LECTURE 7: OPTICAL FIBER WAVEGUIDES: RAY THEORY

A Course Material on

Optical Fiber Communication

Dr. Samarth Borkar
Dept. of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering.
Goa College of Engineering.

Modes of Fiber

Types of rays
If the rays are launched within core of acceptance can be successfully propagated along the fiber.
But the exact path of the ray is determined by the position and angle of ray at which it strikes
the core.

There exists three different types of rays.

i) Skew rays ii) Meridional rays iii) Axial rays.

The skew rays does not pass through the center, as show in Fig. 7.1 (a). The skew rays reflects
off from the core cladding boundaries and again bounces around the outside of the core. It takes
somewhat similar shape of spiral of helical path.

Figure 7.1 Different ray propagation

The meridional ray enters the core and passes through its axis. When the core surface is
parallel, it will always be reflected to pass through the center. The meridional ray is shown
in fig. 7.1 (b).

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 LECTURE 7: OPTICAL FIBER WAVEGUIDES: RAY THEORY

The axial ray travels along the axis of the fiber and stays at the axis all the time. It is shown
in fig. 7.1(c).

Modes of Fiber
Fiber cables can also be classified as per their mode. Light rays propagate as an
electromagnetic wave along the fiber. The two components, the electric field and the
magnetic field form patterns across the fiber. These patterns are called modes of
transmission. The mode of a fiber refers to the number of paths for the light rays within the
cable. According to modes optic fibers can be classified into two types.
i) Single mode fiber ii) Multimode fiber.
Multimode fiber was the first fiber type to be manufactured and commercialized. The term
multimode simply refers to the fact that numerous modes (light rays) are carried
simultaneously through the waveguide. Multimode fiber has a much larger diameter,
compared to single mode fiber, this allows large number of modes.
Single mode fiber allows propagation to light ray by only one path. Single mode fibers are
best at retaining the fidelity of each light pulse over longer distance also they do not exhibit
dispersion caused by multiple modes. Thus more information can be transmitted per unit of
time. This gives single mode fiber higher bandwidth compared to multimode fiber.

Some disadvantages of single mode fiber are smaller core diameter makes coupling light into
the core more difficult. Precision required for single mode connectors and splices are more
demanding.

Fiber profiles
A fiber is characterized by its profile and by its core and cladding diameters. One way of
classifying the fiber cables is according to the index profile at fiber. The index profile is a
graphical representation of value of refractive index across the core diameter.
There are two basic types of index profiles.
i) Step index fiber. ii) Graded index fiber. Fig. 7.2 shows the index profiles of fibers.

Figure 7.2 Index profiles

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Step Index (SI) Fiber

The step index (SI) fiber is a cylindrical waveguide core with central or inner core has a
uniform refractive index of n1 and the core is surrounded by outer cladding with uniform
refractive index of n2. The cladding refractive index (n2) is less than the core refractive index
(n1). But there is an abrupt change in the refractive index at the core cladding interface.
Refractive index profile of step indexed optical fiber is shown in Fig. 7.3. The refractive index
is plotted on horizontal axis and radial distance from the core is plotted on vertical axis.

Figure 7.3 Step Index fiber

The propagation of light wave within the core of step index fiber takes the path of meridional
ray i.e. ray follows a zig-zag path of straight line segments. The core typically has diameter of
50-80 µm and the cladding has a diameter of 125 µm.
The refractive index profile is defined as –

Graded Fiber
The graded index fiber has a core made from many layers of glass. In the graded index
(GRIN) fiber the refractive index is not uniform within the core, it is highest at the center
and decreases smoothly and continuously with distance towards the cladding. The
refractive index profile across the
core takes the parabolic nature.
Fig. 7.4 shows refractive index
profile of graded index fiber.

Figure 7.4 Graded Index fiber

In graded index fiber the light waves are bent by refraction towards the core axis and they
follow the curved path down the fiber length. This results because of change in refractive
index as moved away from the center of the core.

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A graded index fiber has lower coupling efficiency and higher bandwidth than the step
index fiber. It is available in 50/125 and 62.5/125 sizes. The 50/125 fiber has been
optimized for long haul applications and has a smaller NA and higher bandwidth. 62.5/125
fiber is optimized for LAN applications which is costing 25% more than the 50/125 fiber
cable.

The refractive index variation in the core is giver by relationship

Where
r = Radial distance from fiber axis
a = Core radius
n1 = Refractive index of core
n2 = Refractive index of cladding

α = Shape of index profile.

Profile parameter α determines the characteristic refractive index profile of fiber core.The
range of refractive index as variation of α is shown in Fig. 7.5.

Figure 7.5 Possible fiber refractive index profiles for different values of α

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Comparison of Step Index and Graded Index Fiber

Sr. Parameter Step index fiber Graded index fiber
No.
1. Data rate Slow. Higher
2. Coupling efficiency Coupling efficiency with fiber Lower coupling efficiency.
is higher.
3. Ray path By total internal reflection. Light ray travels in
oscillatory fashion.
4. Index variation

5. Numerical aperture NA remains same. Changes continuously with

distance from fiber axis.
6. Material used Normally plastic or glass is Only glass is preferred.
preferred.
7. Bandwidth 10 – 20 MHz/km 1 GHz/km
efficiency
8. Pulse spreading Pulse spreading by fiber Pulse spreading is less
length is more.
9. Attenuation of light Less typically 0.34 dB/km at More 0.6 to 1 dB/km at 1.3
1.3 µm. µm.
10. Typical light source LED. LED, Lasers.

11. Applications Subscriber local network Local and wide area

Communication. networks.

Optic Fiber Configurations

Depending on the refractive index profile of fiber and modes of fiber there exist three types
of optical fiber configurations. These optic-fiber configurations are -

i) Single mode step index fiber.

ii) Multimode step index fiber.

iii) Multimode graded index fiber

Single mode Step index Fiber

In single mode step index fiber has a central core that is sufficiently small so
that there is essentially only one path for light ray through the cable. The light ray is
propagated in the fiber through reflection. Typical core sizes are 2 to 15 µm. Single mode
fiber is also known as fundamental or monomode fiber.

Fig. 7.6 shows single mode fiber.

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Figure 7.6 The refractive index profile and ray transmission in single mode step index fiber

Single mode fiber will permit only one mode to propagate and does not suffer from mode
delay differences. These are primarily developed for the 1300 nm window but they can be
also be used effectively with time division multiplex (TDM) and wavelength division
multiplex (WDM) systems operating in 1550 nm wavelength region.

The core fiber of a single mode fiber is very narrow compared to the wavelength of light
being used. Therefore, only a single path exists through the cable core through which light
can travel. Usually, 20 percent of the light in a single mode cable actually travels down the
cladding and the effective diameter of the cable is a blend of single mode core and degree to
which the cladding carries light. This is referred to as the ‘mode field diameter’, which is
larger than physical diameter of the core depending on the refractive indices of the core and
cladding.

The disadvantage of this type of cable is that because of extremely small size
interconnection of cables and interfacing with source is difficult. Another disadvantage of
single mode fibers is that as the refractive index of glass decreases with optical wavelength,
the light velocity will also be wavelength dependent. Thus the light from an optical
transmitter will have definite spectral width.

Multimode Step index Fiber

Multimode step index fiber is more widely used type. It is easy to manufacture. Its core
diameter is 50 to 1000 µm i.e. large aperture and allows more light to enter the cable. The
light rays are propagated down the core in zig-zag manner. There are many many paths that
a light ray may follow during the propagation.

The light ray is propagated using the principle of total internal reflection (TIR). Since the
core index of refraction is higher than the cladding index of refraction, the light enters at
less than critical angle is guided along the fiber.

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Figure 7.7 TIR in Multimode step index fiber

Light rays passing through the fiber are continuously reflected off the glass cladding
towards the centre of the core at different angles and lengths, limiting overall bandwidth.
The disadvantage of multimode step index fibers is that the different optical
lengths caused by various angles at which light is propagated relative to the core, causes
the transmission bandwidth to be fairly small. Because of these limitations, multimode step
index fiber is typically only used in applications requiring distances of less than 1 km.

Multimode Graded index Fiber

The core size of multimode graded index fiber cable is varying from 50 to 100 µm range.
The light ray is propagated through the refraction. The light ray enters the fiber at many
different angles. As the light propagates across the core toward the center it is intersecting
a less dense to more dense medium. Therefore the light rays are being constantly being
refracted and ray is bending continuously. This cable is mostly used for long distance
communication. Fig 7.8 shows multimode graded index fiber.

Figure 7.8 The refractive index profile and ray transmission in a multimode graded index fiber cable

The light rays no longer follow straight lines, they follow a serpentine path being
gradually bent back towards the center by the continuously declining refractive index.
The modes travelling in a straight line are in a higher refractive index so they travel
slower than the serpentine modes. This reduces the arrival time disparity because all
modes arrive at about the same time.
Fig 7.9 shows the light trajectory in detail. It is seen that light rays running
close to the fiber axis with shorter path length, will have a lower velocity because they

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pass through a region with a high refractive index.

Figure 7.9 Light trajectories in a graded index fiber

Rays on core edges offers reduced refractive index, hence travel faster than axial rays and
cause the light components to take same amount of time to travel the length of fiber, thus
minimizing dispersion losses. Each path at a different angle is termed as ‘transmission
mode’ and the NA of graded index fiber is defined as the maximum valueof acceptance
angle at the fiber axis. Typical attenuation coefficients of graded index fibers at 850 nm are
2.5 to 3 dB/km, while at 1300 nm they are 1.0 to 1.5 dB/km.

The main advantages of graded index fiber are:

1. Reduced refractive index at the center of core.
2. Comparatively cheap to produce.

Standard fibers
Cladding Core
Sr. Fiber type diameter diameter Δ Applications
No. (µm) (µm)
Single mode 1. Long distance
1. 125 8 0.1% to 0.2%
(8/125) 2. High data rate
Multimode 1. Short distance
2. 125 50 1% to 2%
(50/125) 2. Low data rate
Multimode
3. 125 62.5 1% to 2% LAN
(62.5/125)
Multimode
4. 140 100 1% to 2% LAN
(100/140)

My lecture notes prepared over the years forms the resource material for this compilation. Most of the material and figures have been taken from a wide collection
of Textbooks, research papers, and review articles published in journals/proceedings. Although this compilation has been created with utmost determination and
hard work still any kind of constructive criticism are always welcome and gratefully appreciated. I do not lay any claims to original research therein but what I can
claim is the way the contents have been presented. Refer standard suggested textbooks for in-depth understanding. It is beyond the scope of this compilation to
cover all the aspects exhaustively. ~ Dr. Samarth Borkar, Goa College of Engineering