Signal Distortion on

Optical Fibers -
Attenuation
Dr. Kazi Abu Taher
Professor
Dept. of ICT
Bangladesh University of Professionals

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Objectives
• Signal distortion
• Condition for signal distortion-less transmission
• Special nature of Optical Signal
• Attenuation on Optical Fiber
• Material Loss
• Scattering Loss
• Micro-Bending Losses

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 Introduction
The factors which affect the performance of optical fibers as a transmission medium are of utmost importance when the
suitability of optical fibers for communication purposes is investigated. The transmission characteristics of most interest are
those of attenuation (or loss) and bandwidth.
The huge potential bandwidth of optical communications helped stimulate the birth of the idea that a dielectric
waveguide made of glass could be used to carry wideband telecommunication signals. This occurred in the celebrated
papers by Kao and Hockham, and Werts, in 1966. However, at the time a typical block of glass could support optical
transmission for at best a few tens of meters before it was attenuated to an unacceptable level. It was largely due to
absorption in the glass, caused by impurities such as iron, copper, manganese and other transition metals. Hence,
research was stimulated towards a new generation of ‘pure’ glasses for use in optical fiber communications.
A major breakthrough came in 1970 when the first fiber with an attenuation below 20 dB km−1 was reported. Tremendous
improvements have been made, leading to silica-based glass fibers with losses of less than 0.2 dB km−1 by the late 1980s.

The other characteristic of primary importance is the bandwidth of the fiber. This is limited by the signal dispersion within
the fiber, which determines the number of bits of information transmitted in a given time period. Once the attenuation
was reduced to acceptable levels, attention was directed towards the dispersive properties of fibers. Again, this has led to
substantial improvements, giving wideband fiber bandwidths of many tens of gigahertz over a number of kilometers.
In order to appreciate these advances and possible future developments, the optical transmission characteristics of fibers
must be considered in greater depth. This chapter discusses the major transmission characteristics such as attenuation
and dispersion, while also considering other effects such as modal noise, polarization and nonlinear phenomena.
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3.2 Attenuation
The attenuation or transmission loss of optical fibers is one of the most important factors in bringing about their wide
acceptance in telecommunications. As channel attenuation largely determined the maximum transmission distance prior to
signal restoration, optical fiber communications became especially attractive when the transmission losses of fibers were
reduced below those of the competing metallic conductors (less than 5 dB km −1).
Signal attenuation within optical fibers is usually expressed in the logarithmic unit of the decibel. The decibel, which is used
for comparing two power levels, may be defined for a particular optical wavelength as the ratio of the input (transmitted)
optical power Pi into a fiber to the output (received) optical power Po from the fiber as:

• This logarithmic unit has the advantage that the operations of multiplication and division reduce to
addition and subtraction, while powers and roots reduce to multiplication and division.
• However, addition and subtraction require a conversion to numerical values which may be obtained
using the relationship:

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• In optical fiber communications the attenuation is usually expressed in decibels
per unit length (i.e. dB km−1 ) following:

• where αdB is the signal attenuation per unit length in decibels which is also
referred to as the fiber loss parameter and L is the fiber length.
• A number of mechanisms are responsible for the signal attenuation within optical
fibers. These mechanisms are influenced by the material composition, the
preparation and purification technique, and the waveguide structure.
• They may be categorized within several major areas which include material
absorption, material scattering (linear and nonlinear scattering), curve and
microbending losses, mode coupling radiation losses and losses due to leaky
modes. There are also losses at connectors and splices.

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 Material absorption losses in silica glass fibers
• Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to the material composition and the
fabrication process for the fiber, which results in the dissipation of some of the transmitted
optical power as heat in the waveguide.
• The absorption of the light may be intrinsic (caused by the interaction with one or more of the
major components of the glass) or extrinsic (caused by impurities within the glass).

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 Intrinsic absorption
• An absolutely pure silicate glass has little intrinsic absorption due to its basic material structure in the near-
infrared region.
• However, it does have two major intrinsic absorption mechanisms at optical wavelengths which give a low
intrinsic absorption window over the 0.8 to 1.7 μm wavelength range, as in Figure 3.1, which shows a
possible optical attenuation against wavelength characteristic for absolutely pure glass.
• There is a fundamental absorption edge, the peaks of which are centered in the ultraviolet wavelength
region. This is due to the stimulation of electron transitions within the glass by higher energy excitations.
The tail of this peak may extend into the window region at the shorter wavelengths.
• Also in the infrared and far infrared, normally at wavelengths above 7 μm, fundamentals of absorption
bands from the interaction of photons with molecular vibrations within the glass occur.
• The effects of both these processes may be minimized by suitable choice of both core and cladding
compositions.
• For instance, in some nonoxide glasses such as fluorides and chlorides, the infrared absorption peaks occur
at much longer wavelengths which are well into the far infrared (up to 50 μm), giving less attenuation to
longer wavelength transmission compared with oxide glasses.

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 Extrinsic absorption
• In practical optical fibers prepared by conventional melting techniques, a major source of signal attenuation
is extrinsic absorption from transition metal element impurities.
• Some of the more common metallic impurities found in glasses are shown in the Table 3.1.
• It may be noted that certain of these impurities, namely chromium and copper, in their worst valence state
can cause attenuation in excess of 1 dB km−1 in the near-infrared region.
• Transition element contamination may be reduced to acceptable levels by glass refining techniques such as
vapor-phase oxidation, which largely eliminates the effects of these metallic impurities.
• However, another major extrinsic loss mechanism is caused by absorption due to water (as the hydroxyl or
OH ion) dissolved in the glass.
• These hydroxyl groups are bonded into the glass structure and have fundamental stretching vibrations
which occur at wavelengths between 2.7 and 4.2 μm depending on group position in the glass network.

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Figure 3.2 The absorption spectrum for the hydroxyl (OH) group in silica.

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Figure 3.3 The measured attenuation spectrum for an ultra-low-loss single-mode fiber (solid line) with the
calculated attenuation spectra for some of the loss mechanisms contributing to the overall fiber attenuation
(dashed and dotted lines) 14
Figure 3.4 Fiber attenuation spectra: low-water-peak fiber compared with standard single-mode and
nonzero-dispersion-shifted fibers

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The attenuation spectrum for this low-water-peak fiber (LWPF), or dry fiber, is shown in Figure 3.4 where it is
compared with standard single-mode fiber (SSMF).
The LWPF permits the transmission of optical signals over the full 1.260 to 1.675 μm wavelength range with
losses less than 0.4 dB km−1 and therefore better facilitates wavelength division multiplexing.
The optical transmission wavelength band designations are also identified on the wavelength axis of Figure
3.4. These International Telecommunications Union (ITU) spectral band designations for both intermediate-
range and long-distance optical fiber communications are indicated by the letters O, E, S, C, L and U, which are
defined in Table 3.2.
It should be noted that long-haul transmission first took place in the O- and C-bands, subsequently followed
by the L-band region. In addition, it is apparent that LWPF has enabled the use of the 1.460 to 1.530 μm
window or S-band which is affected by the water peak in SSMF.

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 3.4 Linear scattering losses
• Linear scattering mechanisms cause the transfer of some or all of the optical power
contained within one propagating mode to be transferred linearly (proportionally to the
mode power) into a different mode.
• This process tends to result in attenuation of the transmitted light as the transfer may be to
a leaky or radiation mode which does not continue to propagate within the fiber core, but
is radiated from the fiber.
• It must be noted that as with all linear processes, there is no change of frequency on
scattering. Linear scattering may be categorized into two major types: Rayleigh and Mie
scattering.
• Both result from the nonideal physical properties of the manufactured fiber which are
difficult and, in certain cases, impossible to eradicate at present.

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3.4.1 Rayleigh scattering
• Rayleigh scattering is the dominant intrinsic loss mechanism in the low-absorption window between the
ultraviolet and infrared absorption tails.
• It results from inhomogeneities of a random nature occurring on a small scale compared with the
wavelength of the light.
• These inhomogeneities manifest themselves as refractive index fluctuations and arise from density and
compositional variations which are frozen into the glass lattice on cooling.
• The compositional variations may be reduced by improved fabrication, but the index fluctuations caused by
the freezing-in of density inhomogeneities are fundamental and cannot be avoided.
• The subsequent scattering due to the density fluctuations, which is in almost all directions, produces an
attenuation proportional to 1/λ4 following the Rayleigh scattering formula. For a single-component glass
this is given by:

• where γR is the Rayleigh scattering coefficient, λ is the optical wavelength, n is the refractive index of the
medium, p is the average photo-elastic coefficient, βc is the isothermal compressibility at a fictive
temperature TF, and K is Boltzmann’s constant.
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• The fictive temperature is defined as the temperature at which the glass can reach a state of thermal
equilibrium and is closely related to the anneal temperature.
• Furthermore, the Rayleigh scattering coefficient is related to the transmission loss factor (transmissivity) of
the fiber L following the relation:

• where L is the length of the fiber. It is apparent from Eq. (3.4) that the fundamental component of Rayleigh
scattering is strongly reduced by operating at the longest possible wavelength.

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 3.4.2 Mie scattering
• Linear scattering may also occur at inhomogeneities which are comparable in size with the guided
wavelength.
• These result from the nonperfect cylindrical structure of the waveguide and may be caused by fiber
imperfections such as irregularities in the core–cladding interface, core–cladding refractive index differences
along the fiber length, diameter fluctuations, strains and bubbles.
• When the scattering inhomogeneity size is greater than λ/10, the scattered intensity which has an angular
dependence can be very large.
• The scattering created by such inhomogeneities is mainly in the forward direction and is called Mie
scattering.
• Depending upon the fiber material, design and manufacture, Mie scattering can cause significant losses. The
inhomogeneities may be reduced by:
 removing imperfections due to the glass manufacturing process
 carefully controlled extrusion and coating of the fiber
 increasing the fiber guidance by increasing the relative refractive index difference.
• By these means it is possible to reduce Mie scattering to insignificant levels.

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3.5 Nonlinear scattering losses
Optical waveguides do not always behave as completely linear channels whose increase in
output optical power is directly proportional to the input optical power.
Several nonlinear effects occur, which in the case of scattering cause disproportionate
attenuation, usually at high optical power levels.
This nonlinear scattering causes the optical power from one mode to be transferred in either
the forward or backward direction to the same, or other modes, at a different frequency.
It depends critically upon the optical power density within the fiber and hence only becomes
significant above threshold power levels.
The most important types of nonlinear scattering within optical fibers are stimulated Brillouin
and Raman scattering, both of which are usually only observed in long single-mode fibers.
These scattering mechanisms in fact give optical gain but with a shift in frequency, thus
contributing to attenuation for light transmission at a specific wavelength.
However, such nonlinear phenomena can also be used to give optical amplification in the
context of integrated optical techniques.

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Stimulated Brillouin scattering
• Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) may be regarded as the modulation of light through thermal molecular
vibrations within the fiber.
• The scattered light appears as upper and lower sidebands which are separated from the incident light by
the modulation frequency.
• The incident photon in this scattering process produces a phonon of acoustic frequency as well as a
scattered photon. This produces an optical frequency shift which varies with the scattering angle because
the frequency of the sound wave varies with acoustic wavelength. The frequency shift is a maximum in the
backward direction, reducing to zero in the forward direction, making SBS a mainly backward process.
• Brillouin scattering is only significant above a threshold power density. Assuming that the polarization state
of the transmitted light is not maintained, it may be shown that the threshold power PB is given by:

• where d and λ are the fiber core diameter and the operating wavelength, respectively, both measured in
micrometers, αdB is the fiber attenuation in decibels per kilometer and ν is the source bandwidth (i.e.
injection laser) in gigahertz.
• The threshold optical power PB which must be launched into a single-mode optical fiber before SBS occurs.

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Stimulated Raman scattering
• Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is similar to SBS except that a high-frequency optical phonon rather
than an acoustic phonon is generated in the scattering process.
• SRS can occur in both the forward and backward directions in an optical fiber, and may have an optical
power threshold of up to three orders of magnitude higher than the Brillouin threshold in a particular fiber.
• It may be shown that the threshold optical power for SRS PR in a long single-mode fiber is given by:

• However, it must be noted that the Brillouin threshold has been reported as occurring at optical powers as
low as 10 mW in single-mode fibers.
• Nevertheless, this is still a high power level for optical communications and may be easily avoided.
• SBS and SRS are not usually observed in multimode fibers because their relatively large core diameters
make the threshold optical power levels extremely high.
• The threshold optical powers for both these scattering mechanisms may be increased by suitable
adjustment of the other parameters. Operation at the longest possible wavelength is advantageous.

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 3.6 Fiber bend loss
• Optical fibers suffer radiation losses at bends or curves on their paths.
• This is due to the energy in the evanescent field at the bend exceeding the velocity of light in the cladding
and hence the guidance mechanism is inhibited, which causes light energy to be radiated from the fiber.
• The part of the mode which is on the outside of the bend is required to travel faster than that on the inside
so that a wavefront perpendicular to the direction of propagation is maintained.
• Hence, part of the mode in the cladding needs to travel faster than the velocity of light in that medium. As
this is not possible, the energy associated with this part of the mode is lost through radiation.
• The loss can generally be represented by a radiation attenuation coefficient which has the form:

• where R is the radius of curvature of the fiber bend and c1, c2 are constants which are independent of R.
Furthermore, large bending losses tend to occur in multimode fibers at a critical radius of curvature Rc which
may be estimated from:

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• It may be observed from the expression given in Eq. (3.8) that potential macrobending
losses may be reduced by:
• designing fibers with large relative refractive index differences
• operating at the shortest wavelength possible
• The above criteria for the reduction of bend losses also apply to single-mode fibers. The
critical radius of curvature for a single-mode fiber Rcs can be estimated as:

• where λc is the cutoff wavelength for the single-mode fiber.

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• The critical radius of curvature for guided modes can be made extremely small
(e.g. 9 μm).
• For most practical purposes, the critical radius of curvature is relatively small to
avoid severe attenuation of the guided mode(s) at fiber bends.
• It is essential that sharp bends, with a radius of curvature approaching the
critical radius, are avoided when optical fiber cables are installed.
• Finally, it is important that microscopic bends with radii of curvature
approximating to the fiber radius are not produced in the fiber cabling process

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 3.7 Mid-infrared and far-infrared transmission
 In the near-infrared region of the optical spectrum, fundamental silica fiber attenuation is dominated by
Rayleigh scattering and multiphonon absorption from the infrared absorption edge.
 Therefore, the total loss decreases as the operational transmission wavelength increases until a crossover
point is reached around a wavelength of 1.55 μm where the total fiber loss again increases because at
longer wavelengths the loss is dominated by the phonon absorption edge.
 Since the near fundamental attenuation limits for near-infrared silicate class fibers have been achieved,
more recently researchers have turned their attention to the mid-infrared (2 to 5 μm) and the far-infrared (8
to 12 μm) optical wavelengths.
 In order to obtain lower loss fibers it is necessary to produce glasses exhibiting longer infrared cutoff
wavelengths.
 Potentially, much lower losses can be achieved if the transmission window of the material can be extended
further into the infrared.
 The reason for this possible loss reduction is due to Rayleigh scattering which displays a λ −4 dependence
and hence becomes much reduced as the wavelength is increased.

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• Candidate glass-forming systems for mid-infrared transmission are fluoride, fluoride– chloride, chalcogenide
and oxide.
• In particular, oxide glasses such as Al2O3 (i.e. sapphire) offer a near equivalent transmittance range to many
of the fluoride glasses and have benefits of high melting points, chemical inertness, and the ability to be
readily melted and grown in air.
• Chalcogenide glasses, which generally comprise one or more elements Ge, Si, As and Sb, are capable of
optical transmission in both the mid-infrared and far-infrared regions.

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Thank you!

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