Discrete Acceptance Cones : proof

The light basically consists of wave fronts. A

line perpendicular to a wave front is called the
ray. Light is an electromagnetic wave and
when we say it travels like a ray it is a
collection of wave fronts which move.

Let us take an optical fiber with light rays

propagating in it. The rays and the wave
fronts which are perpendicular to the rays,
are as shown in the following figure

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3
Let us consider a phase front corresponding to the ray AB
and passing through the point B . This phase front also
meets the ray CD at point E . In other words, the phase of
the ray at B (just before the reflection) is same as that of the
ray at point E. That is to say that the phase change
corresponding to the distance BCE added with the phase
of the reflection coefficient at points Band C should be a
multiple of 2 .
This is what is called the condition for constructive
interference.
From simple geometric considerations we have:

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phase change from B to E is

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For constructive interference the phase change should
be multiple of

Simplifying equations we get a condition for sustained

propagation of light rays inside the core as

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It can be noted that for
(i.e. the ray along the axis of the fiber),
and the condition is satisfied with
for any value of

As increases (either due to increase of the

diameter of the core or refractive index of the core, or
decrease in wavelength) more values of satisfy the
condition and therefore have sustained propagation
inside the fiber.

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The above phase condition can be satisfied only by
discrete rays entering the structure i.e. rays at finite
number of angles are accepted by the optical fiber. The
ensemble of rays entering at a specific angle from the
axis of the fiber gives discrete optical intensity
distributions. These are called the modes of an optical
fiber.

From the expression of the phase matching condition we

find that as d increases, the number of rays accepted by
the optical fiber increases and as d decreases the number
of rays decreases.

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Since the dispersion is due to presence of multiple rays
(modes), if only one ray is made to propagate inside
the fiber, there is no dispersion. So if we take a value
of d small enough such that it satisfies the phase
condition only the lowest value of m, only one mode
will propagate inside the fiber.

The lowest value of m corresponds to the ray traveling

along the axis of the fiber. In fact this ray does not have
any constraint on the size of the fiber etc, as it does not
really go through the total internal reflection at the core
cladding boundary. This ray therefore always
propagates.
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 Limitations of the Ray-model
(1) The ray model gives an impression that during total
internal reflection the energy is confined to the core
only. However, it is not so. In reality the optical energy
spreads in cladding also.
(2) The ray model does not speak of the discrete field
patterns for propagation inside a fiber.
(3) The ray model breaks down when the core size
becomes comparable to the wavelength of light. The
ray model therefore is not quite justified for a SM
fiber.

The limitations of the Ray model are overcome in the

wave model. 10
There are certain limitations to ray model.
The ray model does not predict correctly that even
after total internal reflection there will be some field
in the cladding .
Also it does not predict that rays can be launched at
only discrete angles in an optical fiber.
For an accurate and complete description of light
propagation inside an optical fiber we have to go in
for a more rigorous model, called the WAVE
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MODEL.
 Here the propagation of light inside an optical fiber is studied
treating light as an electromagnetic wave.

Inside a fiber core the optical energy gets guided i.e. the energy
propagates along the axis of the core and the fields exponentially
decay in the cladding away from the core-cladding interface.

In a practical fiber the cladding is surrounded by a protective

layer. Generally, by the time the field reaches that layer, it dies
down significantly so that the protecting layer does not affect the
propagation of the wave significantly. 12
That is, the whole propagation of light is governed by the
core cladding interface and the interface between the
cladding and other protecting layers does not affect the
propagation.
The cladding can be considered to be of infinite size,
without incurring significant error.

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 the core of the optical fiber is a cylinder of radius a
and of refractive index, n1. The refractive index of
cladding is, n2 and the cladding is of infinite radius.
The appropriate coordinate system to analyze this
problem is the cylindrical coordinate system, .

The wave propagates in the direction and the fields

have definite distributions in the cross sectional plane,
defined by . Any radial direction from the center
of the fiber is denoted by and the azimuthal angle
measured from a reference axis (x-axis) in the cross-
sectional plane is denoted by .

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 To investigate an electromagnetic problem we start
with the Maxwell's equations.

Here we investigate the propagation of light in the

fiber without worrying about the origin of the light
inside the fiber.

In other words we assume that the Maxwell's

equations which govern the electromagnetic
radiations inside the fiber are source free .

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1. Maxwell's equations for a source-free medium
(i.e., the charge density and the conduction
current densities in the medium are zero):

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2. Where is the electric displacement vector, B is
the magnetic flux density, E is the electric field,
and H is the magnetic field intensity.

We have two more equations, called the constitutive

relations, as

where is the permeability of the medium and

is the permittivity of the medium.

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3. Now we have to decouple the equations (3) & (4).
For this, we take curl of equation (3) as

Substituting for and interchanging the space and

time derivatives, we get

(Since we assume a homogeneous medium,

is not a function of space).

Now substituting from eqn.(4) we get

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From vector algebra we have the identity

so the above equation can be simplified to

For a homogeneous medium is not a function of space.

Eqn (1) then gives

Substituting in above eqn. we get

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This equation is called the Wave Equation . If we do
the similar analysis for the magnetic field we get the
same wave equation for the magnetic field

4. To analyze the propagation of light inside an optical fiber,

we have to solve the wave equation with appropriate boundary
Conditions.
Since we have chosen the cylindrical coordinate system , we
write the wave equation for the electric field
(and magnetic field) in the cylindrical coordinates as:

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The electric field ,is a vector quantity having three
components and the magnetic field , is a vector quantity
Also having three components.

So we have total 6 field components. However all these

components are not independent of each other since
are related through the Maxwell's equations.

We can take two components as independent components

and express the remaining four components in terms of the
independent components.

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 Since in this case the wave propagates along the axis of
the fiber i.e., in the direction, generally the two
components (also called the longitudinal
components) are taken as independent components and
the other four transverse field components i.e.,
are expressed in terms of these two
components.

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5. The wave equation is solved for the two
longitudinal components and the transverse components
can be obtained by substitution of the longitudinal
components in the Maxwell's equations.
The transverse components are related to the longitudinal
components as

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where ( is the propagation constant of the
wave along the axis of the fiber.
The wave equation is to be solved for and which are
scalar quantities. So in general the wave equation is
solved for a scalar function , where represents either or
.
Writing the above wave equation in terms of the scalar
function we get

6. For a general solution of the wave equation we apply

separation of variables. We assume the solution as
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Let us assume that the fields are time harmonic fields, that
is, all electric and magnetic field components have time
variation i.e,

Then the previous equation becomes:

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7. Since the energy has to propagate along the axis of the
fiber, the solution should be a traveling wave type solution
along the axis, that is, the direction. If a wave travels in
the direction then its z-variation should be .
That is to say that

Now to fix the variation we can use the following

argument . From Figure1 we can note that, if we move only
in the direction i.e., in the azimuthal direction in a cross
sectional plane, after one complete rotation we reach to the
same location.
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In other words, the function is periodic in over . In
direction , the function is a harmonic function that is,

e j e j
where is an integer. This functional form represents a field
which will repeat itself after one rotation or when changes
by multiples of .
Substituting for the in the wave equation the only
unknown function remains to be evaluated is .

The wave equation therefore becomes

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Since as was defined earlier, the final wave
equation will be

This equation is the Bessel's equation and solutions

of this equation are called the Bessel functions .

Field variation in the transverse plane in the radial

direction will be governed by the Bessel's equation and the
field distributions would be Bessel functions.
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8. We have a variety of solutions to the Bessel's
equation depending upon the parameters and .
is an integer and a positive quantity.

Depending upon the choice of i.e.,

a) real, b) imaginary, c) complex, we get different
solutions to the Bessel's equation.

So to choose the proper solution we must have the

physical understanding of the field distribution.

Here we use the physical understandings gathered from

the ray model of the light propagation.
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So the physical understanding of the problem suggests
that a solution which has an oscillatory behavior inside
the core and decaying behavior inside the cladding is the
appropriate choice.

Any other solution is not acceptable because it is not

consistent with the physical understanding of the modal
propagation.

Let us now look at the plot of the Bessel functions for

various possibilities of (argument). There are three
different types of Bessel functions depending upon the
nature of
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If is real then the solutions are

Bessel functions

Neumann functions

The quantity is called the order of the function and

is called the argument of the function.

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Plots of the two functions as a function of their arguments
are shown in the Fig.

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If is imaginary, we get solutions of the Bessel's
equation as

These are called the Modified Bessel functions of

first and second kind respectively.
Note: Since is imaginary, is a real quantity.
So the argument of the modified Bessel functions is real.

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37
If is complex
Then the solutions are

Hankel function of kind

Hankel function of kind

In our analysis, will either be real or imaginary depending

on whether is positive or negative. Therefore
we have to deal with Bessel, Neumann and Modified Bessel
functions only. The Hankel functions are needed for
analyzing propagation in a lossy medium.

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As far as guided wave propagation is concerned, the fields
should have oscillatory behavior inside the core, and in
cladding the field must decay monotonically.

Therefore it is obvious that inside the core the Modified

Bessel functions is not the proper solution.

Only Bessel function or Neumann function could be

solutions inside the core.
Let us take dielectric constant for the core. Then
we have

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For oscillatory type of solution inside the core, is
positive. Therefore for a guided mode we must have

i.e.,

Where is the wave number in the free space

and is nothing but the wave number in an
unbound medium of refractive index .

Let us denote q by u inside the core, giving

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Let us now re-look at the two functions, Bessel functions and
Neumann functions , and make following observations.

Bessel function: The functions are finite for all values of r .

Neumann Function: The functions start from - at r =0

and have finite value for all other values of r.

For the core r =0 represents the axis of fiber. Therefore if

Neumann function is chosen as a solution, the field strength
would be - at the axis of the fiber which is inconsistent with
the physical conditions. The fields must be finite all over the
cross section of the core. So the Neumann functions cannot be
the solution if point is included in the region under
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consideration.
Therefore we conclude that is the only appropriate
solution for the modal fields inside the core of an optical
Fiber .

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Field distribution in the cladding is of monotonically
decaying nature.

We therefore must have imaginary in the

cladding.

We hence should have

where is the refractive index of the cladding.

Since is negative, let us define a real
quantity such that such that .

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For modified Bessel's functions of the 1st kind, as r
increases, that is, as we move away from the axis of the
fiber the field monotonically increases and when
Field goes to infinity.
Since the energy source is inside the core, the fields
cannot grow indefinitely away from the core. The only
acceptable situation is that the field decays away from the
core i.e., for larger values of r.
This behavior is correctly given by the Modified Bessel
function of second kind, .

and is the appropriate solution for the

cladding fields .
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9. For a guided mode, the propagation constant lies
between two limits and .

Therefore the permissible range of for bound

solutions is n k nk
2 1

Field distribution:
From the solution of the wave equation we get the
longitudinal fields inside the core and the cladding
as follows

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10.
Inside the core i.e.,

Electric field:

Magnetic field:

Inside the cladding i.e.,

Electric field:

Magnetic field: 46
Once we get the longitudinal components of the electric
and magnetic fields, we can find the transverse field
components inside the core and the cladding by using the
relations given above.

Applying the boundary conditions i.e., the tangential

components of electric field and the tangential
components of magnetic field are continuous along the
core cladding boundary, we get what is called the
characteristic equation of the mode.

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The characteristic equation contains 3 unknowns u, w and .
Using the above equation and the equations for u and w, we
can find the modal propagation constant .

If is real , the mode propagates and if is imaginary the

mode is evanescent.

We have to use numerical techniques to solve the

characteristic equation for a given value of .
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We get multiple solutions to the problem and each solution
gives one mode for a given value of .

So depending upon the fiber radius, different number of

modes propagates inside an optical fiber.

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