Cont.....

Chapter 2
Light Propagation in
Optical Fiber

1
 Example1

1.) Suppose optical fiber having the following parameters is

used for real application. Calculate the angle of refraction
at the air/core interface

 Answer =θrefraction = 19.89°

nair = 1
ncore = 1.47
ncladding = 1.45
incident = 30°

2
 Example 2

2.) For example 1,Calculate the angle of refraction at the

core/cladding interface

Answer= refraction = 72.42°

nair = 1
ncore = 1.47
ncladding = 1.45
incident = 30°

3
 Example 3

3.) Suppose optical fiber has the following new data .

nair = 1
ncore = 1.47
ncladding = 1.45
incident = 10°

a) Calculate the angle of refraction at the core/cladding interface

b) Does TIR occur?

Solution= refraction(Air-core) = 6.78°

4
 Example 4

5.) Suppose optical fiber has core/cladding interface

the following data . Calculate:-
a) Angle of refraction at
the air/core interface, θr
b) Critical angle , θc
c) Incident angle at the air/core interface
core/cladding interface ,
θi nair = 1
d) Will this light ray ncore = 1.46
Answers:
ncladding = 1.43
propagate down the r = 8.2°
c = 78.4°
incident = 12°
fiber? i = 81.8°
light will propagate

5
 Example 5
4.1 What happens to the light which approaches the fiber
outside of the cone of acceptance? The angle of incidence
is 30o as in Fig.1
a) Calculate the angle of refraction at the air/core interface
b) Critical angle
c) Incident angle at the core/cladding interface
d) Does the TIR will occur?
 Classification of optical fibers

• Optical fibers are classified based on

Materials
Number of modes and
Refractive index profile
 Based on materials

Optical fibers based on material :

Optical fibers are made up of materials like silica and
plastic. The basic optical fiber material must have the
following properties:
(i) Efficient guide for the light waves
(ii) Low scattering losses
(iii) The absorption, attenuation and dispersion of optical
energy must be low.
Based on the material used for fabrication, they are classified
into two types:
Glass fibers and
Plastic fibers
 Glass fibers
Glass fibers :
• The glass fibers are generally fabricated by fusing mixtures
of metal oxides and silica glasses.
• Silica has a refractive index of 1.458 at 850 nm. To
produce two similar materials having slightly different indices
of refraction for the core and cladding, either fluorine or
various oxides such as B2O3, GeO2 or P2O3 are added to
silica.
• Examples:

SiO2 core; P2­O3 – SiO2 cladding

GeO2 – SiO2 core; SiO2 cladding
P2O5 – SiO2 core; SiO2 cladding
 Plastic Fibers

Plastic fibers :
The plastic fibers are typically made of plastics and
are of low cost.
Although they exhibit considerably greater signal
attenuation than glass fibers, the plastic fibers can
be handled without special care due to its
toughness and durability.
Due to its high refractive index differences between
the core and cladding materials, plastic fibers yield
high numerical aperture and large angle of
acceptance.
 Cont…

Examples:
A polymethyl methacrylate core (n1 = 1.59)
and a cladding made of its co-polymer
(n2 = 1.40).

A polysterene core (n1 = 1.60) and a methylmetha

crylate cladding (n1 = 1.49).
 Step Index Multi mode dispersion

Dispersion in fiber optics results from the fact that in

multimode propagation, the signal travels faster in
some modes than it would in others.
Graded-index fibers reduce dispersion by taking
advantage of higher-order modes
Dispersion increases with the bandwidth of the light
source
 Multimode dispersion
A light pulse launched into a fiber
broadens as it propagates down the
fiber because of the different times
taken by different rays or modes to
propagate through the fiber. This is
known as intermodal dispersion.

As shown on the figure, the path

length of ray 1 is longer than that of
ray 3 and, therefore, the fraction of
the incident pulse carried by ray 3
arrives earlier than that by ray 1,
leading to pulse broadening.
Cont…
Let us now estimate the pulse
width at the output end
ACB can be imagined as one
unit cell. Let the fiber length L
be composed of N such unit
cells.
The ray which makes an
angle 𝜙 =𝜋 ∕2 propagates almost
along the axis and takes the
shortest time
The time taken by a ray with
angle 𝜙in the interval
[𝜙c,𝜋∕2]is somewhere in
between shortest and maximum
time.
Cont…
Fig: The pulse train at (a) fiber
input and (b) fiber output.
The pulse width at the output
end is ΔT and if the bit rate is
B, then the interval between
bits is given by
TB=1/B
And To avoid intersymbol
interference, the pulse width
ΔT<=TB
Eq. (BL<=c*n2/n1^2*delta) provides the maximum bit
rate–distance product possible for multi-moded fibers.
we see that the product BLcan be maximized by decreasing
Δ, but from Eq. (n1*sqrt(2*delta), we see that it leads to a
reduction in NA, which is undesirable since it lowers the
power launched to the fiber.
So, there is a trade-off between power coupling efficiency
and the maximum achievable bit rate–distance product.
From a practical standpoint, it is desirable to reduce the
delay ΔT.
From Eq. ((n1^2*L*delta)/c*n2), we see that the delay ΔT
increases linearly with fiber length L. The quantity ΔT∕L is a
measure of intermodal dispersion.
 Example
Solution
1.) Consider a multi-mode
fiber with n1=1.46,Δ=0.01,
and fiber length L=1km.
Find pulse width(ΔT)
Graded Index Multi Mode Fibers
 Cont…
Where a is the core radius,n2
is the cladding index, n1 is
the core index at
r=0,Δ=(n1−n2)∕n1 and 𝛼
determines the index profile.
When 𝛼=2, such a profile is
called a parabolic index
profile.
When 𝛼=∞, we get a step-
index profile.
A rigorous mathematical
calculation shows that, if
• 𝛼=2(1− Δ)(≈2), the pulse
width, ΔT, is a minimum and
is given by
Ray Trajectory Of Graded index fibers
 Cont…
we see that the pulse broadening is proportional to Δ in step-index
fibers whereas it is proportional to Δ^2 in graded-index fibers (with
𝛼=2(1−Δ)).
SinceΔ≪1, pulse broadening can be significantly reduced using
graded-index fibers.
In the case of graded-index fibers, the axial ray is confined mostly
to the core center (because it undergoes total internal reflection
closer to the center of the core due to the higher refractive index)
and travels slowly because of the higher refractive index.
The off-axis ray travels faster because it passes through the region
of lower refractive index. But it has to travel a longer zig-zag path
So, the arrival time difference between these rays could be smaller.
 Example

Solution
Compare pulse width for step
Delta=(n1-n2)/n1
index fiber with that of a
For step index fiber
parabolic index DeltaT=n1^2*L*delta/
c*n2=67.58ns
fiber.L=1km,n1=1.47 n2=1.45 For parabolic index fiber
DeltaT=(n1^2*delta^2*L)/
8*c=.1133ns
Conduit fiber optic cable procedure
Cont…
Direct buried F.O. cable
Cont….