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Optical Fibers Notes - Final 07.10.20

Optical fibers transmit data over long distances using total internal reflection. They consist of a core with a higher refractive index surrounded by a cladding with a lower refractive index. Light entering the fiber at an angle greater than the critical angle will undergo total internal reflection along the fiber. The acceptance cone defines the maximum angle at which light can enter and propagate through the fiber. Fibers are classified based on their refractive index profile as step index or graded index, and based on propagation modes as single mode or multimode.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
39 views18 pages

Optical Fibers Notes - Final 07.10.20

Optical fibers transmit data over long distances using total internal reflection. They consist of a core with a higher refractive index surrounded by a cladding with a lower refractive index. Light entering the fiber at an angle greater than the critical angle will undergo total internal reflection along the fiber. The acceptance cone defines the maximum angle at which light can enter and propagate through the fiber. Fibers are classified based on their refractive index profile as step index or graded index, and based on propagation modes as single mode or multimode.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Optical fibers Dr. B.

Vasundhara

Optical fibers
The development in the fields of communication and information technology demand very
easy and rapid transmission of data over a long distance. Fiber optics technology is
increasingly replacing wire transmission lines (metallic wave guides) in communication
systems.

Structure of an Optical Fibre: An optical fibre is a cylindrical wave guide made of


transparent dielectric glass (or) clear plastic which sheds light waves along its length by “Total
Internal Reflection”.

Structure of an Optical fibre: A practical optical fibre is cylindrical in shape having three
coaxial regions: CORE, CLADDING and SHEATH.

CORE: (Internal Light Carrying member): The inner most cylindrical region is the light
guiding region known as CORE. The diameter in general is in the order of 8.5μm to 62μm.

CLADDING: It is surrounded by a coaxial middle region known as ‘cladding’ of the order of


125μm.Refractive Index of core (n1) > Refractive index of cladding (n2).

SHEATH: The outermost region is called the sheath (or) protective buffer coating. This is a
plastic coating for extra protection. The size vary in the range of 250 μ m to 900μm.

Necessity of the Cladding:

Cladding is necessary as it performs the following important functions:

- Keeps the size of the fibre uniform and reduces the loss of light.
- Protects the fibre from physical damage and absorbing surface contaminants.
- Prevents leakage of light energy from fibre through evanescent waves.
- Reduces the cone of acceptance and increases the rate of transmission of data.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

- A solid cladding instead of air also makes it easier to add other protective layers
over the fibre.

Principle: Total Internal Reflection:

Figure 2(a) shows refraction from rarer medium to denser medium, in which refracted ray is
bent towards the normal from original path. When a light ray travels from denser (higher
refractive index; n1) to rarer (lower refractive index; n2) medium, it is bent away from the
normal. If θ1 is the angle of incidence, θ2 is the angle of refraction, Snell’s law governs this
phenomenon of refraction.

Snell’s law: sin θ2 =( )sin θ1

If θ1<θc - The ray refracts into rarer medium [Fig (b)].

If θ1 = θc- The ray just grazes the interface of rarer to denser medium [Fig (c)].

If θ1>θc- The ray is reflected back into the medium (Total Internal Reflection) [Fig (d)].

Critical Angle (Øc): The minimum angle of incidence above which the rays suffer total
internal reflection when they travel from denser to rarer medium. The expression can be derived
from Snell’s law at the interface of the two media using the fact that when angle of incidence
is its critical angle, the refracted ray grazes along the interface.

From Snell’s law, θ1 = θc, θ2 = 900

n1sinØc = n2 sin900

sinØc = ( )
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Propagation of Light through an Optical Fibre:

According to ray model, light rays enters the fibre and strikes the core – cladding
interface at different angles. As ncladding<ncore, the majority of rays undergo ‘Total Internal
Reflection’ at the interface. Due to cylindrical symmetry in the fibre structure, the same rays
suffer total internal reflection on the opposite sides also. Thus, the rays travel forward through
the fibre via a series of total internal reflections and emerge out from exit end of the fibre. The
internal reflection at the fibre wall can occur and light propagates down the fibre only when

1) n1(core) > n2(cladding)


2) Ø (angle of incidence) >Øc at core – cladding interface
Sin Øc =

Critical Angle of Propagation:

The ray which enters the optical fibre out of the acceptance cone does not suffer total
internal reflection and will be lost. Let us consider the ray incident at an angle θwith the axis
of the cylinder and undergoes refraction at point A (Figure3) and propagates at an angle θc in
the fibre, and suffers total internal reflection at B.If angle of propagation θr is less than
θC(known as critical angle of propagation)at point B, it can undergo total internal reflection
(as Ø >Øc).

From ∆ ABC,

For θr = θc = 𝑠𝑖𝑛Øc Also, = 𝑐𝑜𝑠Øc

𝑠𝑖𝑛Øc = [ In triangle ABC, θc + Øc = 90 impliesØc = 90 - θc]

Øc = cos-1 ( )

If the angle of refraction at interface of the fibre θr<θc, the critical angle of propagation;
then the ray can propagate through.

Acceptance Angle:

Consider an optical fibre into which light is launched at one end, as refractive index

n1(core) > n2(cladding) and n0 (launching medium usually air ). Let θi is incident angle with
axis of fibre, θr is angle of refraction core, the ray strikes at Ø (>Øc) at core-cladding interface.

Applying Snell’s law,

Sin θi 𝑛1
=
Sin θr 𝑛0
[If θi> θ0 (Acceptance Angle), then Ø goes below Øc and signal is lost] (or) for the
largest value θi(i.e. θ0 – the acceptance angle)
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Applying Snell’s law at air-core interface, when θi =θ0(acceptance angle), which implies Ø
=Øc

Sin θ 𝑛
=
Sin θ 𝑛

From figure, Sin θ = Sin θ = Sin (90 − Ø )

𝑛
Sin θ = Cos Øc
𝑛

Applying Snell’s law at core-cladding interface whenØ = Øc,

Sin Øc 𝑛
=
Sin 90 𝑛
𝑛
Sin Øc =
𝑛

𝑛
Cos Øc = 1 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛 Øc = 1−( )
𝑛

Substituting Cos Øc in the equation for acceptance angle, Sin θ = Cos Øc

𝑛 𝑛
Sin θ = 1−( )
𝑛 𝑛

Sin θ = 𝑛 −𝑛

where n0=1 for air medium.


Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

𝟏
Therefore, acceptance angle, 𝛉𝟎 = 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝒏𝟏 𝟐 − 𝒏𝟐 𝟐

andSin θ is known as Numerical aperture, 𝐍𝐀 = 𝐒𝐢𝐧 𝛉𝟎 = 𝒏𝟏 𝟐 − 𝒏𝟐 𝟐

Definition: Acceptance angle is the maximum angle that a light ray can have relative to the
axis of the fibre and propagate down the fibre.

Acceptance Cone: In the three dimensions, the light rays contained within a cone having a full
angle 2θ0 are accepted and transmitted along the fibre. This cone is called as ‘Acceptance
Cone’.

Numeric Aperture (NA): The light gathering ability of a fibre depends on Numerical
Aperture (and size of the optical fibre). The NA is defined as the sine of the acceptance angle.

NA = Sin θ = 𝑛 −𝑛

Numerical Aperture determines the light gathering ability of the fibre. This is a measure of the
amount of light that can be accepted by a fibre. The usual range is 0.13 to 0.5. NA does not
depend on the size of the optical fibre.

Fractional Refractive Index Change: The fractional difference ∆ between the refractive
indices of the core and cladding is known as ‘fractional refractive index change’.

Mathematically, ∆=

NA = Sin θ = 𝑛 −𝑛

𝑛 −𝑛 = (𝑛 + 𝑛 )(𝑛 − 𝑛 )
𝑛 +𝑛 𝑛 −𝑛
𝑛 −𝑛 = 2𝑛
2 𝑛

𝑛 −𝑛 ≈ 2∆𝑛

Therefore, relation between Numerical aperture and fractional refractive index change is,

NA = Sin θ ≈ 2∆𝑛 = 𝑛 √2∆


Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Modes of Propagation: Modes can be visualized as the possible number of allowed paths of
light in an optical fibre. That is all rays having propagation angle θ0 toθc. They cannot
propagate on same path but have phase shift. The high path along which the waves are in phase
inside are known as modes. The modes that propagate at an angle closer to the critical angle
Øc(i.e. close to θc) are higher order modes. The modes which are larger than critical angle
(≪θc) are lower order modes.

Classification Based on Refractive Index Profile:

Step Index Fibre: Step Index Fibre in which Refractive Index is constant for core and
it changes abruptly for cladding at the interface.
GRIN (Graded Index) Fibres: The refractive index is changing gradually which has
maximum value at centre and falls smoothly over the diameter of the core.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Classification Based on Modes of Propagation:


Single Mode Fibre (SMF): It has small core diameter and allows only one mode
(zeroth mode) of propagation.
Multi-Mode Fibre (MMF): It has larger core diameter and supports many number of
modes.

Classification Based on Materials:


Glass / Glass: (Glass core and glass cladding)
Plastic / Plastic: (Plastic core and plastic cladding)
PCS Fibres: (Polymer clad silica)

The Three Types of Fibres:

Single Mode Step Index Fibre: A single mode step index fibre has a very thin core
(~ 8 μm to 12 μm), usually mode of Germanium doped Silicon and a thick cladding (~
125 μm) and an opaque sheath.
n (r) = n1 [r < a, core]
= n2 [r>a, cladding]

The zero-order mode is the only mode supported by a Single Mode Step Index fibre.
This results in ∆ and NA are small. As Acceptance Angle is small, launching is
difficult. Costly diodes are needed to launch light.

Multi-Mode Step Index Fibre: A multimode step index fibre is very much similar to
the single mode step index but allows many modes though it. Core (50 to 100 μm) and
cladding (125 to 140 μm). The size of the core is large compared to the SMF.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

n (r) = n1 [r < a , core]


= n2 [r >a , cladding]

Multimode Step Index fibres allows large number of guided modes.


Path length is shortened for lower modes and longer for higher modes. Hence,
there is path difference.
Because of this difference, lower modes reach end of the optical fibre early to
the higher order modes. This causes ‘time delay’.

Graded Index (GRIN) Fibre: A Graded Index Fibre is a multi-mode fibre with a core
consisting of layers of different refractive indices. The variation of refractive index,

𝒏(𝒓) = 𝒏𝟏 𝟏 − 𝟐∆ Where r <a, inside the core 𝒏(𝒓) = 𝒏𝟐

Based on Materials:

All Glass Fibres: The basic material for fabrication of optical fibres is Silica (SiO2).
It has a refractive index of 1.458 at λ = 850 nm. The basic silica doped with Germania
(GeO2) or Phosphorus Pentoxide (P2O5) used as core material (n increases) when pure
silica is used as cladding. For cladding, pure silica is doped with Boria (B2O3) (n
decreases). Hence, this can be used as clad when pure silica can be used as core.

All Plastic Fibres: Perspex PMMA [n= 1.49] (or) Polystyrene [n=1.59] are used for
core. A Silicone resin is used as cladding. Plastic fibres are low cost optical fibres
having high mechanical flexibility.
Core: Polystyrene, Cladding: Methyl Methylate cladding.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

PCS Fibres: The plastic clad silica fibres are composed of silica cores surrounded by
a low refractive index transparent cladding. E.g. High purity Quartz as core and Teflon
as cladding is less expensive but more losses and hence used for shorter distances.

Comparison of different types of fibres – Summary.

Feature SMF MMF GRIN


Core Dia (∆n=n1-n2) 10 μm (Very small) 50 to 100 μm(Very 50 to 100 μm
large)
NA (Numeric Small Large In-between that of
Aperture) SMF and MMF
Number of Modes Only one Many Many
that are allowed
Alternations Least High Lower
Dispersions Zero intermodal Large Inter Nodal
dispersions Dispersions is Zero,
Material dispersion
Band Width > GHz - km < 200 MHz – km 200MHz / km to 3
GHz - km
Advantages No degradation of Less expensive LED LED (or) laser light
signals (or) laser source can source can be used
High Data Transfer be used. Launching
rate of light is easier.
Highly suitable for Coupling of fibres is
communication easier.
Degrades signal less.
Suitable for
communication
Drawbacks Costly. Some is Degrades signal less.
repelled. Coupling is Suitable for
difficult communication
Applications Underwater cables Data Links Telephone Lines

Optical Fibre Communication System:

The fibre optic communication system is shown in the figure. The three essential parts of the
system are Transmitter, Receiver and Optical Fibre.

Transmitter: A transmitter converts electrical signal to light signals. It consists of light source
supported by necessary drive circuits. A transmitter converts a non-electrical message into an
electrical signal and is fed to a light source.

Modulation: The light source which enables the varying intervenes of light beam from laser
diode (or) LED analogue modulation achieved [Modulation is the process of carrying a signal
on high frequency carrier wave]. Digital modulation is achieved by constructing a message
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

containing 1’s and 0’s [A pulse and absence of pulse respectively]. For digital modulation,
encoders which encodes to actual messages into digital signal are also used.

Optical Fibre: Optical fibre carries the information progressively. There will be alternation
in the signal.
Receiver: A photodiode converts light signal to electrical signal. To amplify the alternated
signal, there is an amplifier used at receiving end. A decoder to decode the signal is used. The
output is led to suitable transducer to convert an audio (or) video format.

Advantages of an optical fibers


 Enormous bandwidth
 Immunity to electrostatic interference
 Elimination of cross talk
 Lighter weight and smaller size
 Lower cost
 Signal security and Greater safety
 Longer life and easy to maintenance
 Low transmission loss
 Flexibility

Enormous bandwidth:
The bandwidth available with a single glass fiber is more than 100 GHz. With such a
large bandwidth, it is possible to transmit thousands of video conversations or dozens
of video signals over the same fiber simultaneously. Irrespective of whether the
information is voice, data or video or a combination of these, it can be transmitted
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

easily over the optical fibers. Whereas only a very less number (40-50) of independent
signals alone can be sent through metallic cables.

Elimination of cross talk:


Fiber system are immune to cross talk between cables caused by magnetic induction. Whereas,
in a metallic cable cross talk results from the electromagnetic coupling between two adjacent
wires.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Lower cost:
The material used in fiber is silica or silicon dioxide which is one of the most abundant material
on earth(The mass of Earth's crust is 59 percent silica, the main constituent of more than 95
percent of the known rocks),resulting in lower cost. Optical fiber costs are continuing to
decline.

SILICON DIOXIDE
SILICA

Signal security and Greater safety:


Fiber cable are more secure than metallic cable. Due to its immunity to electromagnetic
coupling and radiation, optical fiber can be used in most secure environments. Although it can
be intercepted, it is very difficult to do so because at the receiving user’s end an alarm would
be sounded. In many wired systems, the potential hazard of short circuits requires
precautionary designs. Whereas the dielectric nature of optical fibers eliminates the spark
hazard.

Longer life and easy to maintenance:


A longer life span of 20 to 30 years is predicated for the fiber optic cable as compared to 12
to 15 years for the conventional cables.

Low transmission loss:


Since the loss in fibers is now as low as 0.2db/km, transmission loss is very less compared to
best copper conductors. Hence in data networks this can be used as much as 2km without the
use of repeaters. Whereas copper cables would be impractical and using multiplexors one
fiber could replace hundreds of copper cables.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

Less weight and Flexibility:


Fiber structures are flexible, and they will occupy the less space. Because of this they can be
used in submarines, ships, spacecrafts, airplanes for communication wiring purpose.

Communication wiring inside the submarine

Optical fiber sensors:


Fiber optic sensors are transducers, which generally consist of a light source coupled with an
optical fiber and a light detector held at the receiver end.

Based on the sensor location, the fiber optic sensors are classified into two types
Intrinsic Fiber-Optic Sensors and Extrinsic Fiber-Optic Sensor. Intrinsic sensors utilize a change
that takes place within the fiber itself. example: a pressure sensor based on micro bending of
the fiber. If the optical fiber is only used to carry the light signals is called as extrinsic optical
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

fiber. Using optical fibers some physical parameters like temperature, pressure, force,
displacement etc., can be measured.

Temperature sensor:
Based on modulation mechanism the temperature sensors can be divided into two types
1.Intensity modulated sensor 2. Phase modulated sensor.

1. Intensity modulated temperature sensor


Principle: In this type of sensor, temperature is measured by the modulation of intensity
of the reflected light from a target, a silicon layer. The operation of the temperature sensor
is based on the 1μm wavelength light absorption characteristics of silicon as a function of
temperature. Depending on the temperature, the amount light absorbed by the silicon layer
varies. The change in intensity of the reflected light is proportional to the change in
temperature. This sensor is the example for extrinsic sensor.

Construction: The below figure illustrates a temperature sensor with a multimode fiber.
The fiber is coated at one end with a thin silicon layer. The silicon layer is in turn coated with
a reflective coating at the back. The silicon layer acts as a sensing element.

Working: The light from a light source is launched into the fiber from one of the ends of
its branches (See in below figure). It passes first through the fiber and then through the silicon
layer. The mirror coating at the other end of the silicon layer reflects the light back which

Fig: Intensity modulated temperature sensor


Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

again, travel through the silicon layer. The reflected light collected by another branch of multi-
mode optical fibers and is collected by a photodetector. The amount of reflected light
converted into voltage by the photodetector. The absorption of by the silicon layer varies with
temperature and the variation modulates the intensity of the received at the detector. With
this sensor we can measure temperature with a sensitivity of 0.0010C.

2. Phase modulates temperature sensor

Principle: This temperature sensor is based on phase variation resulting due to the
variation of refractive index of the optical fiber under the influence of temperature.

Construction: A light source such as a laser produces light. Abeam splitter divides the light
into two parts and sends light through the sensing fiber and the reference fiber. Light passing
out of the two fiber elements is fed to a detector, which measures the difference in phase of
the two light waves.

Working: The source from the light is divided into two parts by the beam splitter. One part
is passed through the refence fiber. Light rays entering the fibers are coherent have the same
phase. Prior to heating , the optical path lengths of the two fiber elements are same and hence
both the outputs will be in phase. When the sensor fiber is subjected to heating, the

Fig: Phase modulated temperature sensor


Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

temperature causes a change in refractive index of the optical fiber. Therefore,the light
coming out of the two fibers at the other end will have phase difference due to difference in
optical path difference caused by the heating. When the rays are superposed, they interfere
and interference pattern will be observed. As temperature increases, the phase difference
between the two outputs increaes and is observed as a displacement fringe pattern.By
determing the frige displacement, we can determine the magnitude of temperature.

Displacement fiber sensor: Displacement sensor is an extrinsic sensor and it consists


bundle of transmitting optical fiber and bundle of receiving optical fiber. Laser is used as a
source,this laser light passes through a transmittng otpical fiber and strikes the moving target.
After striking the moving target the light is reflected and it is received by recevier optical fiber
and fed to detector for detection which is fixed at the other end of the recevier bunch of
optical fiber.

With the help of change in intensity we can find the displacement of moving target. If the
intensity of receiving light is more then the moving target is moving towards the optical
fiber cable and if the intensity of light is less, then the moving target is moving away from
the target.

Applications: Transmission of light via an optical fibre has a wide variety of applications.
They are used for illumination and short distance transmission of images.
They are used as wave guides in telecommunication.
Optical fibers Dr. B. Vasundhara

They are used in fabricating a new family of sensors.

Illumination & Image Transmission: Many fibres where ends are bound together, one end
in input and the other end is output. If the relative positions of the fibre terminations of both
the ends are the same and if attempt is made to align the fibres in an orderly array, this is
coherent bundle. They simply conduct right from one region to another. E.g. Endoscopes (A
flexible image carrier).

In diagnostic field, optical fibre is used in endoscopy, which facilitates visual inspection
of internal parts of human body. This is also known as “Fiberscope”.

Construction: Contains10,000 fibres having 1mm diameter as shown in the figure. There are
02 fibre bundles in endoscope. One is illuminating the internal parts of the body and the other
is used to collect the reflected light from illuminated area. A telescope is used for a wide field
of view and better image quality.

Working: The light rays coming from source illuminates the interiors of the body. The light
rays reflected from the object surface are received by the objective lens through a prism and
transmitted through the image fibre bundle to the viewing end of the scope. The eye piece of
telescope reconstructs the image of the object and one can view the image of the surface of the
object.

Other Medical Applications:

1. In connecting detective vision, to guide the laser beam.


2. Optical fibre is used to evaporate built up plague that block an artery.
3. In treating cancer cells to illuminate the affected area.

Endoscopes Application
Military Applications:
Endoscope is an optical instrument which facilitates visual inspection of internal parts
of a human
 For body. It is alsosystems
communication calledina aircrafts,
fiberoscope. The
warships light rays
– optical fibre are focused and
communication coupled
is used.
to the illuminating fiber bundle. The light rays are finally incident on surface of the object
 FibreThe
under study. guidedlightmissiles are used from
rays reflected in recent wars.
object The video
surface information
are received is givenlens
by object as
continuously
through a prism monitoring
transmitted the warship
through through optical
the imaging fibre. The
fiber bundle missile
to the can be end
viewing ensured
to hit the target.
of the scope.

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