Considerations with

Optical Sources
 Physical dimensions to suit the
fiber  9 µm core diameter
 Narrow radiation pattern (low
beam width)  to launch enough
light into low NA fiber
 Adequate output power  to go
further without repeaters
 Fast response time (wideband) 
for high speed links
 Considerations …

 Narrow spectral width (or line width)  to

reduce ___________ ?
 Ability for direct modulation by varying
driving current  output light varies with
injected current
 Linearity (output light power proportional to
driving current)  important for analog
systems
 Considerations…

 Stability  LED better than LASER

 Driving circuit issues  impedance
matching
 Reliability and cost

In practical terms, spectral width is a measure of tunability of

the LD as you vary injection current and temperature. This is
quite useful in experiments (say atomic physics with alkali
atoms). The linewidth is related to the phase noise of laser. It is
very complicated to derive the linewidth from first principles.
 Solid State (Semiconductor)
Light Sources
 Considering all these factors following SLS
are used in fiber optics
 Light Emitting Diode (LED)  Forward biased
PN junction
 LASER  LED with stimulated emission to
provide (1) low line width (2) low beam width
(3) high bandwidth (4) high power and (5)
coherent light
Coherent light sources are those that emit a light wave with the
same frequency, wavelength, and phase, or have a constant
phase difference.
 Theory of Operation
 A PN junction (that consists of direct band gap
semiconductor materials) acts as the active or
recombination region
 When the PN junction is forward biased, electrons
and holes recombine either radiatively (emitting
photons) or non-radiatively (emitting heat). This is
simple LED operation.
 In an LASER, the photon is further processed in a
resonance cavity to achieve a coherent, highly
directional optical beam with narrow linewidth
 Energy-Bands

In a pure Gp. IV material, equal number of holes and electrons

exist at different energy levels.
 n-type material

Adding group V impurity will create an n- type material

(more electrons than holes)
 p-type material

Adding group III impurity will create a p-type material

 Light Emission

 Basic LED operation: When an electron

jumps from a higher energy state (Ec) to a
lower energy state (Ev) the difference in
energy Ec- Ev is released either
 as a photon of energy E = h (radiative
recombination)
 as heat (non-radiative recombination)
 The Light Emitting Diode (LED)

 For fiber-optics, the LED should have a

high radiance (light intensity), fast response
time and a high quantum efficiency
 Emitted wavelength depends on band gap
energy Eg
 Eg depends on the type of material (ratio
between them)
hc
1.24
Eg  h   eV
  ( m)
 Physical Design

 Double hetero structure is used to improve

light output (2 p type and 2 n type)
 Each region shall also have the right
refractive index to guide the light (optical
property)
 Light is confined in the active region (high
ref. index) due to waveguide operation
 LED Spectral Width

Generally LED is a broadband light source (125 nm)

Edge emitting LED’s have slightly narrow line width
 Quantum Efficiency
Internal quantum efficiency is the ratio
between the radiative recombination rate and
the sum of radiative and non-radiative
recombination rates
int  Rr /( Rr  Rnr )
For exponential decay of excess carriers, the
radiative recombination lifetime is n/Rr and
the non-radiative recombination lifetime is
n/Rnr
 Internal Quantum Efficiency
If the current injected into the LED is I, then
the total number of recombination per second
is,
Rr+Rnr = I/q where, q is the charge of an
electron. That is, Rr = intI/q.
Since Rr is the total number of photons
generated per second, the optical power
generated internal to the LED depends on the
internal quantum efficiency
 External Efficiency

 Not all the light internally generated exits the

LED
 The actual light output depends on the
optical properties of the active region and
surrounding material as well as incident
angle of light
 Fresnel Reflection and
Transmission Coefficients

 At the surface of any two material with n1

and n2 ref indices, there will be F. Loss
Fresnel Loss = -10 Log (T)
2
 n1  n2 
R     Reflection Coefficien t
 n1  n2  R T 1
4n1n2
T  Transmission Coefficien t
(n1  n2 ) 2
 External Efficiency
n2
n1
Light
emission
cone

External Efficiency for air Optical Power Emitted

n2=1, n1 = n
1.24
ext  1 P0  intext I
n(n  1) 2  ( m)
Half Power Beam Width (θ1/2)

 The angle at
which the power
is half of its peak
value
B(1/ 2 )  Bo /2
 L = 1 For
Lambertian
source
B( )  Bo Cos L ( )
 3-dB bandwidths

P( f )  Po / 1  (2f ) 2

Optical Power  I(f); Electrical Power  I2(f)

Electrical Loss = 2 x Optical Loss

 Drawbacks of LED
 Large line width (30-40 nm) (large
material dispersion)
 Large beam width (Low coupling to the fiber)
 Low output power
 Spontaneous emission (random polarization,
phase, direction etc.)
 Advantages
 Robust, Reliable and Linear
 The LASER
 The LASER is designed to overcome the limitation of
the LED.
 LASER: Light Amplification by ‘Stimulated
Emission’ and Radiation
 Here, the pumped active medium acts as an amplifier
where, emitted photons stimulate more photon
emission.
 A positive Feedback is obtained by placing some kind
of reflector (mirror/filter) in both sides of the optical
resonator.
 The resonator only allows certain modes to exist
 Laser Operation
 Stimulated emission results in:
 Coherent light (in-phase)
 Narrow beam width (very focused beam)
 High output power (amplification)
 Narrow line width because only few wavelength will
experience a positive feedback and get amplified
(optical filtering)
 Stimulated emission will exceed absorption only
if the population of the excited states is greater
than that of the round state  Population
Inversion.
 Stimulated and Spontaneous
Emission

Energy Random Coherent

absorbed from release of release of
the incoming energy energy
photon
 Fundamental Lasing Operation

 Absorption: An atom in the ground state might

absorb a photon emitted by another atom, thus
making a transition to an excited state.
 Spontaneous Emission: random emission of a
photon, which enables the atom to relax to the
ground state (happens in LED).
 Stimulated Emission: An atom in an excited state
might be stimulated to emit a photon by another
incident photon (only happens in LASER).
 In Stimulated Emission incident
and stimulated photons will have

 Identical energy  Identical wavelength

(λ)  Narrow line width
 Identical direction  Narrow beam width
 Identical phase  Coherence and
 Identical polarization
Stimulated Emission
Fabry-Perot Laser
(resonator) cavity
Mirror Reflections
Fabry Perot Resonator
Modal Separation
How a Laser Works
Multimode Laser Output
Spectrum (Center Wavelength)

Mode
Separation g(λ)

Longitudinal
Modes
 Single and Multi Mode Lasers

 The mirror in the Fabry Perot Laser is not

wavelength selective. Hence multiple modes
may exist
 Wavelength selective feedback structures
such as Bragg Grating will result in single
mode lasers such as DFB
 Distributed Feedback Laser
(Single Mode Laser)

The optical feedback is provided by fiber Bragg Gratings

 Only one wavelength get positive feedback
 Fiber Bragg Grating
This an optical notch band reject filter
DFB Output Spectrum
Laser P-I Characteristics (Static)

External Efficiency
Depends on the slope

Threshold Current
Temperature Dependency of
Laser Threshold
 Modulation of Optical Sources

 Optical sources can be modulated either

directly or externally.
 Direct modulation is done by modulating the
driving current according to the message
signal (digital or analog)
 In external modulation, the laser is emits
continuous wave (CW) light and the
modulation is done in the fiber
 Why Modulation
 A communication link is established by transmission
of information reliably
 Optical modulation is embedding the information on
the optical carrier for this purpose Unipolar Signaling
 The information can be digital (1,0) or analog (a
continuous waveform)
 The bit error rate (BER) is the performance measure
in digital systems 10-9 or 10-12
 The signal to noise ratio (SNR) is the performance
measure in analog systems
 Types of Optical Modulation
 Direct modulation is done by superimposing
the modulating (message) signal on the driving
current
 External modulation, is done after the light is
generated; the laser is driven by a dc current
and the modulation is done after that
separately
 Both these schemes can be done with either
digital or analog modulating signals
 Direct Modulation

 The message signal (ac) is superimposed on the

bias current (dc) which modulates the laser
 Robust and simple, hence widely used
 Issues: laser resonance frequency, chirp, turn on
delay, clipping and laser nonlinearity
 Direct Analog Modulation
LED LASER

I  IB
'
B
I  I B  I th
'
B

Modulation index (depth) m  I I '

B
Optical
Laser Digital Modulation
Power
(P) P(t)
Ith
I1

I2
t
Current (I)
I(t)

 I 2  I1 
t d   sp ln  
 I 2  I th 
t
 Turn on Delay (lasers)
 When the driving current suddenly jumps from
low (I1 < Ith) to high (I2 > Ith) , (step input),
there is a finite time before the laser will turn
on
 This delay limits bit rate in digital systems
 Can you think of any solution?

 I 2  I1 
t d   sp ln  
 I 2  I th 
 I2
 Input current
 Assume step input
I1

 Electron density
 steadily increases until
threshold value is
reached

Turn
 Output optical power on Resonance Freq.
Delay (fr)
 Starts to increase only
(td)
after the electrons reach
the threshold
Frequency Response of a Laser
Resonance
Frequency
(fr) limits the
highest
possible
modulation
frequency

Useful Region
Laser Analog
Modulation
P(t)

P(t )  Pt [1  ms(t )]
Here s(t) is the modulating signal,
P(t): output optical power
Pt: mean value S(t)
 The Modulated Spectrum

Twice the RF frequency

Two sidebands each separated by modulating frequency

 Limitations of Direct
Modulation
 Turn on delay and resonance frequency are the two
major factors that limit the speed of digital laser
modulation
 Saturation and clipping introduces nonlinear
distortion with analog modulation (especially in
multi carrier systems)
 Nonlinear distortions introduce second and third
order intermodulation products
 Chirp: Laser output wavelength drift with
modulating current is also another issue
Temperature dependency of
the laser is another issue
 External Optical Modulation

 Modulation and light generation are separated

 Offers much wider bandwidth  up to 60 GHz
 More expensive and complex
 Used in high end systems
 Mach-Zehnder Modulator
 Most common modulator in telecommunications
 Modulation is based on the phase difference
between two arms. If the difference is:
 0, ±π, ±3π, ±5π… destructive interference ‘1’
 ±2π, ±4π, ±6π… constructive interference ‘0’
 Other values  analog modulation
 Optical Phase External
Modulators (LiNiO3)
 Ref. index of
the optical
waveguide
changes
depending on
the applied
electric field
 This introduces
a phase shift