Optical Fiber Communications

(BECE308L )
Dr. Sangeetha R.G
Professor
School of Electronics Engineering (SENSE)

1
Module :3 Optical Transmitters (4)

Sources: LED-Structures-Quantum Efficiency, Power and Modulation

Bandwidth- LASER-
DFB, DBR, VCSEL, Quantum Efficiency, Modulators - Direct and external
modulators,
Transmitter Design.

2
© Dr. Sangeetha R.G
 TYPES OF OPTICAL SOURCES

• Wideband continuous spectra sources

(Incandescent Lamps)
• Monochromatic incoherent sources
(Light Emitting Diodes - LED)
• Monochromatic coherent sources
(Light Amplification by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation - LASER)
In the late nineteenth century, Alexander Bell expanded
his "phone-phone" communication which modulated
by sunlight.

5
Types of Laser
(A) By active media
Solid state laser - crystal, or glass, doped with
impurities, e.g. ruby laser, Ti:sapphire laser,
semiconductor laser.
 Gas laser - e.g. He-Ne laser, Ar+ laser, CO2 laser, N2
laser, HCN laser.
 Dye laser - active medium: dye molecules in liquid
solvent (sometimes in solids also).
(B) By mode of operation
CW
Pulsed
(C) By pumping and laser levels
3-level laser
4-level laser
Considerations with Optical Sources

• Physical dimensions to suit the fiber

• Narrow radiation pattern (beam width)

• Linearity (output light power proportional to

driving current)
 Considerations with Optical Sources
• Ability to be directly modulated by varying
driving current

• Fast response time (wide band)

• Adequate output power into the fiber

 Considerations…

• Narrow spectral width (or line width)

• Stability and efficiency

• Driving circuit issues

• Reliability and cost

Spectrum of Light
 Semiconductor Light Sources
• 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 a LASER, the photon is further processed in a
resonance cavity to achieve a coherent, highly
directional optical beam with narrow linewidth.
Direct and Indirect bandgap SC
 LED vs. laser spectral width

Single-frequency laser
(<0.04 nm)
Laser output is many times
higher than LED output; they
would not show on same scale
Standard laser
(1-3 nm wide)

LED (30-50 nm wide)

Wavelength
 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)
 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

 p-type material

Adding group III impurity will create a p-type material

 LEDs in Optical Communication
• LEDs are the best light source choice
– For bit rates less than 100-200 Mbps
– Multimode fiber coupling
– Required optical power in tens of microwatts
Advantages of LED as Light source
• LEDs require less complex drive circuitry than LASER
• No thermal or optical stabilization circuits needed
• Fabricated less expensively with higher yields
 Terminologies

• Radiance: or brightness, in Watts of the optical

power radiated into a solid angle per unit area
of the emitting surface
• Response time: Time delay between the
application of a current pulse and the onset of
optical emission
• Quantum efficiency: fraction of injected
electron-hole pairs that recombine radiatively
 Confinement
• To achieve high radiance and high quantum efficiency, LED structure must
provide a means of confining the charge carriers
Carrier confinement
Optical confinement

• Carrier confinement
– To achieve high level of radiative recombination in the active region which
yields high quantum efficiency

• Optical confinement
– Prevents absorption of the emitted radiation by the material surrounding the
PN junction

To achieve carrier and optical confinement, LED configurations such as

homo junctions and single and double hetero structures (2 different
alloy on each side of the active region) are widely investigated

20
 The Light Emitting Diode (LED)

• For fiber-optics, the LED should have a high

radiance (light intensity(in terms of watts)), fast
response time and a high quantum efficiency
• Radiance : optical power radiated into a unit solid
angle per unit area of the emitting surface
• Double or single hetero-structure devices
• Surface emitting (diffused radiation) Vs Edge
emitting (more directional) LED’s
• Emitted wavelength depends on bandgap energy

E g h hc / 
 Homojunction
• The p-n junction of the basic GaAs LED/laser
described before is called a homojunction
because only one type of semiconductor
material is used in the junction with different
dopants to produce the junction itself.
• The index of refraction of the material
depends upon the impurity used and the
doping level.
 Heterojunction
• Heterojunction is the advanced junction
design to reduce diffraction loss in the optical
cavity.
• This is accomplished by modification of the
laser material to control the index of
refraction of the cavity and the width of the
junction.
• The Heterojunction region is actually lightly doped
with p-type material and has the highest index of
refraction.
• The n-type material and the more heavily doped p-
type material both have lower indices of refraction.
• This produces a light pipe effect that helps to confine
the laser light to the active junction region. In the
homojunction, however, this index difference is low
and much light is lost.
 Double-
heterostructure
configuration
 OPERATING WAVELENGTH

Fiber optic communication systems operate in the

• 850-nm,
• 1300-nm, and
• 1550-nm wavelength windows.
• Semiconductor sources are designed to operate
at wavelengths that minimize optical fiber
absorption and maximize system bandwidth
LED Wavelength

1.2399
 ( m) 
E (eV)

= hc/E(eV)

= wavelength in microns

h = Planks constant
c = speed of light
E = Photon energy in eV
 Example 1: What is the energy of a photon of
yellow-green light ( = 555 nm)?
First we find f from wave equation: c =
c f hc
f  ; E hf 
 
 34 8
(6.626 x 10 J s)(3 x 10 m/s)
E -9
555 x 10 m
EE =
= 3.58 x 10-19 JJ
3.58 x 10-19
Or EE =
= 2.24
2.24 eV
eV

Since 1 eV = 1.60 x 10-19

J
Bandgap Energy and Possible Wavelength
Ranges in Various Materials
 SEMICONDUCTOR LIGHT-EMITTING
DIODES

• Semiconductor LEDs emit incoherent light.

• Spontaneous emission of light in
semiconductor LEDs produces light waves
that lack a fixed-phase relationship. Light
waves that lack a fixed-phase relationship
are referred to as incoherent light
 SEMICONDUCTOR LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES Cont…
• The use of LEDs in single mode systems is
severely limited because they emit unfocused
incoherent light.
• Even LEDs developed for single mode systems
are unable to launch sufficient optical power into
single mode fibers for many applications.
• LEDs are the preferred optical source for
multimode systems because they can launch
sufficient power at a lower cost than
semiconductor LDs.
 Semiconductor LDs
• Semiconductor LDs emit coherent light.
• LDs produce light waves with a fixed-
phase relationship (both spatial and
temporal) between points on the
electromagnetic wave.
• Light waves having a fixed-phase
relationship are referred to as coherent
light.
 Semiconductor LDs Cont..
• Semiconductor LDs emit more focused
light than LEDs, they are able to launch
optical power into both single mode
and multimode optical fibers.
• LDs are usually used only in single
mode fiber systems because they
require more complex driver circuitry
and cost more than LEDs.
The Light Emitting Diode (LED)

34
 Produced Optical Power
• Optical power produced by optical sources can
range from microwatts (mW) for LEDs to tens
of milliwatts (mW) for semiconductor LDs.
• However, it is not possible to effectively
couple all the available optical power into the
optical fiber for transmission.
 Dependence of coupled power
The amount of optical power coupled into the
fiber is the relevant optical power. It depends on
the following factors:
• The angles over which the light is emitted
• The size of the source's light-emitting area
relative to the fiber core size
• The alignment of the source and fiber
• The coupling characteristics of the fiber
(such as the NA and the refractive index
profile)
• Typically, semiconductor lasers emit light spread out
over an angle of 10 to 15 degrees.
• Semiconductor LEDs emit light spread out at even
larger angles.
• Coupling losses of several decibels can easily occur
when coupling light from an optical source to a fiber,
especially with LEDs.
• Source-to-fiber coupling efficiency is a measure of
the relevant optical power.
• The coupling efficiency depends on the type of fiber
that is attached to the optical source.
• Coupling efficiency also depends on the coupling
technique.
• Current flowing through a semiconductor optical
source causes it to produce light.
• LEDs generally produce light through spontaneous
emission when a current is passed through them.
 Spontaneous Emission
• Spontaneous emission is the random generation of
photons within the active layer of the LED. The
emitted photons move in random directions. Only a
certain percentage of the photons exit the
semiconductor and are coupled into the fiber. Many
of the photons are absorbed by the LED materials
and the energy dissipated as heat
 LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES
• A light-emitting diode (LED) is a
semiconductor device that emits incoherent
light through spontaneous emission when a
current is passed through it. Typically, LEDs for
the 850-nm region are fabricated using GaAs
and AlGaAs. LEDs for the 1300-nm and 1550-
nm regions are fabricated using InGaAsP and
InP.
 Types of LED
The basic LED types used for fiber
optic communication systems are
• Surface-emitting LED (SLED)
• Edge-emitting LED (ELED)
 LED performance differences (1)
• LED performance differences help link designers
decide which device is appropriate for the
intended application.
• For short-distance (0 to 3 km), low-data-rate
fiber optic systems, SLEDs and ELEDs are the
preferred optical source.
• Typically, SLEDs operate efficiently for bit rates
up to 250 megabits per second (Mb/s). Because
SLEDs emit light over a wide area (wide far-field
angle), they are almost exclusively used in
multimode systems.
 LED performance differences (2)
• For medium-distance, medium-data-rate systems,
ELEDs are preferred
• ELEDs may be modulated at rates up to 400 Mb/s
ELEDs may be used for both single mode and
multimode fiber systems
• Both SLEDs and ELEDs are used in long-distance,
high-data-rate systems. SLEDs are ELED-based diodes
designed to operate in the superluminescence mode
• SLEDs may be modulated at bit rates of over 400
Mb/s
 Surface-Emitting LEDs
• The surface-emitting LED is also known as the Burrus LED in
honor of C. A. Burrus, its developer.
• In SLEDs, the size of the primary active region is limited to a
small circular area of 20 m to 50 m in diameter.
• The active region is the portion of the LED where photons are
emitted. The primary active region is below the surface of the
semiconductor substrate perpendicular to the axis of the fiber.
• A well is etched into the substrate to allow direct coupling of
the emitted light to the optical fiber. The etched well allows the
optical fiber to come into close contact with the emitting
surface.
 Surface-emitting LED

Lambertian pattern
Edge-emitting LED
 LED Spectral Width

Edge emitting LED’s have slightly narrow line width

Quantum Efficiency and LED Power

48
49
 Quantum Efficiency
• Internal quantum efficiency is the ratio
between the radiative recombination rate
and the sum of radiative and nonradiative
recombination rates
int Rr /( Rr  Rnr )
• For exponential decay of excess carriers, the
radiative recombination lifetime (Ʈnr)is n/Rr
and the nonradiative recombination lifetime
is (Ʈnr)=n/Rnr
 Internal Efficiency
Internal quantum efficiency can be expressed as
int = 1/(1+ (Ʈr)/ (Ʈnr))= (Ʈ/ Ʈr)
Where, Ʈ=Bulk recombination life time
(1/Ʈ)=(1/Ʈr)+(1/Ʈnr)
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
Pint = intI / q hɤ = int hcI/qλ
 External Efficiency
n2
n1
Light
emission
cone
 External quantum efficiency
• It is defined as the ratio of the photons
emitted from the LED to the total number of
internally generated photons.
• Light falling within the critical cone
ɸc = π/2 - θc
ɸc = sin-1 (n2/n1)
Fresnel Transmission Coefficient External Efficiency for air
n2=1, n1 = n
T (0) 4n1n 2 2
n1  n2  ext  1
n(n  1) 2
53
54
55
 3-dB bandwidths

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

Electrical Loss = 2 x Optical Loss

 Drawbacks of LED

• Large line width (30-40 nm)

• Large beam width (Low coupling to the fiber)
• Low output power
• Low E/O conversion efficiency
Advantages
• Robust
• Linear
 The LASER(Assignment)
• Light Amplification by ‘Stimulated Emission’
and Radiation (L A S E R)
• Coherent light (stimulated emission)
• Spatial and temporal coherence
• 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)
 LASER
(Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation)

• Laser is an optical oscillator. It comprises a resonant optical amplifier

whose output is fed back into its input with matching phase. Any
oscillator contains:
1- An amplifier with a gain-saturated mechanism
2- A feedback system
3- A frequency selection mechanism
4- An output coupling scheme
• In laser the amplifier is the pumped active medium, such as biased
semiconductor region, feedback can be obtained by placing active
medium in an optical resonator, such as Fabry-Perot structure, two
mirrors separated by a prescribed distance. Frequency selection is
achieved by resonant amplifier and by the resonators, which admits
certain modes. Output coupling is accomplished by making one of the
resonator mirrors partially transmitting.
 Key Process
• Photon 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.
• Stimulated Emission: An atom in an excited state
might be stimulated to emit a photon by another
incident photon.
 Laser Transition Processes
(Stimulated and Spontaneous
Emission)

Energy Random Coherent

absorbed from release of release of
the incoming energy energy
photon
 Lasing in a pumped active medium

• In thermal equilibrium the stimulated emission is essentially

negligible, since the density of electrons in the excited state is very
small, and optical emission is mainly because of the spontaneous
emission. Stimulated emission will exceed absorption only if the
population of the excited states is greater than that of the ground
state. This condition is known as Population Inversion. Population
inversion is achieved by various pumping techniques.

• In a semiconductor laser, population inversion is accomplished by

injecting electrons into the material to fill the lower energy states of
the conduction band.
 Fabry-Perot Resonator
Relative intensity
M1 M2 m=1
A 1 f R ~ 0.8
m=2 R ~ 0.4
 m
B
L m=8 
m - 1 m m + 1
(a) (b) (c)
Resonant modes : kL m m 1,2,3,..
Schematic illustration of the Fabry-Perot optical cavity and its properties. (a) Reflected
waves interfere. (b) Only standing EM waves, modes, of certain wavelengths are allowed
in the cavity. (c) Intensity vs. frequency for various modes. R is mirror reflectance and
lower R means higher loss from the cavity.
© 1999 S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics (Prentice Hall)

(1  R ) 2
I trans I inc [4-18]
(1  R ) 2  4 R sin 2 (kL)
R: reflectance of the optical intensity, k: optical wavenumber
 In Stimulated Emission incident
and stimulated photons will have

• Identical energy  Identical wavelength

 Narrow linewidth
• Identical direction  Narrow beam width
• Identical phase  Coherence and
• Identical polarization
Fabry-Perot Laser (resonator)
cavity
 Laser Operation & Lasing Condition
• To determine the lasing condition and resonant frequencies, we
should focus on the optical wave propagation along the longitudinal
direction, z-axis. The optical field intensity, I, can be written as:

I ( z , t ) I ( z )e j (t  z ) [4-19]

• Lasing is the condition at which light amplification becomes possible

by virtue of population inversion. Then, stimulated emission rate into
a given EM mode is proportional to the intensity of the optical
radiation in that mode. In this case, the loss and gain of the optical
field in the optical path determine the lasing condition. The radiation
intensity of a photon at energy h varies exponentially with a
distance z amplified by factor g, and attenuated by factor 
according to the following relationship:
 I ( z ) I (0) expg (h )   (h ) z  [4-20]

R1 n1 R2

Z=0 n2 Z=L

I (2 L) I (0) R1 R2 expg (h )   (h ) (2 L) [4-21]

 : Optical confinement factor, g : gain coefficient

2
 n1  n2 
α : effective absorption coefficient, R  
 n1  n2 
Lasing Conditions:
I ( 2 L )  I ( 0)
[4-22]

exp( j 2 L) 1
 Threshold gain & current density

1  1 
g th   ln  [4-23]
2 L  R1 R2 

Laser starts to " lase" iff : g  g th

For laser structure with strong carrier confinement, the threshold current
Density for stimulated emission can be well approximated by:

g th J th [4-24]

 : constant depends on specific device construction

Optical output vs. drive current

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

 Semiconductor laser rate equations
• Rate equations relate the optical output power, or # of photons per unit
volume,  , to the diode drive current or # of injected electrons per unit
volume, n. For active (carrier confinement) region of depth d, the rate
equations are:
d 
Cn  Rsp 
dt  ph
Photon rate stimulated emission spontaneou s emission  photon loss [4-25]

dn J n
   Cn
dt qd  sp
electron rate  injection  spontaneou s recombination  stimulated emission

C : Coefficient expressing the intensity of the optical emission & absorption process
Rsp : rate of spontaneous emission into the lasing mode
 ph : photon life time
J : Injection current density
 Threshold current Density & excess electron density

• At the threshold of lasing:  0, d / dt 0, Rsp 0

1
from eq. [4 - 25]  Cn   /  ph 0  n  nth [4-26]
C ph

• The threshold current needed to maintain a steady state threshold

concentration of the excess electron, is found from electron rate equation
under steady state condition dn/dt=0 when the laser is just about to lase:

J th nth nth
0   J th qd [4-27]

qd  sp  sp
 Laser operation beyond the threshold
J  J th

• The solution of the rate equations [4-25] gives the steady state
photon density, resulting from stimulated emission and spontaneous
emission as follows:

 ph
s  ( J  J th )   ph Rsp [4-28]

qd
74
75
 External quantum efficiency

• Number of photons emitted per radiative electron-hole pair

recombination above threshold, gives us the external quantum
efficiency.

i ( g th   )
ext 
g th
q dP dP (mW )
 0.8065[ m] [4-29]

E g dI dI (mA)

• Note that: i 60%  70%; ext 15%  40%

 Laser Resonant Frequencies
• Lasing condition, namely eq. [4-22]:

exp( j 2 L) 1  2 L 2m , m 1,2,3,...

2n
• Assuming  the resonant frequency of the mth mode is:

mc
m  m 1,2,3,... [4-30]
2 Ln

c 2
  m   m  1     [4-31]

2 Ln 2 Ln
 Spectrum from a laser Diode

 (  0 ) 
g ( ) g (0) exp     : spectral width [4-32]
 2 
2
 Laser Diode Structure & Radiation Pattern

• Efficient operation of a laser diode requires reducing the # 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 guided.
(a) gain-induced guide (b)positive-index waveguide (c)negative-index waveguide
Laser Diode with buried heterostructure (BH)
 Single Mode Laser
• Single mode laser is mostly based on the index-guided
structure that supports only the fundamental transverse
mode and the fundamental longitudinal mode. In order to
make single mode laser we have four options:
1- Reducing the length of the cavity to the point where the
frequency separation given in eq[4-31] of the adjacent
modes is larger than the laser transition line width. This is
hard to handle for fabrication and results in low output
power.
2- Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting laser (VCSEL)
3- Structures with built-in frequency selective grating
4- tunable laser diodes
.
VCSEL
Frequency-Selective laser Diodes:
Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser

2ne 
B  [4-33]

k
 Frequency-Selective laser Diodes:
Distributed Feedback Reflector (DBR) laser
 B 2
1
  B  (m  )
2ne Le 2
[4-35]

Output spectrum symmetrically distributed around Bragg wavelength in an idealized DFB laser diode
Frequency-Selective laser Diodes:
Distributed Reflector (DR) laser
 Modulation of Laser Diodes
• Internal Modulation: Simple but suffers from non-linear effects.
• External Modulation: for rates greater than 2 Gb/s, more complex,
higher performance.
• Most fundamental limit for the modulation rate is set by the photon
life time in the laser cavity:

1 c 1 1  c
    ln   g th
 ph
[4-36]
n 2 L R1 R2  n
• Another fundamental limit on modulation frequency is the relaxation
oscillation frequency given by:
1/ 2
1 1  I 
f    1 [4-37]
2  sp ph  I th 
Relaxation oscillation peak
 Pulse Modulated laser
• In a pulse modulated laser, if the laser is completely turned off after
each pulse, after onset of the current pulse, a time delay,t d given
by:

 Ip 
t d  ln   [4-38]

 I p  ( I B  I th ) 

 : carrier life time I p : Current pulse amplitude

I B : Bias current
Temperature variation of the threshold
current
T / T0
I th (T )  I z e
 Linearity of Laser

Information carrying LED or Laser diode

electrical signal s(t) modulator

Optical putput power:

P(t)=P[1+ms(t)]
 Nonlinearity

x(t) Nonlinear function y=f(x) y(t)

x(t )  A cos t
y (t )  A0  A1 cos t  A2 cos 2t  ...

Nth order harmonic distortion:

 An 
20 log 
 A1 
 Intermodulation Distortion

x(t )  A1 cos 1t  A2 cos  2 t 

y (t )  Bmn cos( m1  n 2 )t m,n 0,1,2,...
m,n

Harmonics:
n 1 , m 2
Intermodulated Terms:

1  2 ,21  2 , 1 2 2 ,...

 Laser Noise

• Modal (speckel) Noise: Fluctuations in the distribution of energy

among various modes.
• Mode partition Noise: Intensity fluctuations in the longitudinal
modes of a laser diode, main source of noise in single mode fiber
systems.
• Reflection Noise: Light output gets reflected back from the fiber
joints into the laser, couples with lasing modes, changing their phase,
and generate noise peaks. Isolators & index matching fluids can
eliminate these reflections.