Fiber Optic Light Sources

EC6702-OPTICAL
COMMUNICATION & NETWORKS
IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

/EC6702/OCN/Solved/ Ver 1.2
UNIT III FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND
Syllabus:
COUPLING
Direct and indirect Band gap materials-LED
structures -Light source materials -Quantum
efficiency and LED power, Modulation of a LED,
lasers Diodes-Modes and Threshold condition -Rate
equations -External Quantum efficiency -Resonant
frequencies -Laser Diodes, Temperature effects,
Introduction to Quantum laser, Fiber amplifiers-
Power Launching and coupling, Lensing schemes,
Fiber -to- Fiber joints, Fiber splicing-Signal to Noise
ratio , Detector response time

Overview
• What is an Optical Source
• LEDs
• SLEDs – Surface Emitting LEDs
• ELEDs – Edge Emitting LEDs
• LDs – Laser Diodes
• Tunable Lasers
• Conclusion
• Questions
What is an Optic Source?
• The heart of a fiber optical data system
• A Hybrid Device
– Converts electrical signals into optical signals
– Launches these optical signals into an optical fiber
for data transmission.
• Device consists of an interface circuit, drive
circuit, and components for optical source.
(LEDs, ELEDs, SLEDs, LDs, etc)

LEDs – Light Emitting Diode
• Emits incoherent light through
spontaneous emission.
• Used for Multimode systems w/
100-200 Mb/s rates.
• Broad spectral width and wide
output pattern.
• 850nm region: GaAs and AlGaAs
• 1300–1550nm region: InGaAsP and
InP
• Two commonly used types: ELEDs
and SLEDs

SLEDs – Surface Emitting LEDs
• Primary active region is a small circular area located
below the surface of the semiconductor substrate, 20-
50µm diameter and up to 2.5µm thick.
• Emission is isotropic and in lambertian pattern.
• A well is etched in the substrate to allow the direct
coupling of emitted light to the optical fiber
• Emission area of substrate is perpendicular to axis of
optical fiber
• Coupling efficiency optimized by binding fiber to the
substrate surface by epoxy resin with matching
refractive index

Surface Emitting LED

ELEDs – Edge Emitting LEDs
• Primary active region is a narrow strip that lies beneath the
semiconductor substrate
• Semiconductor is cut and polished so emission strip region
runs between front and back.
• Rear face of semiconductor is polished so it is highly reflective
while front face is coated with anti-reflective, light will reflect
from rear and emit through front face
• Active Regions are usually 100-150µm long and the strips are
50-70µm wide which are designed to match typical core
fibers of 50-100µm.
• Emit light at narrower angle which allows for better coupling
and efficiency than SLEDs

Edge Emitting LED

LDs – Laser Diodes
• Emit coherent light through
stimulated emission
• Mainly used in Single Mode
Systems
• Light Emission range: 5 to 10
degrees
• Require Higher complex driver
circuitry than LEDs
• Laser action occurs from three
main processes: photon
absorption, spontaneous
emission, and stimulated
emission.
Laser Diode Optical Cavity
• One reflecting mirror is at one end while the other end has a
partially reflecting mirror for partial emission
• Remaining power reflects through cavity for amplification of
certain wavelengths, a process known as optical feedback.
• Construction very similar to the ELEDs.

Lasing Characteristics
• Lasing threshold is minimum
current that must occur for
stimulated emission
• Any current produced below
threshold will result in
spontaneous emission only
• At currents below threshold
LDs operate as ELEDs
• LDs need more current to
operate and more current
means more complex drive
circuitry with higher heat
dissipation
• Laser diodes are much more
temperature sensitive than
LEDs
Tunable Laser
• Tunable Laser
– Employed in broad-band interconnections and broadcast
networks where the need for high power, narrow line
width, and a tunable single-frequency emission is a must.
– Laser that is able to produce controllable multiple
wavelengths within single cavity.
– Able to switch transmission of different wavelengths
without using multiplexer for transmission to many
different channels at by tuning the output frequency to its
designated channel.

Tunable Laser Cavity
• Consists of an Active Region, and two passive regions: Phase

Control and Grating
• Active region is a double heterostructure of a low bandgap
between two high gap low index claddings.
• Two passive regions made from semiconductor with
intermediate bandgap between active and cladding.
Tunable Laser Operation
• Current is injected into the Active Region causing the entire

optical cavity to oscillate in a single longitudinal mode.
• A current is then injected into the grating control region
causing a refractive index decrease which induces a shift of
the Bragg wavelength and variation in the mode.
• The phase region with the injected phase current allows for
recovery in Bragg wavelength in order to keep the same
mode in the center of the filter band.
• This results in an output with variable wavelength.

OPTIC FIBER
• Optical light sources convert electrical signals into optical signals and
launch them.
• Commonly used light sources include LEDs, ELEDs, SLEDs, and LDs.
• LEDs produce nonlinear incoherent light whereas a Laser Diode produces
linear coherent light.
• Incoherent light sources used in multimode systems as where Laser
Diodes/Tunable Lasers in single mode systems
• Laser diodes must operate above their threshold region to produce
coherent light, otherwise operating as ELED.
• Laser diodes are much faster in switching response than LEDs
• Tunable laser is able to produce coherent light output with controlled
variable wavelength
• Tunable laser is used in multi wavelength systems by replacing a system
where many sources are coupled into a multiplexing device system

Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
• LED is a semiconductor diode; the construction of the LED is same as

other diode but the other regular diode is loss the recombination energy
in the thermal.
• LED is used the recombination energy into radiation spectrum of light.
• LEDs have relatively large emitting areas and as a result are not as good
light sources as LDs.
• However, they are widely used for short to moderate transmission
distances because they are much more economical, quite linear in terms
of light output versus electrical current input and stable in terms of light
output versus ambient operating temperature.

Light Emitting Diodes (LED)
(Cont’1)
• LEDs are of interest for fiber optics because of five
inherent characteristics:
– They are small
– They possess high radiance (i.e., They emit lots of light in a
small area).
– The emitting area is small, comparable to the dimensions
of optical fibers.
– They have a very long life, offering high reliability.
– They can be modulated (turned off and on) at high speeds.

LED Structures and Configuration
• There are two possible structure in LED:
Homostructure and heterostructure
• Homostructure configuration have drawback where
the active region is too defuse which makes the
device’s efficiency very low
• Homostructure makes the device radiates a broad
light beam and make coupling light into fiber
inefficient.

LED Structures and Configuration (Cont’1)
• Most LED is design using heterostructure

because its gives good confinement of
recombination process
• Two type LED configurations
– Edge Emitting LED (ELED)
– Surface Emitting LED (SLED)

Energy Gaps in LEDs
Eg=hc/l = 1240eV-nm/l (1)
Equation 1 defines the bandgap energy Eg:

Where:
h = Plank's Constant = 4.13 x 10-15 eV•s
c = speed of light = 2.998 x 108 m/s
l = wavelength in nm

Laser Diode Working Principle (Cont’2)
• To achieve stimulate emission, the number of
photon should be large enough
• To get the large number of photon, two mirror is
used to double up the number of photon
• This two mirror provide positive optical feedback
• Population inversion will provide the number of
electron to excites at much higher rate

• Population inversion is occur when the high density forward
current is passed through the small area active area
• For laser action (lasing) we need to have more electron at the
higher-energy conduction band than at the lower-energy
valance band
• Thus we need population inversion where provide necessary
condition for lasing effect because the greater the number of
excited electrons, the greater the number of photon
stimulated

• The number of excited electron also determine the gain of
semiconductor diode
• The loss of diode is at the photons’ absorb by semiconductor
material before they can escape to create radiation
• Other loss is at the mirror, where mirror do not reflect 100%
of incident photon
• The gain is increasing by increasing the forward current
• The loss and the gain become equal at threshold level where
the current at this level called threshold current.

• At this threshold condition, laser diode start to act as
laser, where when the forward current increase the
number of emitted stimulated photon increase which
means the intensity of radiated light also increase
• Then we will get the well directed, highly intense,
monochromatic and coherent light

• Lasing effect and input-output characteristic
occur when below process met:
– Population inversion
– Stimulated emission
– Positive feedback

Laser Diode Characteristic
Output Power (mW)
Ith Forward current (mA)
Figure 15: input-output characteristic of LD

Laser Diode Characteristic (Cont’1)
• Laser diode light that can characterized as
below
– Monochromatic : The spectral width of the
radiated light is very narrow. The line width of a
laser diode can be in tenth or hundred of
nanometer
– Well directed: A laser diode radiates narrow , well
directed beam that can be easily launched into
optical fiber

– Highly intense and power efficient: A laser diode
can radiate hundreds of milliwatts of output
power. LD making the current to light conversion
10 times more efficient than it is in the best LEDs.
– Coherent: Light radiates by a laser diode is
coherent; where all oscillation are in phase.

• Threshold current of laser diode depend on the
temperature
• The threshold current will increase when the
temperature increase as shown in figure 16 below
• There are two types of laser diode design that
provide solution for the temperature: Cooled laser
diode and uncooled laser diode

• Uncooled laser diode means, laser diode does not require any
cooling
• This means also laser diode consumes less overall power and
heat generated at nonradiative transition of exicited electrons
is small.
• Cooled laser diode means, laser diode needs a heat pump to
transfer heat from the one place to another
• Cooled laser diode always include a thermoelectric cooler
(TEC) which function to keep laser diode at operating
temperature

Fabry-Perot laser diode (Cont’4)
Output power, mW
λ (nm)
Δλ
Figure 19: Fabry-Perot laser diode and standing wave

Distributed Feedback Laser Diode
• In distributed feedback laser diode, the Bragg
grating is used to reduce the spectral width of
the laser spectrum
• The Bragg grating only allow selective
wavelength propagate
• This Bragg grating also acts as mirror

Distributed Feedback Laser Diode (Cont’1)
Output power, mW
Gain
Δλ λ (nm)
Figure 20: The DFB laser diode spectrum

• The radiated wavelength is depend on the Bragg
condition given by below formula
2 Λ neff = λB
• The spectral width of the laser spectrum is extremely
narrow and suitable for communication system
especially in WDM system
• DFB laser were proposed in early 1960s but were not
developed commercially until the 1980s

• DFB lasers are quieter devices (e.g., high signal-to-noise),
have narrower spectral widths, and are usually faster devices.
• DFB lasers offer the highest performance levels and also the
highest cost of the two types.
– They are nearly monochromatic (i.e. they emit a very pure single color
of light.) while FP lasers emit light at a number of discrete
wavelengths.
– DFB lasers tend to be used for the highest speed digital applications
and for most analog applications because of their faster speed, lower
noise, and superior linearity.

Figure 21: An injection laser diode which has a Bragg reflection grating in
the active region in order to suppress multiple longitudinal modes
and enhance a single longitudinal mode
Laser Diode Material
• The material inside laser diode will present the
wavelength of laser diode
• Different material will present different wavelength
• Different material also provide different energy gap
• Material in laser diode will provide how long the
transmitter can support and the wavelength mode
and type

Laser Diode Material (Cont’1)
• InGaAs:Abbreviation for indium gallium arsenide. Generally
used to make high-performance long-wavelength detectors
• InGaAsP: Abbreviation for indium gallium arsenide phosphide.
Generally used for long-wavelength light emitters
• Injection Laser Diode (ILD): A laser employing a forward-
biased semiconductor junction as the active medium.
Stimulated emission of coherent light occurs at a PIN junction
where electrons and holes are driven into the junction

• The material construction in laser diode are include quantum
well, graded index confinement layer, contact layer, cladding
layer and substrate
• These material are combined and put in together with
different type of construction such as shown in figure 21.
• The other types of construction are include:
– Basic structure of broad-area
– Gain-guided
– Ridge-waveguide (RWG)

• Different configuration of arrangement of material
will give different band gap energy
• The arrangement that available in constructing the
laser diode are:
– Single-quantum well LD
– Multiple quantum well LD
– Graded-index separate-confinement hetrostructure

Laser Diode Driver Circuit
• The design of laser diode driver circuit should be
suitable to the characteristic of laser diode
• The laser diode has certain threshold level when its
start in linear region
• The laser diode driver should make the laser operate
in linear region where the output power will be
linear to the input current

Laser Diode Driver Circuit (Cont’1)
• Therefore, the circuit of laser diode should
provide certain level of dc current when the
system not operate
• This bias current for the threshold level should
suitable to the laser diode used because
different laser diode has different threshold
current level


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EC6702-OPTICAL

COMMUNICATION & NETWORKS

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

• Consists of an Active Region, and two passive regions: Phase

• Current is injected into the Active Region causing the entire

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

• LED is a semiconductor diode; the construction of the LED is same as

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

• Most LED is design using heterostructure

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

Equation 1 defines the bandgap energy Eg:

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IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

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IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

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Output Power (mW)

Ith Forward current (mA)

Figure 15: input-output characteristic of LD

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Figure 19: Fabry-Perot laser diode and standing wave

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Figure 20: The DFB laser diode spectrum

IFETCE/ECE /IV YR /VII Sem

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