Optical fiber waveguides

Lect_2
Optical Fiber
4th year, Elect. Eng. Dept., ECE
Lecturer: Dr. Emad Tammam
 Outline
• Introduction
• Ray theory transmission
• Electromagnetic mode theory for optical
propagation
• Cylindrical fiber
• Single-mode fibers
• Photonic crystal fibers
 Early optical waveguide
• The transmission of light via a dielectric waveguide
structure was first proposed and investigated at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
• A transparent dielectric rod of silica glass with a
refractive index of around 1.5, surrounded by air,
proved to be an impractical waveguide due to:
 Unsupported structure (especially when very
thin waveguides were considered in order to
limit the number of optical modes propagated)
 The excessive losses at any discontinuities of the
glass–air interface.
• Proposals for a clad dielectric rod in the mid-1950s in
order to overcome these problems.
 Structure of optical fiber
• A transparent core with a refractive index n1
surrounded by a transparent cladding of slightly lower
refractive index n2.
• Function of the cladding is to:
 Supports the waveguide structure.
 Reduces the radiation loss into the surrounding air
when sufficiently thick.
 Optical fiber losses
• The invention of the clad waveguide structure led to the
first serious proposals in 1966 to utilize optical fibers as a
communications medium, even though they had losses in
excess of 1000 dB km−1 .
• Tremendous efforts to reduce the attenuation by
purification of the materials Leading to improved
conventional glass refining techniques giving fibers
with losses of around 4.2 dB km−1.
• Progress in glass refining allowed fibers of losses below
1dB km−1.
• Most of this work was focused on the 0.8 to 0.9 μm
wavelength band because the first generation of optical
sources fabricated from gallium aluminum arsenide
alloys operated in this region.
 Optical fiber losses, cont.
• Transmission at longer wavelengths (1.1 to 1.6
μm) would result in lower losses and reduced
signal dispersion.
• A shift in optical fiber source and detector
technology was produced in order to provide
operation at these longer wavelengths.
• At longer wavelengths, especially around 1.55
μm, typical high-performance fibers have losses
of 0.2 dB km−1.
• There is interest in glass-forming systems which
can provide low-loss transmission in the mid-
infrared (2 to 5 μm) optical wavelength regions.
• Although a system based on fluoride glass offers
the potential for ultra-low-loss transmission of
0.01 dB km−1 at a wavelength of 2.55 μm, such
fibers still exhibit losses of at least 0.65 dB km−1
and they also cannot yet be produced with the
robust mechanical properties of silica fibers
 Photonic crystal fiber
• It is a new class of micro-structured optical fiber
experimentally demonstrated in mid-1990s,
• It has exhibited the potential to deliver applications
ranging from light transmission over distance to
optical device implementations (e.g. power splitters,
amplifiers, bistable switches, wavelength converters).
• It typically contains an array of air holes running
along the longitudinal axis rather than consisting of a
solid silica rod structure.
• The presence of these holes provides an additional
dimension to fiber design which has already resulted
in new developments for both guiding and controlling
light.
Ray theory transmission
 Refractive index
• Refractive index of a medium is defined as the ratio of the
velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in the
medium->>>> core.
• A ray of light travels more slowly in an optically dense
medium than in one that is less dense.
• Snell’s law of refraction:

• As n1 is greater than n2 , the angle of refraction is always

greater than the angle of incidence.
Light rays incident on a high to low
refractive index interface
 Critical angle φc
• When the angle of refraction is 90° and the
refracted ray emerges parallel to the interface
between the dielectrics, the angle of incidence
must be less than 90°.
 Total internal reflection
• Occurs at the interface between two dielectrics of
differing refractive indices when:
 Light is incident from the dielectric of higher index
on the dielectric of lower index.
 Angles of incidence greater than the critical angle.

• The light ray shown in the figure is known as a

meridional ray as it passes through the axis of the
fiber core.
• Any discontinuities or imperfections at the core–
cladding interface would probably result in
refraction rather than total internal reflection,
with the subsequent loss of the light ray into the
cladding.
 Acceptance angle

• Is the maximum angle to the axis at which light

may enter the fiber in order to be propagated.
• Only rays with an angle to the normal greater than
φc at the core–cladding interface are transmitted
by total internal reflection
• Any rays incident into the fiber core at an angle
greater than θa will be transmitted to the core–
cladding interface at an angle less than φc, and
will not be totally internally reflected.
A angle>angle enter >C angle
 Acceptance angle, cont.
• From symmetry considerations it may be noted
that the output angle to the axis will be equal to
the input angle for the ray.
 Numerical aperture
• Gives a relationship between the acceptance
angle and the refractive indices of the three media
involved, namely the core, cladding and air.
 Numerical aperture, cont.
• Since the NA is often used with the fiber in air
where n0 is unity, it is simply equal to sin θa .

• The NA may also be given in terms of the relative

refractive index difference Δ between the core
and the cladding which is defined as
 Numerical aperture, cont.

• Relationships of the numerical aperture are a very

useful measure of the light-collecting ability of a
fiber.
NA->benefit:ability of fiber to collect the light
• They are independent of the fiber core diameter
and will hold for diameters as small as 8 μm.
• For smaller diameters they break down as the
geometric optics approach is invalid.
 Skew rays

• Category of ray exists which is transmitted without

passing through the fiber axis.
• It follow a helical path through the fiber.
• Unlike Meridional rays, the point of emergence
‫ﻇﻬﻮر‬
of skew rays from the fiber in air will depend
upon the number of reflections they undergo
rather than the input conditions to the fiber.
Skew rays, cont.
 Skew rays, cont.
• Skew rays will have a smoothing effect on the
distribution of the light as it is transmitted, giving
a more uniform output.

C
 Skew rays, cont.

• For the limiting case for total internal reflection is now

considered, then φ becomes equal to the critical angle
φc for the core–cladding interface

• Using Snell’s law at the point A

where θa represents the maximum input axial angle for

meridional rays and θ is the internal axial angle.
 Skew rays, cont.
• The maximum input angle or acceptance angle for
skew rays θas.

• Thus the acceptance conditions for skew rays are:

 Summary of skew rays
• By comparison with meridional rays, it may be noted that:

• Skew rays are accepted at larger axial angles in a given fiber

than meridional rays, depending upon the value of cos γ.
• In fact, for meridional rays cos γ is equal to unity and θas
becomes equal to θa. Thus although θa is the maximum
conical half angle for the acceptance of meridional rays, it
defines the minimum input angle for skew rays.
• Skew rays tend to propagate only in the annular region near
the outer surface of the core, and do not fully utilize the core
as a transmission medium.
• They are complementary to meridional rays and increase
the light-gathering capacity of the fiber especially for large
NA fibers.
Electromagnetic mode theory for
optical propagation
 Electromagnetic waves
• Maxwell’s equations For a medium with zero
conductivity
 Nondispersive wave equations

• Using the divergence conditions and the vector

identity
 Nondispersive wave equations, cont.
• Every field component satisfying the scalar wave
equation

• Laplacian operator:

• The basic solution of the wave equation is a

uniform plane wave given by:
• where ω is the angular frequency of the field, t is
the time, k (wave number) is the propagation
vector which gives the direction of propagation
and the rate of change of phase with distance.
 Modes in a planar guide
• The planar guide is the simplest form of optical
waveguide.
• It consists of a slab of dielectric with refractive
index n1 sandwiched between two regions of
lower refractive index n2 .
• By consideration of a plane monochromatic wave
propagating in the direction of the ray path within
the guide
• Refractive index within the guide is n1 , the optical
wavelength in this region is reduced to λ/n1 , while
the vacuum propagation constant is increased to
n1 k.
Modes in a planar guide, cont.
 Modes in a planar guide, cont.
• The components of the phase propagation constant in
the z and x directions are given by

• When the total phase change after two successive

reflections at the upper and lower interfaces (between
the points P and Q) is equal to 2mπ radians, where m
is an integer, then constructive interference occurs and
a standing wave is obtained in the x direction.
• For the lowest order (where m = 0) standing wave, the
electric field is a maximum at the center of the
guide decaying towards zero at the boundary
between the guide and cladding. The electric field
penetrates some distance into the cladding,
 Modes in a planar guide, cont.
• The optical wave is effectively confined within the guide and
the electric field distribution in the x direction does not
change as the wave propagates in the z direction.
• The stable field distribution in the x direction with only a
periodic z dependence is known as a mode.
• A specific mode is obtained only when the angle between
the propagation vectors or the rays and the interface have a
particular value.
• These modes have a periodic z dependence of the form
exp(−jβz z) where β z becomes the propagation constant for
the mode.
• If we now assume a time dependence for the
monochromatic electromagnetic light field with angular
frequency ω of exp( jωt), then the combined factor exp[j(ωt
− βz)] describes a mode propagating in the z direction.
Physical model of the ray propagation and the corresponding
transverse electric (TE) field patterns of three lower order
models (m = 1, 2, 3) in the planar dielectric guide
 Propagation modes

• TE, TM, and TEM

• Although TEM waves occur in metallic conductors
(e.g. coaxial cables) they are seldom found in
optical waveguides.
 Phase and group velocity
• For plane waves these constant phase points form
a surface which is referred to as a wavefront.
• The envelope of the wave package or group of
waves travels at a group velocity υg.

• It is impossible in practice to produce perfectly

monochromatic light waves, and light energy is
generally composed of a sum of plane wave
components of different frequencies.
 Packets of waves
• Wave packet resulting from the combination of
two waves of slightly different frequency
propagating together

• This wave packet does not travel at the phase

velocity of the individual waves but is observed
to move at a group velocity Vg given by
 Group index of the guide
• If propagation in an infinite medium of refractive
index n1
 Phase shift with total internal reflection and the
evanescent field
• The wave equation in Cartesian coordinates for
the electric field in a lossless medium is
 Propagation constants
• As the guide–cladding interface lies in the y–z
plane and the wave is incident in the x–z plane
onto the interface, then ∂/∂y may be assumed to
be zero.

• where βx1 and βx2 are propagation constants in the

x direction for the guide and cladding respectively.
• The three waves in the waveguide indicated in
Figure 2.11, the incident, the transmitted and the
reflected, with amplitudes A, B and C, respectively,
will have the forms:
• When an electromagnetic wave is incident
upon an interface between two dielectric
media, Maxwell’s equations require that both the
tangential components of E and H and the normal
components of (D = εE) and (B = μH) are
continuous across the boundary.
 Penetration of energy into the cladding
• The penetration of energy into the cladding
underlines the importance of the choice of cladding
material. It gives rise to the following requirements:
 The cladding should be transparent to light at the
wavelengths over which the guide is to operate.
 The cladding should consist of a solid material in
order to avoid both damage to the guide and the
accumulation of foreign matter on the guide walls.
 The cladding thickness must be sufficient to allow
the evanescent field to decay to a low value or
losses from the penetrating energy may be
encountered.
 Goos–Haenchen shift
• The reflected beam is shifted laterally from the
trajectory predicted by simple ray theory analysis.
This lateral displacement is known as the Goos–
Haenchen shift.