BASICS OF FIBER OPTICS

 Optical fiber is the medium in which communication signals are transmitted from one
location to another in the form of light guided through thin fibers of glass or plastic.
 These signals are digital pulses or continuously modulated analog streams of light
representing information. These can be voice information, data information, computer
information, video information, or any other type of information.
 These same types of information can be sent on metallic wires such as twisted pair and
coax and through the air on microwave frequencies. The reason to use optical fiber is
because it offers advantages not available in any metallic conductor or microwaves.
 The main advantage of optical fiber is that it can transport more information longer
distances in less time than any other communications medium.
 In addition, it is unaffected by the interference of electromagnetic radiation, making it
possible to transmit information and data with less noise and less error.
 Also, optical fiber has other uses that are simply not possible with metallic conductors.
These uses include sensors/scientific applications, medical/surgical applications, industrial
applications, subject illumination, and image transport.
 Most optical fibers are made of glass, although some are made of plastic.
 For mechanical protection, optical fiber is housed inside cables. There are many types and
configurations of cables, each depending on specific application specific application like:
indoor, outdoor, in the ground, underwater, Deep Ocean, overhead, and others.
 ELEMENTS OF OPTICAL DATA LINK

1. A light source-it is at one end and is made up of laser or light-emitting diode

[LED]) which includes a connector or other alignment mechanism to connect to
the fiber. The light source will receive its signal from the support electronics
to convert the electrical information to optical information.
2. The fiber- it consists of a cable, connectors, or splices from point to point. The
fiber transports this light to its destination.
3. The light detector- this is a connector interface to the fiber. It converts the
incoming light back to an electrical signal, producing a copy of the original
electrical input. The support electronics will process that signal to perform its
intended communications function.
 The source and detector with their necessary support electronics are called
the transmitter and receiver, respectively.
 In long-distance systems the use of intermediate amplifiers as shown
below may be necessary to compensate for the signal loss over the long run
of the fiber. Therefore, long-distance networks will be comprised of a
number of identical links connected together. Each repeater consists of a
receiver, transmitter, and support electronics.
 OPTICAL FIBER
 Optical fiber is comprised of a light-carrying core surrounded by a cladding that traps
the light in the core by the principle of total internal reflection.
 The material used in making the core of the fiber is of higher refractive index, this
causes the light in the core to be totally reflected at the boundary of the cladding for all
light that strikes at greater than a critical angle.
 The critical angle is determined by the difference in the composition of the materials used
in the core and cladding.
 The core and cladding are usually fused silica glass covered by a plastic coating, called the
buffer that protects the glass fiber from physical damage and moisture. Some all-
plastic fibers are used for specific applications.

 Glass optical fibers are the most common type used in communication applications. Glass
optical fibers can be single mode or multimode. Most of today’s telecom and community
antenna television (CATV) systems use single mode fibers, whereas local area networks
(LANs) use multimode graded-index fibers
 Plastic optical fibers are large core step-index multimode fibers, although graded-index
plastic fiber is under development. Because plastic fibers have a large diameter and can
be cut with simple tools, they are easy to work with and can use low-cost connectors.
 Plastic fiber is not used for long distance because it has high attenuation and lower
bandwidth than glass fibers.
 Fibre optic cable construction

Core

 This is the physical medium that transports optical data signals from an attached light
source to a receiving device.
 The core is a single continuous strand of glass or plastic that’s measured in microns (µ)
by the size of its outer diameter. The larger the core, the lighter the cable can carry.
 All fibre optic cable is sized according to its core’s outer diameter. The three multimode
sizes most commonly available are 50, 62.5, and 100 microns. Single-mode cores are
generally less than 9 microns.
Cladding
 This is the thin layer that surrounds the fibre core and serves as a boundary that contains
the light waves and causes the refraction, enabling data to travel throughout the length of
the fibre segment.
Coating
 This is a layer of plastic that surrounds the core and cladding to reinforce and protect the
fibre core. Coatings are measured in microns and can range from 250 to 900 microns.

Strengthening fibres
 These components help protect the core against crushing forces and excessive tension
during installation. The materials can range from Kevlar® to wire strands to gel-filled
sleeves.
 Cable jacket
 This is the outer layer of any cable. Most fibre optic cables have an orange jacket,
although some types can have black or yellow jackets.

Types of optical fibers

 There are two basic types of optical fiber—multimode and single mode.
a. Multimode fiber
 Multimode fiber means that light can travel many different paths (called modes) through
the core of the fiber, entering and leaving the fiber at various angles.
 The highest angle that light is accepted into the core of the fiber defines the numerical
aperture (NA).
 It is further divided into multimode step index and multimode

Multimode step index.

 Step-index multimode fiber has a core composed completely of one type of glass. Light
travels in straight lines in the fiber, reflecting off the core/cladding interface.
 The NA is determined by the difference in the indices of refraction of the core and cladding
and can be calculated by Snell’s law. Since each mode or angle of light travels a different
path, a pulse of light is dispersed while traveling through the fiber, limiting the bandwidth
of step-index fiber.

Multimode graded index.

 In graded-index multimode fiber, the core is composed of many different layers of glass,
chosen with indices of refraction to produce an index profile approximating a parabola,
where from the center of the core the index of refraction gets lower toward the cladding.
Since light travels faster in the lower index of refraction glass, the light will travel faster as
it approaches the outside of the core. Likewise, the light traveling closest to the core center
will travel the slowest.
b. single mode fibers
 Single mode fiber just shrinks the core size to a dimension about six times the wavelength
of light traveling in the fiber and it has a smaller difference in the refractive index of the
core and cladding, causing all the light to travel in only one mode. Thus, modal dispersion
disappears and the bandwidth of the fiber increases tremendously over graded-index fiber.

Advantages of single mode fibers

 Are smaller in core diameter than multimode fibers.

 Offer much greater bandwidth, but the larger core size of multimode fiber makes coupling
to low-cost sources such as LEDs much easier.

Index of Refraction

 The index of refraction of a material is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to that in
the material.
 Also, it is a measure of how much the speed of light slows down after it enters the material.
Since light has its highest speed in vacuum, and since light slows down whenever it enters
any medium (water, plastic, glass, crystal, oil, etc.),
 The index of refraction of all media is greater than one. For example, the index of refraction
in a vacuum/air is 1, that of glass and plastic optical fibers is approximately 1.5, and water
has an index of refraction of approximately 1.3
 Total internal reflection in an optical fiber.

 When light goes from one material to another of a different index of refraction, its path will
bend, causing an illusion similar to the “bent” stick stuck into water. At its limits total
internal reflection is used to reflect the light at the core/cladding boundary of the fiber and
trap it in the core. By choosing the material differences between the core and cladding, one
can select the angle of light called total internal reflection at which this light trapping
occurs. This angle defines a primary fiber specification, the numerical aperture.

The Speed of Light and the Index of Refraction

 "Light in a vacuum always travels at the same speed." A vacuum is a region with no
matter in it. Light traveling through anything other than a perfect vacuum will scatter off
whatever particles exist.
 In vacuum the speed of light is c = 2.99792458 x 108 m/s.
 As light travels through different materials, it scatters off of the molecules in the material
and is slowed down. For some materials such as water, light will slow down more than
electrons will. Thus, an electron in water can travel faster than light in water.
 The amount by which light slows in a given material is described by the index of
refraction, n. The index of refraction of a material is defined by the speed of light in
vacuum c divided by the speed of light through the material v:
n = c/v
 The index of refraction of some common materials are given below.

Sn Material n
1 Vacuum 1
2 Air 1.0003
 3 Water 1.33
4 Ethyl Alcohol 1.36
5 Fused Quartz 1.4585
6 Whale Oil 1.460
7 Crown Glass 1.52
8 Salt 1.54
9 Diamond 2.42
10 Lead 2.6
 Those materials with large indices of refraction are called optically dense media. Materials
with indices of refraction closer to one are called optically rare media.

Wavelength and the Index of Refraction

 Frequency does not change as light moves from one medium to another.

𝑐
∴𝑛=
𝑣

𝜆0 𝑓
=
𝜆𝑓

𝜆0
=
𝜆

Speed and Frequency of Light Leaving an Optical Fiber

Example1

Light moving from an optical fiber to air changes wavelength from 452nm to 633nm.

Fig. Example1
a) What is the index of refraction of the fiber?
 b) What is the speed of light in the fiber?
c) What is the frequency of the light in the fiber?
d) What is the frequency of the light in air?
Refractive index and snell’s law
 Light rays bend, or refract, as they move from one medium to another. The index of
refraction is related to this effect.
 The angles between the light ray and the normal to the surface in each medium are related
to the indices of refraction in those media by Snell's Law:
n1 sin 𝜃1 = n2 sin 𝜃2
whre: 𝜃1 =angle of incidence between the light ray and the normal in the first medium.
𝜃2 = angle of refraction the light ray makes with respect to the normal in the second
medium.
n1= index of refraction of the first medium has.
n2= index of refraction in the second medium.

Example 2

Light of vacuum wavelength 𝜆0 = 850.0nm enters the end of an optical fiber from air at an angle
of 20.5owith respect to the normal. Its wavelength inside the fiber is 574.3nm.

a) What is the index of refraction inside the fiber?

b) What is the angle between the light ray and the normal inside the fiber?
c) Assuming the end of the fiber is perpendicular to its upper edge, what is the angle between
the light ray and the surface when the light reaches the upper edge?
d) If the index of refraction outside the upper edge of the fiber is 1.44, what is the angle
between the light and the normal to the surface as it exits the upper edge?

Total Internal Reflection

 This is a complete reflection of a ray of light within a medium such as water or glass from
the surrounding surfaces back into the medium.
 The phenomenon occurs if the angle of incidence is greater than a certain limiting angle,
called the critical angle.
 Optical fibers rely on total internal reflection for their operation. Light/infrared getting
in at one end undergoes repeated total internal reflection and emerges at the other
end. Notice that the light refracts towards the normal as it enters the optical fibre.

 When traveling from the denser fiber medium to the rarer medium, light bends away from
the normal, and 𝜃4 is greater than 𝜃3 . As 𝜃3 gets larger, so does 𝜃4 , and the refracted light
bends even more towards the surface of the fiber.
 As the value of the incident angle 𝜃3 gets larger, so do 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃4 and therefore 𝜃4 . But
if 𝜃3 gets big enough, 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃4 can exceed 1.00! At this point the angle of refraction 𝜃4 is
undefined. Physically, what happens at this point is that no light leaves the fiber. It is all
reflected at the upper edge and stays within the fiber. This phenomenon is called total
internal reflection, and it is the reason that optical fibers can carry light over long distances
without much light escaping.
 For the interface of any two media, critical angle can be found, for which the refracted
light goes exactly along the boundary. If the incident angle 𝜃1 in the denser medium is any
greater, there will be only reflection, and no light will escape the medium. We can find the
critical angle 𝜃𝐶 by setting the angle of refraction 𝜃2 to 90o and using Snell's Law:
Example 3

Consider the optical fiber from Examples 2. The index of refraction of the inner core is 1.480, and
the index of refraction of the outer cladding is 1.44.

a) What is the critical angle for the core-cladding interface?

b) For what range of angles in the core at the entrance of the fiber (𝜃2 ) will the light be
completely internally reflected at the core-cladding interface?
c) What range of incidence angles in air does this correspond to?
d) If light is totally internally reflected at the upper edge of the fiber, will it necessarily be
totally internally reflected at the lower edge of the fiber (assuming edges are parallel)?

Fiber Attenuation
 The attenuation of the optical fiber is a result of two factors—absorption and scattering.
 Absorption is caused by the absorption of the light and conversion to heat by molecules in
the glass.
 Primary absorbers are residual OH+ and dopants used to modify the refractive index of
the glass. This absorption occurs at discrete wavelengths of around 1000 nm, 1400 nm, and
above 1600 nm.
 The largest cause of attenuation is scattering. Scattering occurs when light collides with
individual atoms in the glass and is anisotropic. Light that is scattered at angles outside the
 critical angle of the fiber will be absorbed into the cladding or scattered in all directions,
even transmitted back toward the source.
 Scattering is also a function of wavelength, proportional to the inverse fourth power of the
wavelength of the light. Thus, if you double the wavelength of the light, you reduce the
scattering losses by 24 or 16 times. Therefore, for long-distance transmission, it is
advantageous to use the longest practical wavelength for minimal attenuation and
maximum distance between repeaters.
 Absorption and scattering produce the attenuation curve for a typical glass optical fiber.

Fiber Bandwidth
 Fiber’s information transmission capacity is limited by two separate components of
dispersion: modal and chromatic.
 Modal dispersion occurs in step-index multimode fiber where the paths of different modes
are of varying lengths.
 The graded-index profile was chosen to theoretically allow all modes to have the same
group velocity or transit speed along the length of the fiber. By making the outer parts of
the core a lower index of refraction than the inner parts of the core, the higher order modes
speed up as they go away from the center of the core, compensating for their longer path
lengths.
 Modal dispersion, caused by different path lengths in the fiber, is corrected in graded-
index fiber.

Acceptance Angle and Numerical Aperture

 The Numerical Aperture (NA) is a measure of how much light can be collected by an
optical system such as an optical fibre or a microscope lens.
 The NA is related to the acceptance angle a, which indicates the size of a cone of light
that can be accepted by the fibre.

Figure 4.32 Acceptance angle of an optical fibre

 Both numerical aperture and acceptance angle are linked to the refractive index via:

𝑁𝐴 = 𝑛𝑎 sin 𝜃𝑎 = √𝑛1 2 − 𝑛2 2

Where,
𝑛1 = refractive index of core
𝑛2 = refractive index of cladding
𝑛𝑎 = refractive index of air (1.00)

FIBER APPLICATIONS
 Each type of fiber has its specific application.
Step-index multimode fiber
 It is used where large core size and efficient coupling of source power are more important
than low loss and high bandwidth.
 It is commonly used in short, low-speed datalinks.
 It may also be used in applications where radiation is a concern, since it can be made
with a pure silica core that is not readily affected by radiation.

Graded-index multimode fiber.

 It is used for data communications systems where the transmitter sources are LEDs.
 Used in fiber optic communications, one fiber now is by far the most widely used by
virtually all multimode Datacom networks—62.5/125 μm.
 The telephone companies use single mode fiber for its better performance at higher bit
rates and its lower loss, allowing faster and longer unrepeated links for long-distance
telecommunications. It is also used in CATV, since today’s analog CATV networks use
laser sources designed for single mode fiber and future CATV networks will use
compressed digital video signals. Almost all other highspeed networks are using single
mode fiber, either to support gigabit data rates or long-distance links.
