Optical Sources LED FOC

Optical Sources
LEDs & LASER Diodes

Different Light Sources
• In our day-to-day lives we come across a number of

different sources of light that we have using for a very
long time.
• These may be electric bulbs, incandescent sources,
halogen lamps, etc.
• Yet all these very common sources of light do not qualify
to be used as optical sources in optical communication
system.
• There are many reasons behind this disqualification.
• Many of these everyday sources have very large
spectral widths and also they cannot be switched at
optical frequencies and, hence, cannot be modulated.
Basic and Necessary Characteristics of
Light Sources for Fiber Optic Communication
• Wavelength of Operation
• Narrow Spectral width & Tunability
• Capable of coupling enough optical energy into the optical fiber
• Ease of Coupling of the source of light to the optical fiber
• Ease to be modulate & Large modulation bandwidth
• High modulating speeds that correspond to optical frequencies
• Highly reliable & Low noise
• Rugged enough to be able to be put to field use (negligible or no variations
in the characteristics with respect to environmental factors such as
temperature, pressure, humidity etc.)
• Single longitudinal mode (For LASERs)
• Low threshold current (For LASERs)
• Size and configuration
• Cost effective
Gas Light Sources
• Gas sources produce high power optical output and have very
narrow spectral widths.
• The optical output produced by a gas source is highly directional, i.e.
the optical output has high optical intensity and optical directivity.
• An example of a gas source is a gas LASER.
• In view of the first two characteristics of an optical source, gas
sources seem to be very appropriate and promising sources to be
used as optical sources in optical communication systems.
• But, if we look from the view-point of ease of coupling and other
characteristics, these sources lag behind the semiconductor based
optical sources.
Semiconductor sources
• Semiconductor sources have low optical power output
and have large spectral widths too.
• The output power too, does not have good directivity.
• Though these sources seem to be rather unsatisfactory
with respect to the first two requirements of an optical
source, but in connection to the ease of optical coupling
and the other practical parameters, they provide us with
good quality optical sources.
• Examples of semiconductor sources may be light
emitting diodes (LEDs), injection LASER diodes (ILDs)
etc.
• In most of the practical applications, semiconductor
sources are preferred over gas sources due to the above
considerations.
Review of Semiconductor Physics
k B  1.38 1023 JK-1

a) Energy level diagrams showing the excitation of an electron from the valence band to the conduction band.
The resultant free electron can freely move under the application of electric field.
b) Equal electron & hole concentrations in an intrinsic semiconductor created by the thermal excitation of
electrons across the band gap
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
n-Type Semiconductor
a) Donor level in an n-type semiconductor.

b) The ionization of donor impurities creates an increased electron concentration distribution.

p-Type Semiconductor
a) Acceptor level in an p-type semiconductor.

b) The ionization of acceptor impurities creates an increased hole concentration distribution

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Materials
• Intrinsic material: A perfect material with no impurities.
Eg
n  p  ni  exp(  ) [4-1]
2k BT
n & p & ni are the electron, hole & intrinsic concentrations respectively.
Eg is the gap energy, T is Temperature.
• Extrinsic material: donor or acceptor type semiconductors.
pn  ni
2 [4-2]
• Majority carriers: electrons in n-type or holes in p-type.

• Minority carriers: holes in n-type or electrons in p-type.
• The operation of semiconductor devices is essentially based on
the injection and extraction of minority carriers.
The pn Junction
Electron diffusion across a pn junction

creates a barrier potential (electric field)
in the depletion region.

Reverse-biased pn Junction
A reverse bias widens the depletion region, but allows minority carriers to move freely with the applied field.

Forward-biased pn Junction
Lowering the barrier potential with a forward bias allows majority carriers to diffuse across the junction.

Energy-Band diagram of a semiconductor
Radiative & Non Radiative
Recombination
• Radiative Recombination.
• Non-Radiative Recombination.
• radiation efficiency.
How to get radiative recombination?
Direct and Indirect Band-gap Semiconductors
(DBG & IBG)
Carrier recombination resulting into radiation of
light in a pn junction
c
h  Eg
Eg  hv 
c
 h
Eg
where h is Planck’s constant,

c is the speed of the light,
Eg is the bandgap energy
Substituting the values of h and c gives
1.24

Eg
Internal & External Quantum Efficiency
1 1 1
 
 r  nr
1
ext 
n(n  1)2
Pint
LED emitted optical powr, P  ext Pint 
n1 (n1  1) 2
Coupling Efficiency of LED
The coupling efficiency ηc is given by:
 c  sin 2 a  (NA)2
LED Materials
LED Materials
Double Heterojunction LED
LED Structure
Surface-Emitting LED
Pc   (1  r ) ARD (NA)2
Edge-Emitting LED
Super Luminescent LED
LED Characteristics
(Current vs Optical Power)
LED Characteristics (Spectral width)
LED Characteristics (Temperature)
LED as Linear Modulator
Modulation BW of LED

Optical Sources LED FOC

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Optical Sources

LEDs & LASER Diodes

• In our day-to-day lives we come across a number of

k B  1.38 1023 JK-1

a) Donor level in an n-type semiconductor.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

a) Acceptor level in an p-type semiconductor.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Eg is the gap energy, T is Temperature.

• Extrinsic material: donor or acceptor type semiconductors.

• Majority carriers: electrons in n-type or holes in p-type.

Electron diffusion across a pn junction

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

where h is Planck’s constant,

The coupling efficiency ηc is given by:

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