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This document discusses light sources for fiber optic networks. It describes two popular light sources: light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and semiconductor lasers. LEDs are preferred for short distance networks because they are inexpensive, robust, have a long life, can be modulated at high speeds, and couple enough power to fibers. The document then provides details on the principle of LEDs, including that they are p-n junctions that emit light when forward biased as electrons recombine with holes in the depletion region.

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51 views11 pages

Content 2

This document discusses light sources for fiber optic networks. It describes two popular light sources: light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and semiconductor lasers. LEDs are preferred for short distance networks because they are inexpensive, robust, have a long life, can be modulated at high speeds, and couple enough power to fibers. The document then provides details on the principle of LEDs, including that they are p-n junctions that emit light when forward biased as electrons recombine with holes in the depletion region.

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Light Sources

1
Light Sources
Generally, a light source must meet the following requirements:
It must be able to turn on and off several tens of millions, or even
billions, of times per second.
It must be able to emit a wavelength that is transparent to the
fiber.
It must be able to couple light energy into the fiber.

The optical power emitted must be sufficient enough to transmit


through optical fibers.
The performance of the fiber-optic should not be affected by the
temperature variation.
The manufacturing cost of the light source must be relatively
inexpensive

2
Light Sources
There are two popular light sources:
Light-emitting diodes
Semiconductor lasers.

3
Light-Emitting Diode

A light emitting diode (LED) is a device which


converts electrical energy to light energy.

LEDs are preferred light sources for short distance


(local area) optical fiber network because they:

are inexpensive, robust and have long life (the long


life of an LED is primarily due to its being a cold
device, i.e. its operating temperature being much
lower than that of, say, an incandescent lamp),

4
Light-Emitting Diode

can be modulated (i.e. switched on and off) at high


speeds (this property of an LED is also due
to its being a cold device as it
does not have to overcome thermal inertia),
couple enough output power over a small area to
couple to fibers (though the output spectrum
is wider than other sources
such as laser diodes).

5
Principle of LED - p-n Homojunction

An LED is a p-n junction with a heavily doped n-type


semiconductor(n ) and a lightly doped p-type.
The device works if it is forward biased. When p- side of
the junction is connected to the positive terminal of a
battery and the n side to the negative terminal,
The barrier hight gets reduced and the carriers diffuse to
the other side of the junction.
As the p- side is lightly doped, much fewer number of holes
cross over to the n-side than the number of electrons
which diffuse to the n-side. Recombination takes place in
the depletion region (also called the active layer ) and
light is emitted. 6
Principle of LED - p-n Homojunction

7
Principle of LED - p-n Homojunction

The emission takes place in random direction. If


the width of the p-side is made much thinner than
the width of the n-side, the emitted light can
escape from the device without getting reabsorbed
by the material.

8
Principle of LED - p-n Homojunction

Recombination of electrons and holes also takes place non-


radiatively, which reduce output of the device. The fraction
of the electrons that are injected into the depletion layer
which results in photons getting produced is called the
internal quantum efficiency of the LED,
usually denoted by . If N is the number of electrons injected
into the depletion layer every second, the power output of the
device is given by

9
Principle of LED - p-n Homojunction

where is the forward current and the electronic charge.

10
The switching speed of an LED depends on the
recombination rate, R, expressed by

where J is the current density (A/m2) , d is the


thickness of the recombination region,and e is the
electron charge.

11

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