Unit Iii

UNIT - III
FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND COUPLING
1
2
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, Lencing
schemes, Fiber – to - Fiber joints, Fiber splicing -Signal to
Noise ratio , Detector response time.
3
3.1 Direct and indirect Band gap materials
3.2 Light-Emitting diodes:
3.2.1 LED structures
3.2.2 Light source materials
3.2.3 Quantum efficiency and LED power
3.2.4 Modulation of an LED
3.3 Laser Diodes
3.3.1 Laser Diode Modes and Threshold condition
3.3.2 Rate equations
3.3.3 External Quantum efficiency
3.3.4 Resonant frequencies
3.3.5 Laser Diodes – Structures and Radiation patterns
3.3.6 Temperature effects
4
3.4 Introduction to Quantum lasers

3.5 Fiber amplifiers
3.5.1 Introduction
3.5.2 Classification of optical amplifiers
3.5.3 General applications of optical amplifiers
3.5.4 Amplification mechanism
3.5.5 Semiconductor optical amplifiers
3.5.5.1 Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA)
3.5.5.2 Travelling-wave Amplifier (TWA)
5
3.6 Power Launching and coupling

3.6.1 Introduction
3.6.2 Source-to-fiber power launching:
3.6.3 Lencing schemes for coupling improvement
3.6.3.1 Introduction
3.6.3.2 Lensing schemes
3.6.3.3 Nonimaging microsphere
3.6.3.4 Laser Diode-to-fiber coupling
6
3.6.4 Fiber–to-Fiber joints

3.6.4.2 Mechanical misalignment
3.6.4.3 Fiber related losses
3.6.4.4 Fiber end-face preparation
3.6.5 Fiber splicing

3.6.5.2 Splicing techniques
3.6.5.3 Splicing single mode fibers
7
3.7 Signal to Noise ratio
3.8 Detector response time
3.8.1 Depletion layer photo current
3.8.1.1 Total current density
3.8.2 Response time
3.8.2.1 Transit time
3.8.2.2 Diffusion time
3.8.2.3 RC time constant
8
DIRECT AND INDIRECT BAND GAP MATERIALS
For electron transitions, to or from the conduction

band with the absorption or emission of a photon,
respectively, both energy and momentum must be
conserved.
Although a photon can have considerable energy, its
momentum hv /c is very small.
Semiconductors classification depending on the shape

of the band gap as a function of the momentum k, as
shown in Fig.
Direct-band-gap materials
Indirect-bandgap materials
9
Figure: Electron recombination and the associated photon emission for a direct-band-gap material
10
Consider the recombination of an electron and hole

accompanied by the emission of a photon.
The simplest and most probable recombination
process is that the electron and hole have the same
momentum value (Fig. a).
This is a direct-band-gap material.
11
Figure: Electron recombination for indirect-band-gap materials

requires a phonon of energy Eph and momentum kph
12
For indirect-band-gap materials, the conduction band

minimum and the valence band maximum energy
levels occur at different values of momentum, as
shown in Fig. b.
Here, the band-to-band recombination must involve a
third particle to conserve momentum, since the photon
momentum is very small.
Phonons (i.e., crystal lattice vibrations) serve this

purpose.
13
3.2 Light-Emitting diodes:

3.2.1. LED structures
3.2.2. Light source materials
3.2.3. Quantum efficiency and LED power
3.2.4. Modulation of an LED
14
LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES
High Radiance
High radiances are necessary to couple sufficiently
high optical power levels into a fiber.
Radiance (brightness) is a measure of the optical
power radiated into a unit solid angle per unit area of the
emitting surface. Its unit is watts.
Quantum efficiency
It is related to the fraction of injected electron hole
pairs that recombine radiatively.
To achieve high quantum efficiency the LED structure
must provide carrier and optical confinement.
15
 To achieve high radiance and high quantum efficiency, the LED
structure must provide confining of
charge carriers and
stimulated optical emission
to the active region of the pn junction where radiative
recombination takes place.
 Carrier confinement is used to achieve a high level of radiative
recombination in the active region of a device, which yields
high quantum efficiency.
 Optical confinement: It is important to prevent the absorption
of the emitted radiation by the material surrounding pn
junction.
16
Emission response time

The emission response time is the time delay between
the application of current pulse and the onset of optical
emission.
17
SOURCES – LED (Double Hetero Structure LED)
18
19
20
21
22
SOURCES – LED (Surface emitter LED)
23
SOURCES – LED (Edge emitter LED)
24
Laser Diodes – Structures and Radiation patterns
Laser Diode Structure & Radiation Pattern
Efficient operation of a laser diode requires
reducing the number of lateral modes
stabilizing the gain for lateral modes as well as lowering the
threshold current.
These are met by structures that confine the
optical wave,
carrier concentration and
current flow
in the lateral direction.
The important types of laser diodes are:
Gain-induced, positive index guided, and negative index
25
guided.
Figure: Structure of a LASER Diode
26
Figure: Key processes of Laser action
27
28
Structure used to achieve optical wave confinement of
Laser:
Gain – Guided laser
Index – Guided laser
29
Gain – Guided laser
A narrow electrodes stripe less than 8m wide runs along
the length of the diode
The injection of electrons and holes into the device alters
the refractive index of the active layer directly below the
stripe.
The profile of these injected carriers creates a weak,
complex waveguide that confines light laterally this type
of device is commonly referred as Gain – Guided laser
It can emit 100 milliwatts of optical power.
It have strong instabilities.
It produce a two peaked beams.
30
(a) gain-induced guide (b) positive-index waveguide (c) negative-index waveguide

Electrons injected via a metallic The positive-index waveguide The negative-index waveguide
stripe contact alter the index of has a higher refractive index in has a lower refractive index in
refraction of the active layer the central portion of the active the central portion of the active
region. region
31
Figure: Three fundamental structures for confining optical waves in the lateral direction.
Index Guided Laser:-
The variations in the real refractive index of the various
materials control the lateral modes in the laser.
These devices are called index Guided laser.
It can have either positive index or negative index wave
confining structure.
In a positive index the central region has high refractive
index than the outer region
just as core cladding interface at optical fiber.
In a negative – index waveguide, the central region of the
active layer has a lower refractive index than the outer
regions.
32
At the dielectric boundaries,
part of the light is reflected and the rest is refracted into the
surrounding material i.e., part of the optical signal is lost.
This radiation lose appears in the far–field radiation
pattern as narrow side lobes to the main beam
Since the fundamental mode in this device has less

radiation loss than any other mode, it is the first to lase.
The positive – index laser is more popular of these two

structures.
33
Index Guided laser - four fundamental structures
Buried hetero structure
Selectively diffused
a varying thickness
a bent – layer configuration
34
Buried hetero structure
Figure: Buried heterostructure laser diodes
35
A narrow mesa stripe is etched in double heterostructure
material.
The mesa is embedded in high-resistivity lattice-matched
n-type material with an appropriate band gap and low
refractive index.
This material may be
GaAlAs in 800-to-900-nm lasers with GaAs active layer.
InP for 1300-to-16000-nm lasers with an InGaAsP active
layer.
This configuration strongly traps the generated light in a
lateral guide.
36
Figure: Positive index optical-wave-confining structures
Selectively diffused Varying-thickness Bent-layer types
37
Selectively diffused
A chemical dopant (such as: Zinc for GaAlAs lasers and
Cadmium for InGaAlAs lasers) is diffused into the active
layer, below the metal contact stripe. (Fig a)
 The dopant changes the Refractive Index of the active
layer to form a lateral waveguide channel.
38
Varying-thickness
 A channel is etched into the substrate.
 Layers of crystal substrate regrown into the channel using Liquid phase
epitaxy method.
 It creates variations in the thicknesses of the active and confining layers.
 When an optical layer meets a local increase in the thickness, as shown in
fig b, the thicker area acts as positive-index waveguide of higher-index
material.
39
Bent-layer types
A Mesa (steep edge) is etched into the substrate. (Fig c)
Semiconductor material layers are grown onto this
structure using vapor-phase epitaxy process.
It will exactly reproduce the mesa configuration.
The active layer has a constant thickness with lateral
bends.
If an optical wave travels along the flat top of the mesa in
the active area, the lower index material (outside the
bends) confines the light along this lateral channel.
40
Laser Diodes – Structure used to achieve carrier confinement
Figure: Four basic methods for achieving current confinement in laser diodes
(a) Preferential-dopant diffusion; (b) Proton implantation,
(c) Inner-stripe confinement, (d) Regrowth of back-biased pn junctions
41
Preferential-dopant diffusion
Partially diffusing a p-type dopant (Zn or Cd) through an
n-type capping layer establishes a narrow path for current.
Because, the back-biased pn junctions block the current
outside the diffused region.
42
Proton implantation
It crates regions of high resistivity.
It will restrict the current to a narrow path between these
regions.
43
Inner-stripe confinement
It grows the lasing structure above a channel etched into
planar material.
44
Regrowth of back-biased pn junctions

Back-biased pn junctions restrict the current on both sides
of the channel.
When the active layer is discontinuous (due to regrowth)
current can be blocked on both sides of the mesa by
growing pn junctions tat are reverse biased when the
device is operating.
45
Temperature effects
Figure: Example of a bias circuit the feedback stabilization of laser output power.
46
Introduction to Quantum laser
 The active layer of double-heterostructure laser is (1-3 ) to confine electrons
and the optical field, but electronic and optical properties remain same as in
the bulk material.
 The carrier motion normal to the active layer in these devices is restricted,
which result in a quantization of the energy levels.
 They have the following limitations
 Modulation speed
 Line width of the device and
 Threshold current density
 Quantum-well lasers overcome these limitations by having an active layer
thickness around 10nm.
 This changes the electronic and optical properties dramatically, because the
dimensionality of the free electron motion is reduced from three to two
dimensions.
47
Single quantum-well Laser (SQL):
 Both Single Quantum-Well (SQW), corresponding to a
single active region and Multi Quantum-Well (MQW)
corresponding to multiple active regions, lasers have been
fabricated.
Figure: Energy band diagram of single quantum-well laser

48
Multiple Quantum-Well (MQW) lazer:
 The parameters – represents the allowed energy-level
transitions which lead to photo emission.
 In the structure, the layers separating the active regions are
called barrier layers.
 The MQW laser have a better optical-mode confinement, which
results in a laser threshold current density. The wavelength of
the output light can be changed by adjusting the layer thickness.
Figure: Multi Quantum-Well laser

49
 Modified Multiquantum-Well (MMQW) laser:
Figure: Energy band diagram of Modified Multi Quantum-Well (MMQW) laser.
 When the band gap energy of the barrier layer differ from the cladding layer
in a MQW device it is usually referred to as a modified multiquantum-well
laser.
 Better confinement of the optical mode is obtained in MQW lasers in

comparison with SQW lasers, resulting in a lower threshold current density
for these devices.
 A substantial amount of experimental work has been carried out on MQW
50 lasers using the AlGaAs/GaAs material system.
Advantages of Quantum-Well lasers:

 Quantum-Well lasers exhibits an inherent advantage
over conventional DH devices are,
Allow high gain at low carrier density, thus providing the
possibility of significantly lower threshold currents.
Narrow line widths.
Higher modulation speeds.
Lower frequency chirp, and
Less temperature dependence.
51
Fiber amplifiers
Repeaters for 100 km distance once.
Repeater: receive and amplify the transmitted signal to
its original intensity and then it is passed onto the main
fiber.
Amplification:
This amplification was done
by conversion of optical signal into electrical
signal, and
amplification by electrical amplifiers, and
then reconversion of electrical signal into optical
signal.
52
Fiber amplifiers
Drawbacks of amplifiers:
Increases the cost and complexity of the optical
communication system
Reduces the operational bandwidth of the system.
So now the Optical amplifiers are used.
53
Fiber amplifiers
Advantages of Optical amplifiers:
Optical amplifiers directly amplify the optical signal
without any conversion.
So the cost and complexity of the devices has been
reduced.
Operational bandwidth of the system is utilized effectively.
54
Fiber amplifiers
Classification of optical amplifiers
55 Note: All optical amplifiers increase the power level of incident light through a stimulated emission process .
Fiber amplifiers - General applications of optical amplifiers
In-line Optical Amplifiers:
Figure: In-line amplifier to increase transmission distance
56
In-line Optical Amplifiers:

 In a single-mode link, the effects of fiber dispersion may be
small.
 Such a link does not necessarily require a complete
regeneration of the signal.
 So, a simple amplification of the optical signal at periodic
locations along the transmission path is sufficient.
 This function is known as in-line amplification.
 Thus, an optical amplifier can be used

 to compensate for transmission loss, and
 to increase the distance between regenerative repeaters
 as the Figure illustrates.
57
Preamplifier:
Figure: Fiber Preamplifier
58
Fiber amplifiers
Preamplifier:
Optical amplifier being used as a front-end preamplifier
for an optical receiver.
Thereby a weak optical signal is amplified before the
photodetection process.
So that, the signal-to-noise ratio degradation caused by
thermal noise in the receiver electronics can be
suppressed.
Compared with other front-end devices such as avalanche
photodiodes or optical heterodyne detectors, an optical
preamplifier provides a larger gain factor and a broader
bandwidth.
59
Fiber amplifiers
Power (booster)amplifier:
Placing an amplification device immediately after the
optical transmitter.
It boosts to the light level right at the beginning of a fiber
link.
This is known as a postamplifier (called post since it
comes after the transmitter)
It serves to increase the transmission distance by 10 to
100 km depending on the amplifier gain and fiber loss.
As an example, using this boosting technique together
with an optical preamplifier at the receiving end can
enable continuous underwater transmission distances of
60 200 to 250 km.
Fiber amplifiers
Power (booster)amplifier:
Figure: Power (booster) amplifier
61
Fiber amplifiers
LAN Booster amplifier:
One of the application of an optical amplifier in a local
area network,.
Booster amplifier to compensate for coupler–insertion
loss and power splitting loss.
Figure: LAN Booster amplifier
62
Fiber amplifiers - Amplification mechanism
Figure: Basic operation of a generic optical amplifier.
63
All optical amplifiers increase the power level of incident
light through a process of stimulated emission of
radiation.
The stimulated emission occurs when some external

stimulant, such as a signal photon, causes an excited
electron sitting at a higher energy level to drop to the
ground state.
The photon emitted in this process has the same energy

(i.e., the same wavelength) as the incident signal photon
and is in phase with it.
64
This means their amplitudes add to produce a brighter
light.
For stimulated emission to occur, there must be a
population inversion of carriers, which means that there
are more electrons in an excited state than in the ground
state.
Since this is not a normal condition, population inversion

is achieved by supplying external energy to boost (pump)
electrons to a higher energy level.
65
The “pumping” techniques can be optical or electrical.
Here the device absorbs energy supplied from an external
optical or electrical source called the pump.
The pump supplies energy to electrons in an active

medium, which raises them to higher energy levels to
produce a population inversion.
An incoming signal photon will trigger these excited

electrons to drop to lower levels through a stimulated
emission process, thereby producing an amplified signal.
66
One of the most important parameters of an optical amplifier
is the signal gain or amplifier gain G, which is defined as
Pout
G
Pin
where Pin and Pout are the input and output powers,
respectively, of the optical signal being amplified.
The gain generally is measured under small-signal

conditions (with Pout < 0 dBm) and is expressed in decibel
units as
G dB  Pout dBm  Pin dBm
where the input and output powers are given in dBm units.
67
Fiber amplifiers - Semiconductor optical amplifiers
Semiconductor laser amplifiers are usually classified
according to their facet reflectivity.
Figure: Schematic diagram of a typical semiconductor laser amplifier.
68
Figure shows a schematic diagram of a typical

semiconductor laser amplifier.
Here I is the bias current, and RI and RZ are the facet
reflectivities.
In general the gain of the optical input signal depends
on the
.
The two major types of SLAs are
the nonresonant, traveling-wave amplifier (TWA) and
the resonant, Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA).
69
Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are based on the

same technology as laser diodes.
In fact, an SOA is essentially an InGaAsP laser that is
operating below its threshold point.
The attractiveness of this is that SOAs can operate in every
fiber wavelength band extending from 1280 nm in the O-
band to 1650 nm in the U-band.
70
Limitation of an SOA
Limitation of an SOA is that its rapid carrier response
causes the gain at a particular wavelength to fluctuate
with the signal rate for bit rates up to several gigabits per
second.
Since the gain at other wavelengths also fluctuates, this
gives rise to crosstalk effects when a broad spectrum of
wavelengths must be amplified.
As a result, the SOA is not highly suitable for WDM
applications.
71
Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA)

The fabry-parot amplifier bandwidth is less than
10GHz. So that, they are unsuitable for optical
communication.
The FPA is basically a conventional laser diode which
is biased just below the threshold level.
Although FPAs are easy to fabricate, the optical signal
gain is very sensitive to variations in amplifier
temperature and input optical frequency.
Thus they require very careful stabilization of
temperature and injection current.
72
Travelling-wave Amplifier (TWA)

The input light gets amplified only one during a single
pass through the TWA.
Here, the bandwidth is increased by reducing the
reflection feedback from the end facets. This is
achieved by anti-reflection coating to the facets.
TWAs have been used more widely than FDAs due to
its
Large optical bandwidth
High saturation power, and
Low polarization sensitivity
 They are used in network applications.
73
Power Launching and coupling - Introduction
Introduction
 In an optical fiber link, the two major system criteria are
 How to launch optical power into a fiber from luminescent source, and
 How to couple optical power form one fiber into another.
 Coupling efficiency:
 It can be defined as a measure of the amount of optical power emitted from a
source that can be coupled into a fiber.
PF

where, PS
PF - Power coupled into fiber, and
PS- Power emitted from light source
The launching or coupling efficiency or coupling efficiency depends on the type

74 of fiber that is attached to the sources and on the coupling process.
Power Launching and coupling - Flylead (or) Pigtail
Flylead (or) Pigtail:

Many source suppliers offer devices with a short length of
optical fiber (1m or less) already attached in an optimum
power-coupling configuration.
This section of fiber is generally referred to as a flylead or
pigtail.
The flylead sources reduce many power-launching problems
and make the coupling easier.
75
Power Launching and coupling - Source-to-fiber power launching
Source-to-fiber power launching:

An useful measure of the optical output of a luminescent
source is Radiance.
Radiance:
 Radiance is the optical power radiated into a unit solid angle per
unit emitting surface area.
 Specified in terms of watts per square centimeter per steradian.
The launching of optical power from a source into fiber
depends on
 Numerical aperture
 Core size
 Refractive index profile
 Core cladding between source and fiber, and
 Wave length
76
Power Launching and coupling - Lensing schemes for coupling improvement
Introduction
 Law of brightness:
 If a source emitting area is larger than the fiber core area - Maximum
coupling achieved.
 This is a result of fundamental energy and radiance conversion principles
(also known as the law of brightness).
 But, if the source emitting area is smaller than the fiber core area, a
miniature lens may be placed between the source and the fiber to
improve the power coupling efficiency.
 The function of this lens is to magnify the source emitting area to match
exactly the core area of the fiber end face.
 If the emitting area is increased by a magnification factor M, the solid
angle within which optical power is coupled to the fiber is increased by
the same factor.
77
 Lensing schemes
78 Figure: Examples of possible lensing schemes used to improve source-to-fiber coupling efficiency.
Lensing schemes
 Figure shows several possible lensing schemes.
 These include
 a rounded fiber end
 a small glass sphere that is in contact with both the fiber and the source
 a larger spherical lens used to image the source on the core area of the
fiber end face
 a cylindrical lens that might be formed from a short section of fiber
 a combination of a spherical-surfaced source and a spherical-ended fiber
and
 a taper-ended fiber.
 A popular method is to fabricate a miniature lens on the end of
a fiber to improve the light coupling efficiency.
79
 Lensing schemes:
 Rounded-end fiber
 The fiber itself rounded known end fiber. Here, whole radiation from
LED emitting area is incident fully on the fiber and surface.
 Non-imaging microsphere
 A small glass sphere (Non-imaging microsphere) is contact with both the
fiber and the source.
 Imaging sphere
 A large spherical lens is used to image the source on the core-area of the
source.
 Cylindrical lens
 Cylindrical lenses are generally formed from a short section of fiber.
 Spherical-surface LED and Spherical-ended fiber
 Tapper-ended fiber
80
Lensing schemes:
If the width of the ended fiber is equal to width of the
emitting surface of the LED, the maximum coupling
efficiency is achieved.
All the above techniques can improve the source-to-fiber
coupling efficiency, they also create additional complexities.
One problem is that the lens is similar to the source and

fiber-core dimensions, which introduces fabrication and
handling difficulties.
In case of the taper ended fiber, the mechanical alignment
must be carried out with greater precision.
81
Problems in lensing:
 These techniques improves the source-to-fiber coupling
efficiency.
 But they also create additional complexities as follows.
 The lens size must be similar to the source and fiber core
dimensions. It introduces fabrication and handling difficulties.
 In the taper-ended fiber, the mechanical (or ‘Spatial’)

alignment must be carried out with greater precision to improve
the efficiency.
82
Nonimaging microsphere
One of the most efficient lensing methods is the use of
a nonimaging microsphere.
Let us first examine its use for a surface emitter, as
shown in Fig.
We first make the following practical assumptions:
the spherical lens has a refractive index of about 2.0
the outside medium is air (n = 1.0), and the emitting area is
circular.
83
 To collimate the output from the LED, the emitting surface should
be located at the focal point of the lens. The focal point can be
found from the gaussian lens formula
n n' n  n'
  (1)
s q r
where
s - the object distance
q - the image distance
Note: The object and image distances are measured from the lens
surface
n - the refractive index of the lens
n' - the refractive index of the outside medium, and
84 r - the radius of curvature of the lens surface.
The following sign conventions are used with Eq. (1):

 Light travels from left to right.
 Object distances are measured as positive to the left of a vertex
and negative to the right.
 Image distances are measured as positive to the right of a vertex
and negative to the left.
 All convex surfaces encountered by the light have a positive
radius of curvature, and concave surfaces have a negative
radius.
85
Figure: Schematic diagram of an LED emitter with a microsphere lens.
86
s  f  2 RL
 Placing the LED close to the lens surface thus results in a
magnification M of the emitting area.
 This is given by the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the lens
to that of the emitting area: R 2  R  2
M   L 
L
rs
2
 rs 
 The optical power PL that can be coupled into a full aperture
angle is given by R 
2
PL  PS  L  sin 2 
 rs 
where
PS - the total output power from the LED without the lens.
87
Power Launching and coupling - coupling improvement
 For a fiber of radius a and numerical aperture NA, maximum

coupling efficiency is given by
  a 2 rS
   ( NA) 2 for  NA
 r a
max   S 
1 rS
 for  NA
a
88
Power Launching and coupling - Fiber–to-Fiber joints
Introduction
 Optical fiber link is used for both jointing and termination of
the transmission medium.
 Generally, number of intermediate fiber connections or joints is
dependent upon the link length.
 Interconnecting the fibers in a low-loss manner is the basic
requirement in any fiber optic system installation.
 The interconnections occur at

 Optical source
 Photo detector
 Intermediate points within a cable where two fibers are jointed
 Points where two cables are connected
89
Two major categories of fiber joint:

 Fiber splices:
These are permanent joints.
It is used in most of the optical fiber communication systems.
 Demountable fiber connectors or simple Connectors:
These are removable joints.
It allows easy, fast, manual coupling and uncoupling of
fibers.
90
Optical power losses at the joints depend on the

following parameter:
Input power distribution at the joint.
The length of the fiber between the optical source and the
joint.
Geometrical and waveguide characteristics of the two fiber
ends, and
Fiber end-face qualities.
91
 The optical power coupled from one fiber to another is limited by the
number of modes that can propagate in each fiber.
 For a graded-index fiber with a core radius ‘a’ a cladding index ‘n2’ with
propagation constant k  2 then the total number of modes can be found
from
 
a
M  k 2  n 2 (r )  n22 r dr
(1)
0
where, n(r )
- defines the variation in the refractive index profile of the core
92
 Fiber-to-fiber coupling efficiency ( ):
 The fraction of energy coupled from one fiber to other fiber is proportional
to the common mode volume Mcomm. (if a uniform distribution of energy over
the modes is assumed).
 The fiber-to-fiber coupling efficiency is given by
M comm
F  (4)
ME
where,
M E - the number of modes in the emitting fiber
93
94
Fiber end-face preparation
Widely used End-preparation techniques are,

Sawing
Grinding and polishing, and
Controlled fracture
Controlled-fracture procedure for fiber and preparation

95
Two examples improperly leaved fiber ends.
96
The EIA Fiber Optic Test Procedures (FOTP) 57 and 179 define
these and common end-face defects as follows.
Lip:
 This is a sharp protrusion from the edge of a cleaved fiber that prevents
the cores from coming in close contact. Excessive lip height can fiber
damage.
Rolloff:
 This rounding-off of the edge of a fiber is the opposite condition to
lipping. It is also known as breakover and can cause high insertion or
splice loss.
Chip:
 A chip is a localized fracture or break at the end of a cleaved fiber.
97
Hackle:
Figure shows this as severe irregularities across a fiber end
face.
Mist:
This is similar to hackle but much less severe.
Spiral or step:
These are abrupt changes in the end-face surface topology.
Shattering:
This is the result of an uncontrolled fracture and has no
definable cleave or surface characteristics.
98
Fiber splicing
A fiber splice is a permanent or semi-permanent joint
between two fibers.
The process of joining two fibers is called as splicing.
The splicing are used to create long optical links or in

situations where frequent connection and
disconnection are not needed.

The factors to be considered in splicing are

Geometrical difference between two fibers
 Fiber misalignments at the joint
Mechanical strength of the splice
99
Splicing techniques
The splicing techniques generally used
are
The fusion splice,
the V-groove, and
the elastic-tube splice and the rotary splice.
100
Splicing techniques
Fusion splicing of optical fibers
101
Fusion splicing of optical fibers
102
Splicing techniques
V-groove optical fiber splicing technique
103
Splicing techniques
Schematic of an elastic-tube splice
104
Splicing single mode fibers
As is the case in multimode fibers, in single-mode fibers the
lateral (axial) offset loss presents the most serious
misalignment.
This loss depends on the shape of the propagating mode.
For gaussian-shaped beams the loss between identical fibers
is   2

 d  
LSM ;LM  10 log exp     
   W   
where,
W - spot size (the mode-field radius).
d - the lateral displacement
105
For angular misalignment in single-mode

fibers, the loss at a wavelength
   n W  2  
LSM ;ang  10 logexp  2  
      
where
n2 - the refractive index of the cladding
 angular misalignment in radians
- the
W - the mode-field radius
106
For a gap s with a material if index n3 , the gap
loss for identical single-mode splices is
64n12 n32
LSM ; gap  10 log
(n1  n3 ) 4 (G 2  4)
107
Signal to Noise ratio - Photo Detector Noise
108
Noise sources
To find the interrelationship of the different types of
noises affecting the signal-to-noise ratio.
Consider the simple receiver model and its equivalent
circuit.
Figure: Simple model of photo detector and its equivalent circuit.

109
The photodiode has

a small series resistance Rs,
the total capacitance Cd [consisting of junction and packing
and capacitance], and
a bias (or load) resistor RL .(Rs<<RL, so Rs neglected)
The amplifier following the photodiode has an impact
110 capacitance Ca and a resistance Ra.
 If a modulated signal of optical power P(t) falls on the
detector,
the primary photo current iph(t) generated
q
i ph (t )  P (t )
hv
The primary current consists of a dc value Ip, which is the
average photo current due to the signal power and a signal
component ip(t).
2
For pin photodiodes, the mean square signal current is is
is2   s2, pin  i p2 (t )
where  is the variance.
111
For avalanche photodetectors,
i 2
s  2
s , APD  i (t ) M
2
p
2
Where,
M - Average statically varying avalanche gain.
I M Average value of the total multiplied output current

M 
Ip Pr imary unmultiplied photocurre nt
112
For a sinusoidally varying input signal of
modulation index m the signal component i p2 is
2
m 2
i p (t )   p 
2 2
Ip
2
where,
m - modulation index
I Variation of current about the bias po int

m 
I Bias current po int
113
Quantum (or) Shot Noise:-
The quantum (or) shot noise arises from the statistical
nature of production and collection of photoelectrons
when an optical signal is incident on a photodetector.
These statistics follow a poison process.
where, iQ2  2 q I p B M 2 F ( M )
F(M) = Noise figure
B = Band width
For pin photodiode M and F(M) are unity
114
Dark current noise:-
The dark current is the current that continues to flow
though the bias circuit of the device when no light is
incident on the photodiode.
This is a combination of bulk and surface currents.
115
Bulk dark current
 The bulk dark current iDB arises from electron and/or holes
which are thermally generated in the pn junction of the
photodiode.
 In APD, these liberated carriers also get accelerated by the
high electric field present at the pn junction, and are therefore
multiplied by the avalanche gain mechanism.
 The mean-square value of this current is given by
2
iDB  2 q I D M 2 F (M ) B
where IDB is the primary (unmultiplied) detector bulk dark
current.
116
Surface Dark Current:-
The surface dark current is also referred as a surface
leakage current or simply the leakage current.
It depends on surface defects, cleanliness, bias voltage
and surface area.
An effective way of reducing surface dark current is
through the use of a guard ring structure which shunts
surface leakage currents away from the load resistor.
The mean – square value of the surface dark current is
2
iDS  2 q IL B
where,
117 I L – surface leakage current
The total mean square photo – detector noise current
can be written as
118
Thermal Noise
The photodetector load resistor RL contributes to
thermal (Johnson) noise current
4k BT
i2
T  
2
T B
RL
kB - Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38054 X 10(-23) J/K

T - the absolute Temperature
This noise can be reduced by using a load resistor
which is large but reliable with the receiver bandwidth
requirements.
119
Signal to Noise ratio
S/N ratio at the input of the amplifier,
i p2 M 2
SNR 
2q ( I p  I D ) M 2 F ( M ) B  2qI L B  4k BTB / RL
When pin photo diodes are used, the dominating noise

currents are those of
the detector load resistor (the thermal current iT), and
the active elements of the amplifier circuiting (iamp).
For APD, the thermal noise is of lesser importance and
the photodetector noises usually dominate.
120
Detector response time
3.10 Detector response time

3.10.1 Depletion layer photo current
3.10.1.1 Total current density
3.10.2 Response time
3.10.2.1 Transit time
3.10.2.2 Diffusion time
3.10.2.3 RC time constant
121
Depletion Layer Photocurrent
Figure: Schematic representation of a reverse biased pin photodiode
122
Detector response time - Total current density
• To understand the frequency response of photodiodes
let us first see the schismatic diagram of reverse biased
pin photo diode.
Light enters the device through the p-region and
produces electron hole pair as it is absorbed in the
semiconductor materials.
Those electron-hole pairs that are generated in the
depletion region or within the diffusion length of it
will be separated by the reverse-bias-voltage-induced
electric field, thereby leading to a current flow in
external circuit as the carriers drift across the depletion
layer.
123
Total current density
 Under steady-state conditions, the total current density Jtot
flowing through the reverse biased depletion layer is
 Here,
 Jdr - the drift current density resulting from carriers generated
inside the depletion region, and
 Jdiff - the diffusion current density arising from the carriers that
are produced outside of the depletion layer in the bulk of the
semiconductor (i,e., in the n and p region) and diffuse into the
reverse biased junction .
124
The drift current density can be found from the
following Eq.
where
A is the photodiode area
Φ0 is the incident photon flux per unit area given by
125
 The surface p-layer of a pin photodiode is normally very thin.
 The diffusion current is thus principally by hole diffusion from
the bulk n region.
 The hole diffusion in this material can be determined by the
one-dimensional diffusion equation
where Dp is the whole diffusion coefficient

pn is the whole concentration in the n – type material
p
is the excess hole lifetime
pno is the equilibrium hole density
126
 G(x) is the electron hole generation rate given by
 The diffusion current density is found to be
 We have that the total current density through the reverse based
depletion layer is
 The term involving pno is normally small, so that the total

photo-generated current is proportional to the photon flux 0.
127
Detector response time - Response time
The response time of a photodiode depends on
Transit time of photo – carrier within the depletion region.
Diffusion time of photo – carrier outside the depletion
region.
RC time constant of the photodiode and its associated circuit,
The above parameters depends on the following
photodiode parameters
The absorption coefficient s,
The depletion region width w,
the photo diode junction and package capacitance,
the amplifier capacitance,
the detector load resistance amplifier input resistance, and
128
the photo diode series resistance.
Transit time:
 Let us look at the transit time of the photocarriers in the
depletion region.
 The response speed of a photodiode is limited by the time taken
by the photon generated carriers to travel across the depletion
region.
 The transit time of the photo carriers in the depletion region is
the ratio between carrier drift velocity (vd) & the depletion layer
width (w) and is given by
w
td 
vd
129
Diffusion time
 The diffusion processes are slow compared with the drift of
carriers in the high-field region.
 Therefore, to have a high-speed photodiode, the photo carriers
should be generated in the depletion region or so close to it that
the diffusion times are less than or equal to the carriers drift
times.
 The effect of long diffusion times can be seen by considering
the photodiode response time.
 This response time is described by the rise time and fall time of
the detector output when the detector is illuminated by a step
input of optical radiation.
 The rise time is typically measured from 10- to the 90- percent
130 points of the leading edge of the output pulse (Figure).
For fully depleted photodiodes the rise time and fall
time are generally the same.
 Figure: Photodiode response to an optical input pulse showing the 10 to 90

percent rise time and 90 to 10 percent fall time.
131
RC Time constant:
Figure: Photodiode pulse responses under various detector parameters.

132
 To achieve a high quantum efficiency, the depletion layer width (w) must be
much larger than 1/αs (the inverse of the absorption co-efficient). So that most
of the light will be absorbed.
 The response to a rectangular input pulse of a low-capacitance photodiode
having is shown in Figure (b).
 The rise and fall times of the photodiode follow the input pulse quite well.
 If the photodiode capacitance is larger, the response time becomes limited by
the RC time constant of the load resistor RL and the photodiode capacitance.
 The photodetector response then begins to appear as that shown in Figure (c).
 If the depletion layer is too narrow, any carriers created in the undepleted
material would have to diffuse back into the depletion region before they could
be collected.
 Devices with very thin depletion regions thus tend to show distinct slow and
fast–response components, as shown in Figure (d).
133

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UNIT - III

FIBER OPTICAL SOURCES AND COUPLING

3.4 Introduction to Quantum lasers

3.6 Power Launching and coupling

3.6.4 Fiber–to-Fiber joints

3.6.5 Fiber splicing

For electron transitions, to or from the conduction

Semiconductors classification depending on the shape

Consider the recombination of an electron and hole

Figure: Electron recombination for indirect-band-gap materials

For indirect-band-gap materials, the conduction band

Phonons (i.e., crystal lattice vibrations) serve this

3.2 Light-Emitting diodes:

Emission response time

(a) gain-induced guide (b) positive-index waveguide (c) negative-index waveguide

Since the fundamental mode in this device has less

The positive – index laser is more popular of these two

Figure: Buried heterostructure laser diodes

Laser Diodes – Structures and Radiation patterns

Selectively diffused Varying-thickness Bent-layer types

Regrowth of back-biased pn junctions

Figure: Energy band diagram of single quantum-well laser

Figure: Multi Quantum-Well laser

Figure: Energy band diagram of Modified Multi Quantum-Well (MMQW) laser.

 Better confinement of the optical mode is obtained in MQW lasers in

Advantages of Quantum-Well lasers:

So now the Optical amplifiers are used.

In-line Optical Amplifiers:

Figure: In-line amplifier to increase transmission distance

In-line Optical Amplifiers:

 Thus, an optical amplifier can be used

Figure: Fiber Preamplifier

Figure: Power (booster) amplifier

Figure: LAN Booster amplifier

Figure: Basic operation of a generic optical amplifier.

The stimulated emission occurs when some external

The photon emitted in this process has the same energy

Since this is not a normal condition, population inversion

The pump supplies energy to electrons in an active

An incoming signal photon will trigger these excited

The gain generally is measured under small-signal

Figure: Schematic diagram of a typical semiconductor laser amplifier.

Figure shows a schematic diagram of a typical

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are based on the

Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA)

Travelling-wave Amplifier (TWA)

The launching or coupling efficiency or coupling efficiency depends on the type

Flylead (or) Pigtail:

Source-to-fiber power launching:

One problem is that the lens is similar to the source and

 In the taper-ended fiber, the mechanical (or ‘Spatial’)

The following sign conventions are used with Eq. (1):

Figure: Schematic diagram of an LED emitter with a microsphere lens.

 For a fiber of radius a and numerical aperture NA, maximum

 The interconnections occur at

Two major categories of fiber joint:

Optical power losses at the joints depend on the

Widely used End-preparation techniques are,

Controlled-fracture procedure for fiber and preparation

Two examples improperly leaved fiber ends.

The splicing are used to create long optical links or in

The factors to be considered in splicing are