MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO OPTICAL FIBERS

Elements of Optical Fiber communication, applications of optical fiber communication, optical fiber
waveguides, Optical Spectral bands, Optical fibre structure, Light Propagation in Optical fibres: Ray
theory, Total Internal reflection, Skew rays, Overview of Modes: Cut-off wavelength, V number, Fiber
types: SI, GI, MM, SM, Special Fibers: Polarization Maintaining fibers, Photonic Crystal fibers,
Dispersion compensated Fiber.

Elements of Optical Fiber communication:

Fig.1.1. Elements of Optical Fiber communication:

Message origin: Generally, message origin is from a transducer that converts a non-electrical message into
an electrical signal. Common examples include microphones for converting sound waves into currents and
video (TV) cameras for converting images into current. For data transfer between computers, the message is
already in electrical form.
Modulator: The modulator has two main functions. 1) It converts the electrical message into proper format.
2) It impresses this signal onto the wave generated by the carrier source. Two distinct categories of
modulation are used i.e., analog modulation and digital modulation.

Carrier source: Carrier source generates the wave on which the information is transmitted. This wave is
called the carrier. For fiber optic system, a laser diode (LD) or a light emitting diode (LED) is used. They
can be called as optic oscillators, they provide stable, single frequency waves with sufficient power for long
distance propagation.

Channel coupler: Coupler feeds the power into information channel. For an atmospheric optic system, the
channel coupler is a lens used for collimating the light emitted by the source and directing this light towards
the receiver. The coupler must efficiently transfer the modulated light beam from the source to the optic fiber.
The channel coupler design is an important part of fiber system because of possibility of high losses.

Information channel: The information channel is the path between the transmitter and receiver. In fiber
optic communications, a glass or plastic fiber is the channel. Desirable characteristics of the information
channel include low attenuation and large light acceptance cone angle. Optical amplifiers boost the power
levels of weak signals. Amplifiers are needed in very long links to provide sufficient power to the receiver.
Repeaters can be used only for digital systems. They convert weak and distorted optical signals to electrical
ones and then regenerate the original digital pulse trains for further transmission. Another important property
of the information channel is the propagation time of the waves travelling along it. A signal propagating
along a fiber normally contains a range of fiber optic frequencies and divides its power along several ray
paths. This results in a distortion of the propagation signal. In a digital system, this distortion appears as a
spreading and deforming of the pulses. The spreading is so great that adjacent pulses begin to overlap and
become unrecognizable as separate bits of information.

Optical detector: The information transmitted is detected by detector. In the fiber system the optic wave is
converted into an electric current by a photodetector. The current developed by the detector is proportional
to the power in the incident optic wave. Detector output current contains the transmitted information. This
detector output is then filtered to remove the constant bias and then amplified. The important properties of
photodetectors are small size, economy, long life, low power consumption, high sensitivity to optic signals
and fast response to quick variations in the optic power. Signal processing includes filtering, amplification.
Proper filtering maximizes the ratio of signal to unwanted power. For a digital system decision circuit is an
additional block. The bit error rate (BER) should be very small for quality communications.

Signal processing: Signal processing includes filtering, amplification. Proper filtering maximizes the ratio
of signal to unwanted power. For a digital syst5em decision circuit is an additional block. The bit error rate
(BER) should be very small for quality communications.

Message output: The electrical form of the message emerging from the signal processor is transformed into
a sound wave or visual image. Sometimes these signals are directly usable when computers or other machines
are connected through a fiber system.

Advantages of Optical fiber communication:

Optical fibers have largely replaced copper wire communications in core networks in the developed world,
because of its advantages over electrical transmission. Here are the main advantages of fiber optic
transmission.

 Extremely High Bandwidth: No other cable-based data transmission medium offers the bandwidth
that fiber does. The volume of data that fiber optic cables transmit per unit time is far great than
copper cables.
 Longer Distance: in fiber optic transmission, optical cables are capable of providing low power loss,
which enables signals can be transmitted to a longer distance than copper cables.
 Resistance to Electromagnetic Interference: in practical cable deployment, it’s inevitable to meet
environments like power substations, heating, ventilating and other industrial sources of interference.
However, fiber has a very low rate of bit error (10 EXP-13), as a result of fiber being so resistant to
electromagnetic interference. Fiber optic transmission is virtually noise free.
 Low Security Risk: the growth of the fiber optic communication market is mainly driven by
increasing awareness about data security concerns and use of the alternative raw material. Data or
signals are transmitted via light in fiber optic transmission. Therefore there is no way to detect the
data being transmitted by "listening in" to the electromagnetic energy "leaking" through the cable,
which ensures the absolute security of information.
  Small Size: fiber optic cable has a very small diameter. For instance, the cable diameter of a single
OM3 multimode fiber is about 2mm, which is smaller than that of coaxial copper cable. Small size
saves more space in fiber optic transmission.
 Light Weight: fiber optic cables are made of glass or plastic, and they are thinner than copper cables.
These make them lighter and easy to install. Easy to Accommodate
 Increasing Bandwidth: with the use of fiber optic cable, new equipment can be added to existing
cable infrastructure. Because optical cable can provide vastly expanded capacity over the originally
laid cable. And WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) technology, including CWDM and
DWDM, enables fiber cables the ability to accommodate more bandwidth.

Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Transmission

Though fiber optic transmission brings lots of convenience, its disadvantages also cannot be ignored.

 Fragility: usually optical fiber cables are made of glass, which lends to they are more fragile than
electrical wires. In addition, glass can be affected by various chemicals including hydrogen gas (a
problem in underwater cables), making them need more cares when deployed underground.
 Difficult to Install: it’s not easy to splice fiber optic cable. And if you bend them too much, they will
break. And fiber cable is highly susceptible to becoming cut or damaged during installation or
construction activities. All these make it difficult to install.
 Attenuation & Dispersion: as transmission distance getting longer, light will be attenuated and
dispersed, which requires extra optical components like EDFA to be added.
 Cost Is Higher Than Copper Cable: despite the fact that fiber optic installation costs are dropping
by as much as 60% a year, installing fiber optic cabling is still relatively higher than copper cables.
Because copper cable installation does not need extra care like fiber cables. However, optical fiber is
still moving into the local loop, and through technologies such as FTTx (fiber to the home, premises,
etc.) and PONs (passive optical networks), enabling subscriber and end user broadband access.
 Special Equipment Is Often Required: to ensure the quality of fiber optic transmission, some
special equipment is needed. For example, equipment such as OTDR (optical time-domain
reflectometry) is required and expensive, specialized optical test equipment such as optical probes
and power meter are needed at most fiber endpoints to properly provide testing of optical fiber.
Applications of optical fiber communication:

Fiber optic cables find many uses in a wide variety of industries and applications. Some uses of fiber optic
cables include:

• Medical: Used as light guides, imaging tools and also as lasers for surgeries

• Defense/Government : Used as hydrophones for seismic waves and SONAR, as wiring in aircraft,
submarines and other vehicles and also for field networking

• Data Storage: Used for data transmission

• Telecommunications: Fiber is laid and used for transmitting and receiving purposes

• Networking: Used to connect users and servers in a variety of network settings and help increase the
speed and accuracy of data transmission

• Industrial/Commercial: Used for imaging in hard-to-reach areas, as wiring where EMI is an issue, as
sensory devices to make temperature, pressure and other measurements, and as wiring in automobiles and in
industrial settings

• Broadcast/CATV: Broadcast/cable companies are using fiber optic cables for wiring CATV, HDTV,
internet, video on demand and other applications.

Fiber optic cables are used for lighting and imaging and as sensors to measure and monitor a vast array of
variables. Fiber optic cables are also used in research and development and testing across all the above-
mentioned industries The optical fibers have many applications.

Some of them are as follows –

• Used in telephone systems

• Used in sub-marine cable networks

• Used in data link for computer networks, CATV Systems

• Used in CCTV surveillance cameras

• Used for connecting fire, police, and other emergency services.

• Used in hospitals, schools, and traffic management systems.

• They have many industrial uses and also used for in heavy duty constructions.

Optical Fiber Waveguides

In free space light travels as its maximum possible speed i.e. 3 x 108 m/s. When light travels through a
material it exhibits certain behavior explained by laws of reflection, refraction.

An optical wave guide is a structure that "guides" a light wave by constraining it to travel along a
certain desired path. If the transverse dimensions of the guide are much larger than the wavelength of the
guided light, then we can explain how the optical waveguide works using geometrical optics and total
internal reflection.

A wave guide traps light by surrounding a guiding region, called the core, made from a material with
index of refraction ncore, with a material called the cladding, made from a material with index of refraction
ncladding <ncore. Light entering is trapped as long as sinθ > ncladding/nncore.
Light can be guided by planar or rectangular wave guides, or by optical fibers. An optical fiber consists
of three concentric elements, the core, the cladding and the outer coating, often called the buffer.
The core is usually made of glass or plastic. The core is the light-carrying portion of the fiber. The
cladding surrounds the core. The cladding is made of a material with a slightly lower index of refraction
than the core. This difference in the indices causes total internal reflection to occur at the core-cladding
boundary along the length of the fiber. Light is transmitted down the fiber and does not escape through
the sides of the fiber.

Optical Fiber Structure

 Fiber Optic Core:

o the inner light-carrying member with a high index of refraction.
 Cladding:
o the middle layer, which serves to confine the light to the core. It has a lower index of
refraction.
 Buffer:
o the outer layer, which serves as a "shock absorber" to protect the core and cladding from
damage. The coating usually comprises one or more coats of a plastic material to protect
the fiber from the physical environment. Sometimes metallic sheaths are added to the
coating for further physical protection.

 Light injected into the fiber optic core and striking the core-to-cladding interface at an angle
greater than the critical angle is reflected back into the core. Since the angles of incidence and
reflection are equal, the light ray continues to zigzag down the length of the fiber. The light is
trapped within the core. Light striking the interface at less than the critical angle passes into the
cladding and is lost.

 Fibers for which the refractive index of the core is a constant and the index changes abruptly at
the core- cladding interface are called step-index fibers.
Step-index fibers are available with core diameters of 100 mm to 1000 mm. They are well suited
to applications requiring high-power densities, such as delivering laser power for medical and
industrial applications.
 Multimode step-index fibers trap light with many different entrance angles, each mode in a step-
index multimode fiber is associated with a different entrance angle. Each mode therefore travels
along a different path through the fiber. Different propagating modes have different velocities.
As an optical pulse travels down a multimode fiber, the pulse begins to spread. Pulses that enter
well separated from each other will eventually overlap each other. This limits the distance
over which the fiber can transport data. Multimode step-index fibers are not well suited for data
transport and communications.

 In a multimode graded-index fiber the core has an index of refraction that decreases as the radial
distance from the center of the core increases. As a result, the light travels faster near the edge of
the core than near the center. Different modes therefore travel in curved paths with nearly equal
travel times. This greatly reduces the spreading of optical pulses.

 A single mode fiber only allows light to propagate down its center and there are no longer
different velocities for different modes. A single mode fiber is much thinner than a multimode
fiber and can no longer be analyzed using geometrical optics. Typical core diameters are between
5 mm and 10 mm.
 When laser light is coupled into a fiber, the distribution of the light emerging from the other end reveals
if the fiber is a multimode or single mode fiber.

Optical Spectral bands:

Fiber-optic communication is mainly conducted in the wavelength region where optical fibers have small
transmission loss. This low-loss wavelength region ranges from 1260 nm to 1625 nm, and is divided into
five wavelength bands referred to as the O-, E-, S-, C- and L-bands, as shown in Figure 1 and 2.

Figure 1: Transmission loss of silica fiber and optical communication wavelength bands.
Figure 2: Electromagnetic spectrum & optical communication wavelength bands.
Among these five bands, the O-band (original band: 1260-1360 nm) was historically the first wavelength

band used for optical communication, because signal distortion (due to chromatic dispersion) is minimum.

Today optical fibers show its lowest loss in the C-band, and thus is commonly used in many metro, long-

haul, ultra-long-haul, and submarine optical transmission systems combined with the Wavelength Division

Multiplexing (WDM) and Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) technologies.

The L-band is the second lowest-loss wavelength band, and is a popular choice when the use of the C-band

is not sufficient to meet the bandwidth demand. The same WDM and EDFA technologies can be applied to

the L-band. It is employed even for transoceanic submarine transmission systems.

The loss of optical fiber in the S-band (short-wavelength band: 1460-1530 nm) is lower than that of the O-

band, and the S-band is used for many PON (Passive-Optical Network) systems as the downstream

wavelength.

The E-band (extended-wavelength band: 1360-1460 nm) is the least common wavelength band among the

five. This is because the attenuation of early optical fiber in the E-band was highest among the five bands,

due to residual water (OH group) impurity remained in the glass. After the invention of dehydration technique

during glass production, the attenuation of most commonly used optical fiber (ITU-T G.652.D) in the E-band

has become lower than that in the O-band. The use of the E-band in optical communication is, nevertheless,

still limited as many existing fiber optic cables installed before the year 2000 show high attenuation in the

E-band. In addition to the O- to L-bands, there are two more wavelength bands, namely the 850-nm-band

and U-band (ultra-long-wavelength band: 1625-1675 nm). The 850-nm-band is the primary wavelength for

multimode fiber optical communication systems, combined with VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting

Laser). The U-band is mainly used for network monitoring purposes.

Light Propagation in Optical fibers:

Ray theory

The phenomenon of splitting of white light into its constituents is known as dispersion. The concepts of
reflection and refraction of light are based on a theory known as Ray theory or geometric optics, where
light waves are considered as waves and represented with simple geometric lines or rays. The basic laws of
ray theory/geometric optics

 In a homogeneous medium, light rays are straight lines.

 Light may be absorbed or reflected

 Reflected ray lies in the plane of incidence and angle of incidence will be equal to the angle of
reflection.
  At the boundary between two media of different refractive indices, the refracted ray will lie in
the plane of incidence. Snell’s Law will give the relationship between the angles of incidence and
refraction.

Reflection depends on the type of surface on which light is incident. An essential condition for reflection
to occur with glossy surfaces is that the angle made by the incident ray of light with the normal at the
point of contact should be equal to the angle of reflection with that normal.

Refraction is the bending of light in a particular medium due to the speed of light in that medium. The
speed of light in any medium can be given by
𝑐
𝑣=
𝑛
The refractive index for vacuum and air os 1.0 for water it is 1.3 and for glass refractive index is 1.5. Here
n is the refractive index of that medium. When a ray of light is incident at the interface of two media
with different refractive indices, it will bend either towards or away from the normaldepending on the
refractive indices of the media.

According to Snell’s law, refraction can be represented as

= refractive index of first medium

= angle of incidence
= refractive index of second medium
= angle of refraction
For , is always greater than .(i.e) light moving from a medium of high refractive index
(glass) to a medium of lower refractive index (air) will move away from the normal.

Total internal reflection

To consider the propagation of light within an optical fiber utilizing the ray theory model it is necessary
to take account of the refractive index of the dielectric medium. Optical materials are characterized by
their index of refraction, referred to as n. The refractive index of a medium is defined as the ratio of the
velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in the medium.
When a beam of light passes from one material to another with a different index of refraction, the beam
is bent (or refracted) at the interface.

where nI and nR are the indices of refraction of the materials through which the beam is refracted
and I and R are the angles of incidence and refraction of the beam. If the angle of incidence is greater
than the critical angle for the interface (typically about 82° for optical fibers), the light is reflected back
into the incident medium without loss by a process known as total internal reflection.

Refraction is described by Snell’s law:

A ray of light travels more slowly in an optically dense medium than in one that is less dense, and the
refractive index gives a measure of this effect. When a ray is incident on the interface between two
dielectrics of differing refractive indices (e.g., glass–air), refraction occurs. It may be observed that
the ray approaching the interface is propagating in a dielectric of refractive index n and is at an angle φ
to the normal at the surface of the interface.
The angles of incidence and refraction are related to each other and to the refractive indices of the
dielectrics by Snell’s law of refraction, which states that:

𝑛1 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛷1 = 𝑛2 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛷2
𝑜𝑟
sin 𝛷1 𝑛2
=
sin 𝛷2 𝑛1

It may also be observed in Figure that a small amount of light is reflected back into the originating dielectric
medium (partial internal reflection). As n1 is greater than n2, the angle of refraction (𝛷2 ) is always greater

than the angle of incidence (𝛷1 ). Thus, when the angle of refraction (𝛷2 ) is 90° and the refracted ray
emerges parallel to the interface between the dielectrics, the angle of incidence must be less than 90°. This
is the limiting case of refraction and the angle of incidence is now known as the critical angle φc, as shown
in Figure and the value of the critical angle is given by
𝑛2
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛷𝑐 =
𝑛1

• As the angle of incidence 𝜱𝟏 in an optically denser material becomes larger, the refracted angle
𝜱𝟐 approaches 𝜋/2. Beyond this point no refraction is possible and the light rays become totally
internally reflected.

• A light ray gets bent toward the glass surface as it leaves the glass in accordance with Snell’s law.
If the angle of incidence 𝜱𝟏 is increased, a point will eventually be reached where the light ray in
air is parallel to the glass surface. This point is known as the critical angle of incidence φc.

• When the incidence angle 𝜱𝟏 is greater than the critical angle φc., the condition for total internal
reflection is satisfied; that is, the light is totally reflected back into the glass with no light escaping
from the glass surface.

• As an example, consider the glass–air interface. When the light ray in air is parallel to the glass
surface, then 𝜱𝟐 = 90° so that sin 𝜱𝟐 = 1. The critical angle in the glass is thus
At angles of incidence greater than the critical angle the light is reflected back into the originating
dielectric medium (total internal reflection) with high efficiency (around 99.9%). Hence, total internal
reflection occurs at the inter- face between two dielectrics of differing refractive indices when light is
incident on the dielectric of lower index from the dielectric of higher index, and the angle of incidence
of the ray exceeds the critical value. This is the mechanism by which light at a sufficiently shallow angle
(less than 90° − may be considered to propagate down an optical fiber with low loss.

Figure 1.3 illustrates the transmission of a light ray in an optical fiber via a series of total internal
reflections at the interface of the silica core and the slightly lower refractive index silica cladding. The
ray has an angle of incidence φ at the interface which is greater than the critical angle and is reflected at
the same angle to the normal.
The light ray shown in Figure 1.3 is known as a meridional ray as it passes through the axis of the fiber
core. This type of ray is the simplest to describe and is generally used when illustrating the fundamental
transmission properties of optical fibers. It must also be noted that the light transmission illustrated in
Figure 1.3 assumes a perfect fiber, and that any discontinuities or imperfections at the core–cladding
interface would probably result in refraction rather than total internal reflection, with the subsequent loss
of the light ray into the cladding.
It is important to know about this property because reflection is also possible even if the
surfaces are not reflective. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle for a
given setting, the resulting type of reflection is called Total Internal Reflection, and it is
the basis of Optical Fiber Communication.

Acceptance angle
The geometry concerned with launching a light ray into an optical fiber is shown in Figure
7, which illustrates a meridional ray A at the critical angle φc within the fiber at the core–
cladding interface. It may be observed that this ray enters the fiber core at an angle θa to the
fiber axis and is refracted at the air–core interface before transmission to the core–cladding
interface at the critical angle. Hence, any rays which are incident into the fiber core at an
angle greater than θa will be transmitted to the core–cladding interface at an angle less than
φc, and will not be totally internally reflected. This situation is also illustrated in Figure 7,
where the incident ray B at an angle greater than θa is refracted into the cladding and
eventually lost by radiation. Thus for rays to be transmitted by total internal reflection within
the fiber core they must be incident on the fiber core within an acceptance cone defined by
the conical half angle θa. Hence θa is the maximum angle to the axis at which light may enter
the fiber in order to be propagated, and is often referred to as the acceptance angle for the
fiber.

Numerical Aperture

Numerical aperture is the ability of the optical system to collect all of the light incident on
it, in one area.
The blue cone is known as the cone of acceptance. It is dependent on the Acceptance Angle
of the optical fiber. Light waves within the acceptance cone can be collected in a small
area which can then be sent into the optical fiber (Source).

Figure 8 shows a light ray incident on the fiber core at an angle θ1 to the fiber axis which
is less than the acceptance angle for the fiber θa. The ray enters the fiber from a medium
(air) of refractive index n0, and the fiber core has a refractive index n1, which is slightly
greater than the cladding refractive index n2.
 𝒏𝟎 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜭𝟏 = 𝒏𝟏 (𝟏 − 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝟐 𝝋 )1/2
𝒏𝟎 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜭𝒂 = (𝒏𝟏 𝟐 − 𝒏𝟐 𝟐 )1/2
Hence the NA is defined as:
NA=𝒏𝟎 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝜭𝒂 = (𝒏𝟏 𝟐 − 𝒏𝟐 𝟐 )1/2
The NA may also be given in terms of the relative refractive index difference between the
core and the cladding which is defined as:

Skew rays: In a multimode optical fiber, a bound ray that travels in a helical path along
the fiber and thus (a) is not parallel to the fiber axis, (b) does not lie in a meridional plane,
and (c) does not intersect the fiber axis is known as a Skew Ray.
 1. Skew rays are rays that travel through an optical fiber without passing through its axis.

2. A possible path of propagation of skew rays is shown in above figure.

3. Skew rays are those rays which follow helical path but they are not confined to a single
plane. Skew rays are not confined to a particular plane so they cannot be tracked easily.
Analyzing the meridional rays is sufficient for the purpose of result, rather than skew rays,
because skew rays lead to greater power loss.

4. Skew rays propagate without passing through the center axis of the fiber. The acceptance
angle for skew rays is larger than the acceptance angle of meridional rays.

5. Skew rays are often used in the calculation of light acceptance in an optical fiber. The
addition of skew rays increases the amount of light capacity of a fiber. In large NA fibers,
the increase may be significant.
6. The addition of skew rays also increases the amount of loss in a fiber. Skew rays tend to
propagate near the edge of the fiber core. A large portion of the number of skew rays that
are trapped in the fiber core are considered to be leaky rays.

7. Leaky rays are predicted to be totally reflected at the core-cladding boundary. However,
these rays are partially refracted because of the curved nature of the fiber boundary. Mode
theory is also used to describe this type of leaky ray loss.

Mode Theory :

 In optical fiber, the core cladding boundary conditions lead to coupling between electric

& magnetic field components.

 This gives rise to hybrid modes, which makes optical waveguide analysis more complex

than metallic waveguide analysis.

 The hybrid modes are HE or EH modes depending on whether the transverse electric

or magnetic field is larger for that mode.

 The lower order modes are HE11 and TE01.

 Fibers usually are constructed so that the difference in the core & cladding refractive
index is very small, then only four field components exist(n1-n2<<1)
  These 4 field components are called linearly polarized modes & labelled as LPjm , where

j & m are integers designating mode solutions.

 Each LP0m mode is derived from HE1m mode and each LP1m mode comes from TE0m,

TM0m and HE0m modes. Thus, the fundamental LP 01 mode corresponds to HE11 mode.

Overview of Modes:

1. Guided modes- waves should be propagated inside the core.

2. Radiated modes- unbounded rays.

3. Leaky Modes- more amount of power in cladding region

Electric field Distributions for the lower-order guided mode

 The order of a mode is equal to number of field zeros across the guide.

 The order of mode is also related to the angle that the ray congruence corresponding to

this mode makes with the plane of waveguide or axis of fiber.

 The plot shows that electric field of guided modes are not completely confined to the

central dielectric slab i.e., they do not go to zero at core – cladding interface & extends

into the cladding.

  The field vary harmonically in core region of refractive index n1 and decay

exponentially outside of this region of refractive index n2.

 In lower- order modes, the fields are tightly concentrated near the center of slab or axis

of an optical fiber, with little penetration into cladding region.

 In higher-order modes, the fields are distributed more towards the edge of guide and

penetrate further into the cladding region.

 Due to this penetration, radiated modes are propagated in cladding region.

 In the leaky modes the fields are confined partially in the fiber core & attenuated as

they propagate along the fiber length due to radiation and tunnel effect.

Types of Fibers:

Based on the number of modes, fibers are classified as

i. Single mode fiber:

Only one signal can propagate inside along the optical fiber parallel to core axis.
ii. Multimode fiber:
The light takes many paths through the core. The number of paths possible for
multimode fiber cable depends on frequency of light signal, refractive index of core
and cladding and core diameter.

Index profile is a graphical representation of value of refractive index of core diameter. Based
on index profile, fibers are divided into three configurations

i. Single mode step index fiber.

ii. Multimode step index fiber.
iii. Multimode graded index fiber.

Step index: Refractive index of core is uniform throughout & undergoes an abrupt change
at cladding is called step-index fiber.

Graded index: The core of refractive index is made to vary as a function of radial distance
from the center of fiber.
Advantages of cladding:

• Used to reduce the scattering loss.

• It protects the core from absorbing surface.

• It adds mechanical strength to the fiber

Step index fibers (SI)- Single mode (SM) & Multi mode (MM).

Fibers with a core of constant refractive index n1 and a cladding of a slightly lower refractive
index n2is known as step index fiber. This is because the refractive index profile for this type
of fiber makes a step change at the core– cladding interface. The refractive index profile for
step index fiber is given as

Figure shows a multimode step index fiber with a core diameter of around 50µm or greater,
which is large enough to allow the propagation of many modes within the fiber core. This is
illustrated in Figure by the many different possible ray paths through the fiber. Figure shows a
single-mode or monomode step index fiber which allows the propagation of only one transverse
electromagnetic mode (typically HE11), and hence the core diameter must be of the order of 2
to 10µm. The propagation of a single mode is illustrated in Figure as corresponding to a single
ray path only (usually shown as the axial ray) through the fiber. The single-mode step index
fiber has the distinct advantage of low intermodal dispersion (broadening of transmitted light
pulses), as only one mode is transmitted, whereas with multimode step index fiber considerable
dispersion may occur due to the differing group velocities of the propagating modes. This in
turn restricts the maximum bandwidth attainable with multimode step index fibers, especially
when compared with single-mode fibers.

Multimode fibers have several advantages over single- mode fibers.

These are:

a) The use of spatially incoherent optical sources (e.g. most light-emitting diodes) which cannot
be efficiently coupled to single-mode fibers.

b) Larger numerical apertures, as well as core diameters, facilitating easier coupling to optical
sources

c) Lower tolerance requirements on fiber connectors.

Multimode step index fibers allow the propagation of a finite number of guided modes along
the channel. The number of guided modes is dependent upon the physical parameters (i.e.
relative refractive index difference, core radius) of the fiber and the wavelengths of the
transmitted light which are included in the normalized frequency V for the fiber.

Graded index fibers (GI):

Graded index fibers do not have a constant refractive index in the core but a decreasing core
index n(r) with radial distance from a maximum value of n1 at the axis to a constant value n2
beyond the core radius a in the cladding. This index variation may be represented as

Where Δ is the relative refractive index difference, α is the profile parameter.

step index profile when α = ∞

parabolic profile when α = 2

(BEST) triangular profile when α = 1

Multimode graded index fibers exhibit far less intermodal dispersion than multimode step
index fibers due to their refractive index profile. Although many different modes are excited in
the graded index fiber, the different group velocities of the modes tend to be normalized by the
index grading
Comparison:

S l. Single M o d e Mu lt i- M o d e S t e p Mu lt i M o d e
No S t ep Index Index Gr aded Index

1 Low Int ermodal Considerable D isp er s io n Lowest Dispersion

disper sio n
( Br o adening of
transmitt ed light)

2 H ig he st Bandwidth Low Bandw idt h M e d i u m Bandwidth

3 Coher ent so ur ces U s e of Incoherent optical U s e of Incoherent

are mu s t so ur ces ( L E D ca n be optical so ur ce s ( L E D
u s e d a s source) ca n be u s e d a s
source)

4 Co upling m u s t be Larg e Nu mer ica l Larg e Nu mer ica l

precise Aperture/ Core Aperture/ Core
Dia met er which Dia met er which
p e r m i t s E a s y Coupling p er mit s E asy
Co upling

5 H igher Tolerance Lower Tolerance Lower Tolerance

Mode coupling:

Due to waveguide perturbations such as deviations of the fiber axis from straightness,
variations in the core diameter, irregularities at the core–cladding interface and refractive index
variations may change the propagation characteristics of the fiber.These will have the effect of
coupling energy traveling in one mode to another depending on the specific perturbation. This
is called Mode coupling.

Cut-off wavelength:

It may be noted that single-mode operation only occurs above a theoretical cut-off wavelength
λc given by:

Where Vc is the cut-off normalized frequency. Hence λc is the wavelength above which a
particular fiber becomes single-moded.

V-number:

 The V-number of an optical fiber is a very important characteristic parameter which is

proportional to the frequency (or wavelength) of the propagating light.
 V-number of a fiber does not depend on the individual
characteristics of the core or the cladding but depends on the characteristics of the core-
cladding combination as a whole as is obvious from the expression below:

Number of Guided Modes:

Multimode step index fibers allow the propagation of a finite number of guided modes along
the channel. The number of guided modes is dependent upon the physical parameters (i.e.
relative refractive index difference, core radius) of the fiber and the wavelengths of the
transmitted light which are included in the normalized frequency V for the fiber. The total
number of guided modes or mode volume Ms for a step index fiber is related to the V value for
the fiber by the approximate expression

which allows an estimate of the number of guided modes propagating in a particular multimode
step index fiber.