Loss in Fiber

Optics
Signal Attenuation & Distortion in
Optical Fibers

What are the loss or signal attenuation mechanism in a fiber?

Why & to what degree do optical signals get distorted as they propagate
down a fiber?

Signal attenuation (fiber loss) largely determines the maximum repeaterless

separation between optical transmitter & receiver.

Signal distortion cause that optical pulses to broaden as they travel along a
fiber, the overlap between neighboring pulses, creating errors in the receiver
output, resulting in the limitation of information-carrying capacity of a fiber.
Attenuation (fiber loss)
• Power loss along a fiber:

Z=0 Z= l
− p l
P(0) mW P(l ) = P(0)e mw

− p z
P( z ) = P(0)e [3-1]

p
• The parameter is called fiber attenuation coefficient in a units of for
example [1/km] or [nepers/km]. A more common unit is [dB/km] that is
defined by:
10  P(0) 
 [dB/km] = log   = 4.343 p [1 / km] [3-2]
l  P(l ) 
Fiber loss in dB/km

z=0 Z=l
P(0)[dBm]

P(l )[dBm] = P(0)[dBm] −  [dB/km]  l[km] [3-3]

• Where [dBm] or dB milliwat is 10log(P [mW]).
Absorption

Absorption is caused by three different mechanisms:

1- Impurities in fiber material: from transition metal ions

(must be in order of ppb) & particularly from OH ions with
absorption peaks at wavelengths 2700 nm, 400 nm, 950 nm &
725nm.

2- Intrinsic absorption (fundamental lower limit): electronic

absorption band (UV region) & atomic bond vibration band (IR
region) in basic SiO2.

3- Radiation defects
Scattering Loss
• Small (compared to wavelength) variation in material density, chemical
composition, and structural inhomogeneity scatter light in other directions
and absorb energy from guided optical wave.

• The essential mechanism is the Rayleigh scattering. Since the black body
radiation classically is proportional to  −4(this is true for wavelength
typically greater than 5 micrometer), the attenuation coefficient due to
Rayleigh scattering is approximately proportional to  −.4This seems to me
not precise, where the attenuation of fibers at 1.3 & 1.55 micrometer can be
exactly predicted with Planck’s formula & can not be described with
Rayleigh-Jeans law. Therefore I believe that the more accurate formula for
scattering loss is
−1
 hc 
 scat  −5 exp( )
 k B T 
h = 6.626  10 −34 Js, k B = 1.3806  10 −23 JK -1 , T : Temperatur e
Absorption &
scattering
losses in
fibers

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

Typical spectral absorption & scattering
attenuations for a single mode-fiber

• Optical Fiber communications, 3rd

ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
Bending Loss (Macrobending & Microbending)

• Macrobending Loss: The

curvature of the bend is much
larger than fiber diameter.
Lightwave suffers sever loss due
to radiation of the evanescent field
in the cladding region. As the
radius of the curvature decreases,
the loss increases exponentially
until it reaches at a certain critical
radius. For any radius a bit smaller
than this point, the losses suddenly
becomes extremely large. Higher
order modes radiate away faster
than lower order modes.

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

Microbending Loss

• Microbending Loss: microscopic bends

of the fiber axis that can arise when the
fibers are incorporated into cables. The
power is dissipated through the
microbended fiber, because of the
repetitive coupling of energy between
guided modes & the leaky or radiation
modes in the fiber.
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
Minimizing microbending losses:

A compressible jacket extruded over a fiber reduces microbending resulting from

external forces.
Dispersion in Optical Fibers
• Dispersion: Any phenomenon in which the velocity of propagation of any
electromagnetic wave is wavelength dependent.

• In communication, dispersion is used to describe any process by which any

electromagnetic signal propagating in a physical medium is degraded
because the various wave characteristics (i.e., frequencies) of the signal have
different propagation velocities within the physical medium.

• There are 3 dispersion types in the optical fibers, in general:

1- Material Dispersion
2- Waveguide Dispersion
3- Polarization-Mode Dispersion

Material & waveguide dispersions are main causes of Intramodal

Dispersion.
 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
• Single-mode fibers are relatively free from dispersion except for
intramodal dispersion
• Graded-index fibers reduce dispersion by taking advantage of higher-
order modes
• One form of intramodal dispersion is called material dispersion
because it depends upon the material of the core
• Another form of dispersion is called waveguide dispersion
• Dispersion increases with the bandwidth of the light source
Examples of Dispersion
 Dispersion & ISI

A measure of information
capacity of an optical fiber for
digital transmission is usually
specified by the bandwidth
distance product BW  L
in GHz.km.
For multi-mode step index fiber
this quantity is about 20
MHz.km, for graded index fiber
is about 2.5 GHz.km & for single
mode fibers are higher than 10
GHz.km.

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

How to characterize dispersion?
• Group delay per unit length can be defined as:

g d 1 d 2 d
= = =− [3-15]
L dω c dk 2c d

• If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, then the delay d g
difference per unit wavelength along the propagation path is approximately
d
For spectral components which are apart, symmetrical around center
wavelength, the total delay difference over a distance L is:

d g L  d 2 d  
2
 =  = −  2 + 
d 2c  d d2 
d d  L   d 2 
=  =   = L  [3-16]
d d V   d 2
 g   
 d 2
• 2  is called GVD parameter, and shows how much a light pulse
d 2
broadens as it travels along an optical fiber. The more common parameter is
called Dispersion, and can be defined as the delay difference per unit length
per unit wavelength as follows:

1 d g d  1 
 = − 2c  2
D= = [3-17]
L d d  V g 
  2

• In the case of optical pulse, if the spectral width of the optical source is
characterized by its rms value of the Gaussian pulse   , the pulse
spreading over the length of L,  g can be well approximated by:

d g
g    = DL  [3-18]
d

• D has a typical unit of [ps/(nm.km)].

Material Dispersion
Input Cladding
v g ( 1 )
Core Output
Emitter v g ( 2 )
Very short
light pulse

Intensity Intensity Intensity

Spectrum, ² 
Spread, ² 

 t t
1 o 2 0 

All excitation sources are inherently non-monochromatic and emit within a

spectrum, ² , of wavelengths. Waves in the guide with different free space
wavelengths travel at different group velocities due to the wavelength dependence
of n1. The waves arrive at the end of the fiber at different times and hence result in
a broadened output pulse.
© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)
Waveguide Dispersion
• Waveguide dispersion is due to the dependency of the group velocity of the
fundamental mode as well as other modes on the V number, (see Fig 2-18 of
the textbook). In order to calculate waveguide dispersion, we consider that n
is not dependent on wavelength. Defining the normalized propagation
constant b as:

 / k − n2
2 2 2
 / k − n2
b=  [3-21]
n1 − n2
2 2
n1 − n2

• solving for propagation constant:

  n2 k (1 + b) [3-22]

• Using V number:
V = ka(n1 − n2 )  kan2 2 [3-23]
2 2 1/ 2
Waveguide Dispersion
• Delay time due to waveguide dispersion can then be expressed as:

L d (Vb) 
 wg = n2 + n2 
dV 
[3-24]
c

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

Waveguide dispersion in single mode fibers
• For single mode fibers, waveguide dispersion is in the same order of
material dispersion. The pulse spread can be well approximated as:

d wg n2 L  d 2 (Vb)
 wg    = L  Dwg ( ) = V [3-25]
d c dV 2
Dwg ( )

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

Polarization Mode dispersion
Intensity
t
Output light pulse
z 
n1 y // y Core Ex

 = Pulse spread
Ey
Ex
n1 x // x Ey

t
E
Input light pulse

Suppose that the core refractive index has different values along two orthogonal
directions corresponding to electric field oscillation direction (polarizations). We can
take x and y axes along these directions. An input light will travel along the fiber with Ex
and Ey polarizations having different group velocities and hence arrive at the output at
different times

© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)

Polarization Mode dispersion
• The effects of fiber-birefringence on the polarization states of an optical are
another source of pulse broadening. Polarization mode dispersion (PMD)
is due to slightly different velocity for each polarization mode because of the
lack of perfectly symmetric & anisotropicity of the fiber. If the group
velocities of two orthogonal polarization modes are then the
differential time delay vgx and vover
between these two polarization gy a distance
L is   pol

L L
 pol = − [3-26]
v gx v gy

• The rms value of the differential group delay can be approximated as:

 pol  DPMD L [3-27]