Understanding Optics &Optical

Communications

c.
 Optical Communication
Optical communication is communication at a
distance using light to carry information.
An optical communication system uses a
transmitter, which encodes a message into an
optical signal, a channel, which carries the
signal to its destination, and a receiver, which
reproduces the message from the received
optical signal.
Optical Transmission System
Components
General and Optical Communication
systems
 Light Propagation(Nature of Light)

Rays: In the classical physics that many of us

learned at school, light consisted of “rays” that
could be reflected and refracted through mirrors
and prisms etc.
Electromagnetic Waves:
Photons: In many contexts light behaves as
though it consists of tiny particles called
“photons”.
 Reflection
Much of the light incident on an object are absorbed but some are
reflected.
The wavelengths of the reflected light determine the colors we see.
When white light hits an apple, for instance, primarily red
wavelengths are reflected, while much of the others are absorbed.
A ray of light heading towards an object is called an incident ray. If
it reflects off the object, it is called a reflected ray. A perpendicular
line drawn at any point on a surface is called a normal . The angle
between the incident ray and normal is called the angle of incidence,
i, and the angle between the reflected ray and the normal ray is called
the angle of reflection, r. The law of reflection states that the angle of
incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection.
 Law of Reflection

Normal line (perpendicular to

surface)
inc

ys
i r

ra
ide

t ed
nt

l ec
ra y

f
re
s

i=r
 Diffuse Reflection
Diffuse reflection is when light bounces off a non-smooth surface.
Each ray of light still obeys the law of reflection, but because of the
surface is not smooth, the normal can point in a different for every
ray.
 If many light rays strike a non-smooth surface, they could be
reflected in many different directions. This explains how we can see
objects even when it seems the light shining upon it should not reflect
in the direction of our eyes.
 Speed of Light & Refraction

As you have already learned, light is extremely fast, about

3  108 m/s in a vacuum. Light, however, is slowed down by the
presence of matter.
 The extent to which this occurs depends on what the light is
traveling through. Light travels at about 3/4 of its vacuum speed
(0.75 c ) in water and about 2/3 its vacuum speed (0.67 c ) in
glass.
The reason for this slowing is because when light strikes an
atom it must interact with its electron cloud.
 If light travels from one medium to another, and if the speeds
in these media differ, then light is subject to refraction.
 Reflection & Refraction
At an interface between two media, both reflection and refraction can
occur. The angles of incidence, reflection, and refraction are all measured
with respect to the normal.
If light speeds up upon entering a new medium, the angle of refraction, r
, will be greater than the angle of incidence, as shown on the left. If the
light slows down in the new medium, r will be less than the angle of
incidence, as shown on the right.
ay ay
Inc R Inc
ide te d ide te dR
nt le c nt c
Ra
y e f Ra
y e fle
R R

Re
r Refr
normal

normal
acted

fr
Ray

act
r

ed
Ra
y
 Index of Refraction, n
The index of refraction of a substance is the ratio of the speed of
light in a vacuum to the speed of light in that substance
c
n=
v
Medium n
n = Index of Refraction
Vacuum 1
c = Speed of light in vacuum
Air (STP) 1.00029
v = Speed of light in medium
Water (20º C) 1.33
Note: A large index of refraction
corresponds to a relatively slow Ethanol 1.36
light speed in that medium. Glass ~1.5
Diamond 2.42
 i
Snell’s Law ni
nr
r
Snell’s law states that a ray of light bends in
such a way that the ratio of the sine of the
angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of
refraction is constant. Mathematically,

ni sin i = nr sinr
Here ni is the index of refraction in the original
medium and nr is the index in the medium the
light enters.  i and r are the angles of
incidence and refraction, respectively.
Willebrord
Snell
Snell’s Law Derivation

A 1
n1 x •
A d
• •B
y
n2 •B

2
 Refraction Problem #1
Exercise 1: Find the angular displacement of the ray after having
passed through the prism. Hints: 1. Find the first angle of refra
using Snell’s law.
19.4712º
2. Find angle ø. (Hint: Use
Geometry skills.)
79.4712º
Air, n1 = 1
30° 3. Find the second angle of
incidence. 10.5288º
4. Find the second angle of
Horiz. ray, refraction, , using Snell’s
parallel to
ø
 15.9º
base

Glass, n2 = 1.5
 Refraction Problem #2
Exercise 2: Find the distance the light ray displaced due to the thick
window and how much time it spends in the glass. Some hints are
given.
20º 1 1. Find 1 . 20º
H20
n1 = 1.3 2. To show incoming & outgoing
rays are parallel, find . 20º

glass 0.504 m
10m
n2 = 1.5 3. Find the time the light spends in
5.2 · 10-8 s
H20 the glass.

Extra practice: Find  if bottom
medium is replaced with
26.4ºair.
 Refraction Problem #3
Exercise 3: Find the exit angle relative to the
horizontal.

 = 19.8°
36°

air
glass =?

The triangle is isosceles.

Incident ray is horizontal,
parallel to the base.
 Brewster Angle
The Brewster angle is the angle of incidence the produces reflected
and refracted rays that are perpendicular.
From Snell, n1 sinb = n2 sin.

n2 


n1
b b

tanb = n2 / n1 Sir David

Brewster
 Critical Angle
The incident angle that causes the nr
refracted ray to skim right along the
ni
boundary of a substance is known as c
the critical angle, c
If the angle of incidence exceeds the
From Snell,
critical angle, the ray is completely
reflected and does not enter the new n1 sinc = n2 sin 90
medium. Since sin 90 = 1, we
A critical angle only exists when have n1 sinc = n2 and
light is attempting to penetrate a the critical angle is
medium of higher optical density than
it is currently traveling in. nr
c = sin-1
ni
 Critical Angle Sample Problem
Calculate the critical angle for the diamond-air
Refer to the Index of Refraction chart for the information.
boundary.

air c = sin-1 (nr / ni)

diamond = sin-1 (1 / 2.42)
c
= 24.4
Any light shone on this
boundary beyond this angle
will be reflected back into the
diamond.
 Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection occurs when light attempts to pass
from a more optically dense medium to a less optically dense
medium at an angle greater than the critical angle. When this
occurs there is no refraction, only reflection.

n1 n2 > n1
n2   > c

Total internal reflection can be used for practical applications

like fiber optics.
 Numerical Aperture

The acceptance angle for a fiber defines its numerical

aperture (NA)The NA is related to the critical angle of the
waveguide and is defined as:
NA  sin i   n12  n22

Telecommunications optical fiber n1~n2,

n1  n2
NA  n1 2  
n1
 Classes of transmission media

Guided media: which are those that provide a conduit from

one device to another, include twisted-pair cable, coaxial cable,
and fiber-optic cable.
 Optical Fibers
Fiber optic lines are strands of glass or
transparent fibers that allows the transmission of
light and digital information over long distances.
They are used for the telephone system, the
cable TV system, the internet, medical imaging,
and mechanical engineering inspection.
 Fiber Is Everywhere!
It’s how we communicate…
 Fiber Optics Cont.
Fiber optics are often long
strands of very pure glass. They
are very thin, about the size of a
human hair. Hundreds to
thousands of them are arranged in
bundles (optical cables) that can
transmit light great distances.
There are three main parts to an
optical fiber:
Core- the thin glass center where light travels.
 Cladding- optical material (with a lower index of refraction
than the core) that surrounds the core that reflects light back into
the core.
Buffer Coating- plastic coating on the outside of an optical
fiber to protect it from damage. Continued…
 Light Used In Fiber Optics

Fiber optic systems transmit using infrared

light, invisible to the human eye, because it
goes further in the optical fiber at those
wavelengths.
Fiber Technology
Fiber uses total internal
reflection (TIR) to contain light
inside the core of the fiber
(below).

Core
Cladding

.
Bending of light ray in fiber optics
 Light travels through the core of
a fiber optic by continually Fiber Optics (cont.)
reflecting off of the cladding.
 Due to total internal reflection,
the cladding does not absorb any
of the light, allowing the light to
travel over great distances. Some
of the light signal will degrade
over time due to impurities in the
glass.
 Optical Fiber modes
Since optical fiber is a waveguide, light can
propagate in a number of modes
If a fiber is of large diameter, light entering at
different angles will excite different modes while
narrow fiber may only excite one mode
There are two types of optical fibers mode:
Single-mode fibers- transmit one signal per fiber
(used in cable TV and telephones).
Multi-mode fibers- transmit multiple signals per
fiber (used in computer networks).
 Cont…
Multimode propagation will cause dispersion,
which results in the spreading of pulses and limits
the usable bandwidth
Single-mode fiber has much less dispersion but
is more expensive to produce. Its small size,
together with the fact that its numerical aperture
is smaller than that of multimode fiber.
MMF and SMF Optical Fibers
Cont…
 Step index and graded fibers
 Both types of fiber described earlier are known as
step-index fibers because the index of refraction
changes radically between the core and the
cladding
 Graded-index fiber is a compromise multimode
fiber, but the index of refraction gradually
decreases away from the center of the core
 Graded-index fiber has less dispersion than a
multimode step-index fiber
Step index and Graded index
 Optimizing Fiber Usage
Multiplexing

• TDM – Time Division Multiplexing

• WDM – Wave Division Multiplexing
Cont…
Cont…
Wavelength-Division Multiplexing
Allows Transmitting Multiple
Signals
 Multiplexing - DWDM
DWDM – Dense Wave Division Multiplexing
• Mux/Demux of narrowly spaced wavelengths
– 400 / 200 / 100 / 50 GHz Channel spacing
– 3.2 / 1.6 / 0.8 / 0.4 nm wavelength spacing
• Up to 160 wavelengths per fiber
• Narrow spacing = higher cost implementation
– More expensive lasers and filters to separate ’s
• Primarily for Telco backbone – Distance
• Means to add uncompressed Video signals to existing
fiber
 Multiplexing - CWDM
CWDM – Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing
• Newest technology (ITU Std G.694.2)
• Based on DWDM but simpler and more robust
• Wider wavelength spacing (20 nm)
• Up to 18 wavelengths per fiber
• Uses un-cooled lasers and simpler filters
• Significant system cost savings over DWDM
• DWDM can be used with CWDM to increase
channel count or link budget
Fiber Types
 Fiber Optic Connectors

• Terminates the fibers

• Connects to other fibers or transmission
equipment
 Dispersion of Light
Dispersion is the separation of light into a spectrum by refraction. The
index of refraction is actually a function of wavelength. For longer
wavelengths the index is slightly small. Thus, red light refracts less than
violet. (The pic is exaggerated.) This effect causes white light to split
into it spectrum of colors. Red light travels the fastest in glass, has a
smaller index of refraction, and bends the least. Violet is slowed down
the most, has the largest index, and bends the most. In other words: the
higher the frequency, the greater the bending.
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