path of light propagation is zig-zag
Repeated total internal reflection occurred and
light propagated
Graded Index Fibre
Core has gradually diminished refractive index
Core is surrounded by cladding which has
constant refractive index
Gradual variation
Because of gradual diminishing, incident light
undergoes gradual bending towards the axis.
Finally reflected at the core cladding boundary
The diameter of the core is about 50μm
Path of light is helical
Cladding not only prevents the light escaping
but also add strength, flexibility and protection
to the fibre
 Numerical Aperture

• A measure of its light gathering capacity

• The sine of the maximum value of acceptance angle
𝑁. 𝐴. = 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝𝑚
• Acceptance angle is the angle made by the incident light at the one end of the core with its axis

Refractive index w.r.to air,

𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝
𝑛10=
𝑆𝑖𝑛 𝜃
0 𝑛1 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝
𝑛1 = =
𝑛0 𝑆𝑖𝑛 𝜃

𝑛0 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝ = 𝑛1 𝑆𝑖𝑛 θ ……………….(1)

𝜋
From fig., θ = − ∅
2
Eqn becomes,
𝑛0 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝ = 𝑛1 𝐶𝑜𝑠 ɸ
For critical rays, ∝ = ∝𝑚, θ = θ𝑚, ɸ = ɸ𝑐, critical angle

Therefore, 𝑛0 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝𝑚 = 𝑛1 𝐶𝑜𝑠 ɸ𝑐

Refractive index w.r.to, cladding is

1
𝑛12
=
𝑆𝑖𝑛ɸ𝑐
1 𝑛2
𝑆𝑖𝑛ɸ𝑐 = 2 =
𝑛1 𝑛1

Cos ɸ𝑐 =

𝑛12 − 𝑛22
Cos ɸ𝑐 = ………… (2)
𝑛1
 𝑛12 − 𝑛22
N. A. = 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝𝑚 =
𝑛0
For air, 𝑛0 = 1
N. A. = 𝑆𝑖𝑛 ∝𝑚 = 𝑛12 − 𝑛22

Fibre bundles

• A large number of fibres put together

• It may be grouped into 3 categories – aligned bundle, fused bundle, unaligned bundle

• Aligned bundle – 1) also known as coherent bundle

2) An assembly of fibres in which the co-ordinates of each fibre are same at
the 2 ends of each bundle
3) Majority of applications use this type
4) One of the main application – fibre optic endoscope
• Fused bundle – a) A flexible bundle of fibres
b) Fibres at 2 ends are fused to achieve higher packing efficiency and surface
quality
• Unaligned bundle – a) An assembly of fibres in which they are randomly positioned
b) Used for conducting light round the corners

Advantages of optical fibres

• Large information carrying capacity
• Cost effectiveness
• Extremely low transmission loss
• 100 μm diameter, made of silica and glass – results in reduction in volume and weight – make
cable laying easy and cheap. Hence it is considered as idel choice for applications in aircraft and
space ships
• Immune to electromagnetic interference
• Can be used in explosive as well as high voltage environments due to the absence of any
hazard caused by short circuits
• It is made of silica and glass, which is abundant in nature and very cheap
Application in communication system
 Applications of optical fibre

Industrial and Technological applications

• Used as sensors to measure displacement, pressure, temperature

• Used in security alarms
• Used to know the level of atmospheric pollution
• Remote monitoring and surveillance
• Cable TV, CCTV, LAN, WAN etc
• Signaling and decorative purpose
• Used in defense communication systems to control ships, aircrafts, submarines, missiles etc
• Transmission of digital data due to its high bandwidth
• To send a large number of telephone signals without any interference
 Medical Applications

• As biosensors
• To examine heart, pancreas etc
• Used in endoscopy
• Gastroscope – to examine the stomach and to photograph tumors and ulcer
• Bronchoscope – to see upper passages of lungs
• Orthoscope - to see small spaces within joints
Fibre optic sensors

• One of the most exciting applications of optical fibre

• Can be used for sensing very weak fields like acoustic fields, magnetic fields, strain, pressure,
temperature etc.

• Fibre optic sensors consist of

Light source
Optical fibre sensor element
Light detector
• Different types of optical sensors are

Intensity Modulated Sensor

Phase Modulated Sensor
Polarization Modulated Sensor
 Intensity Modulated Sensor

• Change in intensity of received light

• It occurs either inside or outside the fibre

• Light source (LED)

• Photodetector
• Optical fibre link
• Sensor probe – form of a reflecting diaphragm
 Pressure Sensor

• Changes in pressure causes a movement of diaphragm

• Pressure changes upto 6 Megapascal

• Useful for monitoring pressure changes in arteries, bladder, urethra etc. Also
used for monitoring pressure changes in gaseous reactants and products in
chemical industries
 Optical Sensor to detect sound waves

• The smaller the size of the core, the greater will be the sensitivity
• To detect deep sea noise levels in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 1kHz
• To detect displacement of a few angstroms
 Phase Modulated Sensor

• External perturbation causes a change in the phase of the light passing through the fibre
• Phase change is measured accurately by interferometric techniques

• Changes in phase can be detected by interferometer