BERGH et al.

: OPTICAL SOURCES FOR FIBER TRANSMISSION 1240

been divided into two general categories, intrinsic and in Research and Development, B. Bendow and S. S. Mitra,
extrinsic. The designer has the choice to construct a better Eds., New York: Plenum, 1979, pp. 355—367.
fiber or to accept one that damages and then try to expedite the [91 E. J. Friebele, opt. Eng., vol. 18, p. 552, 1979.
recovery process. Details are again available in the references. [101 R. C. Webb, L. Isaacson and E. P. Marram, Opt. Eng., vol. 18,
p. 568, 1979.
(111 G. H. Sigel, Jr., in Proc. DNA Conf. Fiber Optics in the Nuclear
V. SUMMARY Environment, vol. 1, 1980.
[12) E. J. Friebele, M. E. Gingerich, and G. H. Sigel, Jr., Appl. Phys.
Radiation-induced absorption in optical fibers still presents a Lett., vol. 32, p. 619, 1978.
problem for many systems required to operate in radiation [131 E. J. Friebele, P. C. Schultz, M. E. Gingerich, and L. M.
environments. Certain high purity synthetic silica core fibers Hayden, in Rec. Topical Meet. Optical Fiber Communication
possess excellent hardness under high dose rate conditions and (Opt. Soc. Amer., Washington, DC), paper TUG I, 1979.
show excellent recovery characteristics but there is no "best" [141 G. H. Sigel, Jr., E. J. Friebele, M. E. Gingerich, and L. M.
fiber for use under all conditions. The constraints of the Hayden, IEEE Trans. Nucl. sci., vol. NS-26, p. 478, 1979.
particular application at hand must be factored into the [151 M. S. Makiad, G. W. Bickel, and G. H. Sigel, Jr., in Rec. opt. Topical
vulnerability analysis in order to select a fiber. The addition of Meet. Optical Fiber Transmission 11 (Opt. Soc. Amer.,
index-modifying dopants into Si02 to fabricate the fiber core Washington, DC), paper TuD 9, 1977,
and cladding materials results in a dramatic change in the

Optical Sources for Fiber Transmission

Systems
A. A. BERGH, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE, JOHN A. COPELAND, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE,
observed radiation response. The ability to modify the
radiation response of Si02 by the use of additives still remains
the most powerful tool for increasing radiation hardness.
Operation at longer wavelengths also promises to reduce
radiation sensitivity in selected fibers. Extrinsic approaches to
radiation hardening such as photobleaching and thermal
annealing also offer possible solutions under certain
conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to thank B. D. Evans, E. J. Friebele, D. L.

Griscom, R. J. Ginther and M. E. Gingerich who have
contributed and participated in much of the work summarized
in this article.
REFERENCES
E. Lell, N. J. Kreidl, and J. R. Hensler, Progr. Ceram. Sci. , vol.
4, p. 1, 1966.
[21 E. J. Friebele and D. L. Griscom, in Glass 11, M. Tomozawa
and R. Doremus, Eds., New York: Academic Press, 1979, pp.
257351.
E. J. Friebele, D. L. Griscom, and G. H. Sigel, Jr., J. Appl. Phys.,
vol. 45, p. 3424, 1974.
B. D. Evans and G. H. Sigel, Jr., IEEE Trans. Nucl. sci., vol. NS-22, p.
2462, 1975.
[5) D. L. Griscom, G. H. Sigel, Jr., and R. J. Ginther, J. Appl. Phys.,
vol. 47, p. 960, 1976.
[61 E. J. Friebele, G. H. Sigel, Jr., and D. L. Griscom, Appt. Phys.
Len, vol. 28, p. 516, 1976.
[71 J. G. Titchmarsh, Electron. Lett , vol. 15, p. 111, 1979.
P. B. Lyons, L. D. Looney, J. Golob, R. Robichaud, R. Seno, J.
Madrid, L. Hocker, and M. Nelson, in Fiber Optics, Advances
 1241 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 10, OCTOBER 1980

Abstract—Two types of semiconductor crystal InxGa1-xAsyP1-y which can be gown epitaxially

devices are available for ug as light sources in on Inp substrates in various compositions to cover the
fiber systems. The the light- useful
wavelength range of 0.92—1.65 gm.
emitting diode (LED), emits liØ1t in many with large core diameter, LED's emit light generated by spontaneous emission
multimode fibers. The more complicated semiconductor laser emits
more collimated IVIt and can couple 10-100 dmes more power into a
when a p-n junction in the direct-gap semiconductor
multimode fiber and can also be efficiently coupled to small-corp material is forward biased. Several milliwatts of light are
ütØe-mode fibers. LED's will be adequate for use in the more typically generated, but since this spreads in all
numerous data bus and low-to-rnedium capacity &ansmission directions only a few percent is normally coupled into a
systems, and wül be used whenever poséble becaue of their dmpler typical multimode fiber. On the other hand, the laser has
driving circuit requiremenß, lower temperature a built-in optical cavity so that when its threshold current
is exceeded, optical gain due to stimulated emission
greatly amplifies light in one or a few cavity modes.
Manuscript received June 26, 1980. Since the output light is highly directional, several
A. A. Bergh and R. W. Dixon are with Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ milliwatts can be coupled into either a multimode or a
07974. singlemode fiber.
and lower cost. Semiconductor lasers with their higher power These two types of devices will find separate systems
and narrower emission specüum will be required for hiØ1- applications. Lasers will be used for long-range high-bit-
capacity and long-span systems. rate systems. LED's will find application in lower bit-
rate, shorter systems where the output power is adequate
I. INTRODUCTION and the simpler drive circuitry, lower cost, wider
J. A. Copeland is with Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ 07733. temperature range of operation, and much higher
reliability can be utilized. The present state of the art for
0018-9219/80/1000-1240$00.75 0LED's
1980 andIEEElasers will be described in the following two
EMICONDUCTOR light-emitting devices have sections.
been chosen as sources for almost all fiber lightwave
transmission systems designed for widespread Il. HIGH RADIANCE LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES
application. These devices provide enough optical power A. Introduction
into a fiber, generally from 0.05-2 mW, to send signals From the different types of and infrared LED's covered
over distances of many kilometers. Increasing the source in several comprehensive reviews [11-[41, only a small
power is less useful than one might think because of the group of devices are of interest for fiber transmission
exponential decay of sigia.l strength with distance in a systems applications. These are the direct band-gap
fiber. More power is useful in improving to the point double heterostructure (DH) devices with emission
where useful lives of decades or centuries have been wavelengths of 800—1600 nm, usually operated at high
estimated. Since the optical output can be varied by current densities, IF > 10 3 A cm -2 . If the radiation from
varying the device operating current for modulation the LED is coupled into a graded-index optical fiber, the
frequencies up to hundreds of megahertz, no additional bandwidth-distance product for mode delay differences,
modulator device is needed in ordinary applications. i.e., modal dispersion, can be in excess of 1000-MHz
Systems designed in the 1970's used devices made km.
with epitaxial layers of GaAs and AlxGa1-xAs grown on The most extensively studied and most thoroughly
a GaAs substrate. These devices emit light with a documented material system is AlxGa1-xAs on GaAs
wavelength between 0.8-0.9 gm which is detectable with substrates. Although most of the following discussion is
silicon photodetectors. Although this centered on this material system, the results generally
spectral range also lies at a region of minimum loss for apply also to the
fibers made during that period, the useful range of high- LOSS SPECTRUM AND MATERIAL mSPERS'ON
OF STATE-OF-THE-ART OPTICAL
data-rate light-emitting diode (LED) sources was limited TRANSMISSON FIBERS
to a few kilometers. Hence, lasers were the workhorses
of transmission systems, and LED's found applications
in the much shorter optical data links.
In the last few years fibers with low water or OH
content have exhibited losses which are lower by a factor
of three at a wavelength of 1.3 um, and somewhat lower
still at 1.55 gm. Chromatic dispersion is smaller by a
factor of 15 at 1.3 gm than at 0.85 um, which greatly
extends the range of data rates where LED's can be used.
This encouraged the development of semiconductor
materials with smaller band-gap energy corresponding to
the lower photon energy desired. At present, the material
system being most widely developed is the double mixed
BERGH et al.: OPTICAL SOURCES FOR FIBER TRANSMISSION 1242

reflection and refraction occur when the radiation meets the

large discontinuity in
refractive indexes at the
semiconductor-
air interface. For Ill—V
compounds the
index n is approximately
(a)

EM-LAYRS

.0
7
.
3
.6 .8 1.0 1.2 1.4
1.6 1.8 WAVELENGTH (pm) CONHN%

Fig. 1. (b)
ACTIVE coww»e

quaternary Gaxlnl -x PyAS1-y grown on Inp substrates. These (c)

quaternary sources have an emission wavelength near 1.3 gm
and are commonly referred to as "long-wavelength LED's."
Fig. 2.
The performance of LED sources is measured by the radiant
power (or flux) coupled into the optical fiber Pc and by the
extent that they limit the modulation bandwidth of the fiber 3.5 (3.4 for Inp and 3.6 for GaAs) and
transmission system. the criåcal angle for total internal
reflection is approximately 15 0 . Only
B. Coupling Optical Power to Wapeguides radiation which meets the surface of a
planar device such as that in Fig. 2(b)
LED's designed to transmit maximum useful power through
[11] at an angle less than the angle will
an optical fiber must have 1) an emission wavelength
emerge. The fraction of the power emitted
coincident with an absorption minimum of the fiber, 2) a high
through the top surface within the
external quantum efficiency, and 3) an efficient coupling of
critical escape cone is [4]
the emitted radiation into the waveguide.
C. Emission Wavelength next l/[n(n + 1)2] (1)

Fig. 1 shows the loss spectra of state of the art transmission leaving approximately 1 percent of the
fibers [5 ] . The loss in the 0.8-0.94m range, which coincides generated light to escape. A perfectly
with the emission spectrum of (AIGa)As LED's, is 2—3 reflecting back contact might double this
dB/km. Substantial improvement in fiber loss can be obtained value. Due to the small critical angle
by shifting the wavelength to the absorption minimum at 1.3 the spot size on the LED surface is
gm. The most promising LED sources and photodetectors for approximately the same as the size of the
this region are the quaternary (InGa)(AsP) devices currently light generating area of the junction.
under development in many laboratories. Feasibility The radiance of this spot is independent
demonstrations for both high performance LED's and p-i-n of the direction 0 obeying Lambert's law
photo. detectors [9] will soon be followed by the appearance
of commercial devices. 1(0) = 10 cos 8 (2)
where 10 is the intensity of normal to
D. External Quantum Efficiency the device surface. The total power
Quantum efficiency within the LED structure is determined emitted is gven by [4]
by the ratio of radiative to nonradiative carrier recombination
and by the absorpü)n of the generated light by the PO = 710. (3)
semiconductor material [ 10] . In DH devices the high
Only a fraction of this power will enter
injected carrier density in the na.rrow active region (see Fig. 2
insert) favors efficient light generation, and the internal the fiber, however, due to the narrow
absorption is minimized by the small volume of the absorbing acceptance angle of the fiber, sin-I NA
active layer. Major losses are experienced however in (4)
extracting the light from the semiconductor material. Both
1243 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 10, OCTOBER 1980

where NA is the numerical aperture of the An approximation of this principle is

fiber. incorporated into the desigl shown in
The coupling efficiency of a Lambertian Fig. 2(b) [ 1 1 ] , where the
surface equal or smaller in size than the substrate is completely removed and
core diameter of the fiber is mechanical support is achieved by
upplating the back contact. Although
sin2 Bf = (NA) 2
. (5) this structure is somewhat less
Hence for NA = 0.23 the acceptance angle efficient due to the geater distance
Of is 13 0 and Of is —5 percent. The between the junction and fiber, it is
fraction of the total power generated more adaptable for batch processing
inside the LED which can be directed into and for external lenses.
a butt coupled fiber is
F. Hemispherical Structure
æ
T7c = next X T7f(T7c 0.01 X 0.05 = 0.05 In order to extract more light from
percent). (6) the semiconductor material, the diode
geometry must be changed so that most
The increase in overall coupling of the light emitted at the junction
efficiency into the optical waveguide is arrives within the critical angle at
therefore one of the most important the surface. This can be accomplished,
aspects of LED design. Coupling for example, with a hemispherical
efficiency can be enhanced by improving structure as shown in Fig. 2(c) [13] .
the external quantum efficiency of the The light extraction efficiency of
diode and by narrowing the beam this structure is gven by [4]
divergence of the radiation pattern.
Since the emitting area (or its apparent ext = 2n/(n + (7)
size) should not exceed the area of the which is an increase of 2n 2 , i.e., a
fiber, efficient desigls call for the factor of A-'26 over the efficiency of
reduction of spot size with the a planar device. Simultaneously the
corresponding increase in current density source area is maglified by a factor
and for lensing between the emitter and of n 2 and hence the junction area must
the fiber. be reduced by that factor to keep the
E. Lambertian Emitters size of the image equal to the cross
The small junction area results in sectional area of the core of the
high current densifies and therefore fiber. External quantum efficiencies
in the need for good heat sinking. as high as 14 percent have been
Also, it is advantageous to reduce the reported for (GaAl)As emitters [14] ,
in the semiconductor material and the external quantum yield of the
between the junction and the fiber. structure in Fig. 2(c) was measured to
This was the philosophy behind the be a few tenths of a percent into a 12
0
first LED especially designed for solid angle [13] . Other lensing
singlefiber coupling as shown in Fig. schemes using buncated spheres [14]
2(a) [ 1 2] . The etched well and taper-ended fibers [ 15] offer
eliminates the absorbing substrate further improvements. Some of the
next to the junction while the power can be traded for greater
remaining substrate provides overall alignment tolerance between source and
mechanical support. The well also fiber in other coupling schemes
brings the fiber close to the junction [ 16] .
where the radiation is generated.
Coupling into the fiber can be further G. Edge Emitting Light-Emitting Diodes
improved by placing an epoxy resin (n Another basic LED design uses a
1.5) between the fiber and the surface modified injection laser structure
of the LED. This is the most commonly described in the next section. The
used structure in commercial lightwave na.rrow active layer (x = 0.05) is
LED's today, providing an overall sandwiched between two carrier
coupling efficiency of approximately confining layers (x = 0.115) which in
0.01 percent. turn are surrounded on both sides
BERGH et al.: OPTICAL SOURCES FOR FIBER TRANSMISSION 1244

by optical guiding layers (x — 0.35). and that the internal radiative efficiency depends on the
The relatively thick waveguide results ratio of these lifetimes as
in high laser threshold current and
hence the device can be operated as an -1
edge emitting LED. The light generated i r nr (10) Increasing
in the active layer leaks into the the doping level therefore increases only as long as the
surrrounding waveguide layers and is radiative lifetime is reduced. At very high doping levels an
coupled to the lowest order guided excessive number of nonradiative centers is formed, and,
mode parallel to the junction. Most of therefore, the increase in modulation bandwidth is
the light propagating in this mode is
accompanied by a decrease in quantum efficiency.
transmitted to the end faces and
emitted with a halfpower beamwidth of Another way to reduce the effective lifetime is to
about 25-300 in the plane of the junc increase the carrier density. At high injection levels
The beam emitted perpendicular to where the excess carrier density Ni substantially exceeds
the junction, where there is no the backgound concentration, the lifetime becomes a
waveguiding effect, is still function of the injected carrier density
Lambertian with a halfpower beamwidth of
120 0 Although the optical power obtained
= (BNi) I (11)
from such a structure is two to six times smaller than
that from a top emitter, this might be compensated by where B is a material dependent recombination
more efficient coupling due to the narrow beamwidth. probability. In a double heterostructure where the
It is hard to predict at this time which of the many LED carriers are confined to a narrow active region and
designs will eventually provide the highest performance surface recombination is negligible, the modulation
at the lowest cost. Current devices typically provide bandwidth at high injection levels is proportional to
overall power efficiencies of —0.1 percent into optical (JB/ew) l / 2 where J is the injected current density and w
fibers, and it can be anticipated that improvements in is the width of the active region. Limitations to the width
LED geometry and better lensing will improve this figure of the active layer arise from the material growth
substantially. techniques and from the need to increase the barrier
heights as w is decreased [ 1 8] . Although LED structures
H. Modulation Bandwidth were fabricated with active layers as thin as 0.05 gm [1
The modulation bandwidth of LED-based fiber 1], the more common range of layer thicknesses is 0.5-
transmission systems depends on the modulation 1.0 gm. Modulation band-
bandwidth of the LED source and the pulse broadening in TABLE 1
the optical fiber, i.e., material dispersion. EXPECTED REPEATER SPACING IN KILOMETERS FOR LED BASED
LIGHTWAVE SYSTEMS*
Factors contributing to the modulation bandwidth of
an LED are its response to changes in the injected
current, as well as junction and parasitic capacitances.
Since the response increases with increasing current and
the capacitances are nearly invariant, their influence
becomes small when the ac signal is superimposed on a
constant dc bias.
If the dc power output of the device is PO , the relative
power output at frequency is given as [ 10]
PW/PO = [1 + (QT)2 ] -1/2 (8)
i.e., the inherent modulation speed is limited by T the widths to 600 MHz have been reported for high radiance
minority carrier lifetime. There are two ways to reduce surface emitting LED's [ 1 9] . Radiative lifetime for lasers is
the effective carrier lifetime and thus increase further shortened by stimulated emission. Injection lasers
modulation bandwidth. One is to increase the doping therefore have modulation bandwidths considerably in
level of the recombination regions. It must be excess of LED's.
remembered, however, that the lifetime has a radiative In graded-index fibers LED pulse broadening is due
and a nonradiative component, primarily to material dispersion. LED sources have a wide
spectral bandwidth, AX = 30-200 run at half intensity, and if
1 1 1 the phase velocity of the plane wave traveling in the fiber
(9) (refractive index n) varies nonlinearly with wavelength, i.e.,
1245 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 10, OCTOBER 1980

d2 n/dX2 * O, a light pulse broadens as it travels along. Pulse

broadening, Tm, over a distance L for a (GaAl)As LED in a
silica fiber is described as [20]

d 2 n dX2

For an LED with an emission peak at 0.8 um, the value of

Tm/L is approximately 5 ns/km (compared to —0.2 ns/km for
a laser of the same material). Pulse broadening can be
reduced by narrowing the spectral bandwidth of the LED, or
more effectively, by increasing the peak wavelength to about
1.3 gm where the material dispersion of silica is small
as shown in Fig. 1 [21 ] . Hence the recent interest in "long
wavelength" (Galn)(AsP) LED's.
Due to the limitations described above, LED sources will Fig. 3.
trail injection lasers both in the power coupled into the fiber
and in modulation bandwidth by at least an order of has been extensively reviewed in the literature [2] , [231 .
magnitude. LED's have the advantage, however, in lower Newer results are contained in a recent review article [241 .
cost, reduced complexity of drive electronics, wider B. Structures
temperature range of operation, and higher reliability. Once
A schematic drawing of two representative GaAs injection
early failures are eliminated during an initial bum in, mean
laser structures is shown in Fig. 3. In these structures it is
times to failure in excess of 5 X 10 6 h are estimated at
necessary to fabricate a long, narrow (&0.2 X 5.0 X 400 urn 3
continuous operation [ 1 1 ] . The maximum repeater
), highly pumped X 10 08 electrons/cm 3 ) which forms the
spacings expected for LED-based transmission systems with
laser cavity. The four epitaxially grown layers shown in this
state-of-the-art low loss optical fibers as a function of data
figure are typical, and are designed using the properties of
rate are in Table I.
the heterobarriers which exist between GaAs and (Al, Ga)As
Ill. LASERS to provide optical and carrier confinement on two sides of
A. Introduction the thin active volume of the laser. In the laser shown in Fig.
3(a), the current is laterally confined to form a "stripe
As stated above, the materials systems GaAs and Inp can geometry" by means of proton bombardment. The width (2-
also be used to fabricate devices which operate using 20 um) of the conducting region defined in this way is chosen
stimulated emission of radiation i.e., injection lasers. These approximately equal to the width of the lowest order lateral
devices exhibit dramatically increased brightness and power optical mode which the pumped volume will support. Current
output, and significantly narrower spectra, than their LED crowding [25], [26] under a patterned contact is another
counterparts. They even make possible the remote powering, frequently utilized method of fabricating similar simple
over an optical fiber, of integrated circuits, alerters, structures.
detectors, etc. [22] . Early work on lasers, with emphasis on Structures such as that shown in Fig. 3(a) have less than
GaAs devices, ideal electron to photon conversion efficiency because of
carrier losses which occur at the edges of the stripe. The
structure in Fig. 3(b) eliminates this problem by enclosing the
laser's pumped active volume on all four sides by higher band
gap (Al, Ga)As. Buried heterostructure [271 lasers of this type
have the lowest current thresholds yet achieved (as low as 10
mA at room temperature), and these together with modified
versions, which include an extra strip-buried layer [281, have
many desirable device features. An analogous InP-based laser
can also be fabricated, in which the confining layers are Inp
and the active and cap layers are lower bandgap (InGa)(AsP)
[29] . 1 The emission wavelength is then in the very desirable
1.2-1.5 gm region. Very rapid progress is being made in

0 This structure can also be fabricated to include an extra optical waveguiding layer.
BERGH et al.: OPTICAL SOURCES FOR FIBER TRANSMISSION 1246

improving the performance of these potentially high qualtiy kinks, carrier loss from the active and even self-
devices. oscillations, can be extracted using derivative techniques
[24] . For example, the first voltage derivatives with
C. Laser Device Characteristics
respect to current shown in Fig. 4(b) illustrate the voltage
As previously mentioned, the optical output of a laser can
saturation that exists at threshold [32] , while the second
be easily coupled into an optical fiber, although the beam is
voltage derivatives, Fig. 4(c), illustrate the resonancelike
not as well collimated as is often desired. Typical coupling
characteristic of this derivative as the device passes from
effi-
spontaneous to stimulated emission dominated carrier
recombination [31] .
D. Laser Deficiencies
In theory, injection lasers are a practically ideal source
for optical fiber transmission systems. They are efficient,
they are easily modulated to gigahertz rates by varying
the drive current, they are solid state, physically small,
etc. Unfortunately, the attainment of ideal characteristics
in lasers has been a considerable challenge. Although
significant progress is being made in eliminating all of the
areas of concern, it may be well in an article of this type
to mention these areas of difficulty in some detail.
Potential laser shortcominß are conveniently gouped
50 100 150 [24] into four categories: 1) structural and material
LASER CURRENT D.C. growth complexities, 2) reliability, 3) optical linearity, and
Fig. 4.
4) temporal stability.
1 ) Structural and Material Growth Complexities: Even
simple injection lasers present sigüficant crystal growth
ciencies are about 50 percent into 0.2 NA fibers with 50-
and device processing challenges, requiring as they do
gm core diameters. These high efficiencies may be
precise control of at least some submicron feature sizes,
maintained even in single mode fibers of —l O-gm core
growth of latticematched heterobarriers, etc. These
diameter into which LED's generally cannot couple useful
have been compounded by the necessity to
amounts of power.
utilize liquid-phase-epitaxial (LPE) growth techniques for
Below a certain threshold current (Fig. 4) the optical
output of the laser is LED-like and of low external the fabrication of efficient, high quality, devices [2], [23] .
efficiency; but above threshold the laser has a rapidly Uniform large area, reproducible LPE growth has been
increasing opfical output with a differential external difficult to achieve. The displacement of the traditional
efficiency (defined as the change in external photon LPE techniques by vapor-phase alternatives may help this
output per unit change in external electron input) which situation significantly, because of the increased
can approach 100 percent. Continuous optical outputs of reproducibility and uniformity which these techniques
3-10 mW/mirror face are common, and low duty cycle allow. Both molecular beam epitaxy [33], [34] and
peak pulse powers of —0.5 watt are easily obtained. The metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [35] have
spectral output of the gain-guided [30] laser such as the now produced GaAs lasers with threshold currents at
one depicted in Fig. 3(a) is usually multilongitudinal mode least as good as those obtainable by LPE, and the
with a width of about 2 nm. Single-longitudinal-mode reliability demonstrated in these devices is rapidly
operation can also be achieved in these devices, although improving. Analogous efforts to produce Inp devices by
it is more common in index guided structures like that of vapor-phase techniques are accelerating rapidly.
Fig. 3(b). In either case, the spectral width of an The growth difficulties are exacerbated by the fact that
individual longitudinal mode can be in the MHz region. no single laser structure has yet emerged which is
Maintenance of this frequency stability over any obviously superior to all others. The structures shown in
appreciable time is, of course, a considerable challenge. Fig. 3 are but two examples from among several score
From its electrical terminals, an injection laser looks possibilities.
like a rather peculiar current-controlled diode, with a 2) Reliability: The achievement of long injection laser
forward voltage at useful currents of '-v 1 .5—2.0 V. lifetimes has also presented considerable challenges [24],
Voltage techniques are very useful in exploring [361 . Fortunately, statistically meaningful feasibility
these laser terminal characteristics [3 1] , Information demonstrations of long room temperature life in GaAs
concerning laser resistance, uniformity of gain saturation, (>10 6 h [371) have now been achieved. High reliability is
1247 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 68, NO. 10, OCTOBER 1980

obtained by scrupulous attention to all aspects of the simple example of the latter is that due to fiber-interface
crystal growth and device processing; by coating the laser reflections, which may be üme varying, perturbing the
facets, especially where ambient contamination is a laser output intensity. The precautions necessary to
problem [24] ; and by attaching the laser chip to a heat overcome these perturbations can range from simple
sink in a manner which allows easy heat dissipation [38] . attention to mechanical stability in laser-fiber coupling
The avoidance of In intermetdlic formation in the bond geometry and connectors, to the need for sophisticated
region is important for long term thermal stability [391 . optical isolators; depending on the criticality of the
The attainment of long life with high yield in the more system to these perturbations. These laser-fiber
complex laser structures will probably always remain of interaction effects should be distinguished from the
concem; as will long life at elevated temperatures (MO O purely optical effects not involving the laser, which cause
C); but it is clear, in feasibility at least, that GaAs injection "modal noise" by modulating the interference of the
lasers can operate reliably in most fiber optic propagating optical waves in optical fibers (46]
applications. Significant progress is being made in . Modal noise is greatly reduced in systems using gain-
establishing the reliability of the newer InP-based lasers, guided devices with decreased coherence lengths
but a great deal of work remains to be done. The high compared with index-guided devices with long coherence
rate of change of threshold with temperature in lasers, lengths.
which is shown in a rather extreme case in Fig. 4, is an The effects (a), caused by interior-to-the-laser interactions,
imperfectly understood and serious problem which is range from a current varying time delay between the
being extensively investigated. It is now known that initiation of current in a laser and the appearance of
carriers in the active volume can, under the correct significant stimulated emision [47], [48] to an optical output
in the confinement layers, surmount the which consists of a train of discrete optical pulses, typically
heterobariers more easily [401 than was previously 200-ps long, even when the dc laser drive has no time-
thought [23] , although more fundamental origins of the varying component [49] . These self-oscillations can occur
temperature dependence of threshold are also being after a small amount of aging or at elevated temperatures,
investigated [41], [42] . Increases in threshold current of even if they do not exist initially at room temperature (49] .
0.5 mA/ 0 C are common, but are somewhat structurally These effects have received a great deal of attention recently
dependent. The problem is particularly acute in the InP- and understanding of their fundamental origins is rapidly
based longer wavelength lasers [41], [42] . emerging. Qualitatively, perhaps somewhat oversimply, it
3) Optical Linearity: The optical outputs of many appears that an ideal laser is a temporally stable device, but
injection lasers exhibit what have been called "kinks." It is that small amounts of nonlinearity [24], [501, [511 can
now known that these are reÉons of optical intensity destroy this stability. Nonuniform thermal effects [52],
where the interacüon of the optical fields and the gain absorption near the mirrors [53], and absorption near
medium causes the mode to become unstable [24] . interior defects [54] are all important sources of instabilities.
Adequately narrow stripes in the gainguided structures While the above self- oscillations occur at rather high
[26], [43], [44] inhibit these non Structures which frequencies, generally 200-2000 MHz, there are other classes
permit real-refractive-index guiding, including the buried of instabilities which can occur at lower frequencies—even
heterostructure lasers, have essentially eliminated this into the kilohertz region. These instabilities usually involve
problem, but at the expense of somewhat more complex much smaller percentage optical intensity excursions. The
laser fabrication techniques. From a systems viewpoint, it most studied of these is the "light jump" which is
is now clear that injection lasers of either the gain-guided characterized by a sharply rising region of the light-current
or index-guided varieties can possess adequate linearity cuwe [551 . It is known that light jumps can be mirror
for the types of applications typified by analog TV links associated and are consistent with a saturable absorber
[45] . origin; but other origins are possible.
4) Temporal Stability: From what has been stated All of these sources of laser-related system noise, as well as
above it might reasonably be assumed that the optical those caused by modal interactions, are receiving increased
output of an injection laser always varies smoothly in attention as lasers are applied in more and more critical
time as the drive current is vafied. Unfortunately, this is applications. Methods for completely controlling them are
sometimes not the case. Various temporal instabilities still
can exist, some of which have important systems
implications. These instabilities may be roughly divided
into a category (a) which results from effects interior to
the laser and another category (b) which is due to
interactions between the laser and the optical circuit. A
 BERGH et al.: OPTICAL SOURCES FOR FIBER TRANSMISSION 1248

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Quantum Electron. , vol. QE-16, to be published.

Photodetectors for Fiber Transmission Systems

R. G. SMITH, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

[45] K. Nagano, Y. Takahashi, Y. Takasaki, M. Maeda, and M. [561 F. Bosch, G. L. Dybwad, and C. B. Swan, "Laser fiber-optic
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diodes," • Proc. Optical Communication Conf. (Amsterdam,
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light emission of a gallium arsenide injection laser," Appl. Phys. Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 36, pp. 248—250, 1980.
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Abstract—A review of the ba.sic features of photodetectors electrical signal for a $ven amount of optical power, and in
including p-i-n and avalanche types is presented. At the present time addition should be small in size, highly reliable, and
silicon devices for use in the 0.8-0.9-gm regon have been successfully inexpensive. Present detectors do not perfectly satisfy all the
developed and are readily available. Present efforts are aimed at
developing devices for use in the 1.3—1.6-gm region where improved above requirements but their performance is sufficient to
fiber performance is possible. permit the development of practical fiber transmission systems
which are now being deployed.
I. INTRODUCTION At present most systems operate in the 0.8—0.9
N a fiber transmission system the function played by the um„wavelength region employing GaAlAs emitters and silicon
photodetector is to convert the incident optical signal into an detectors. Silicon devices for this application are well
electrical signal which can be processed by electronic circuitry. advanced with good performance and reliability and are
In performing this function, the ideal photodetector will reasonably inexpensive. On the other hand, detectors for the
reproduce the signal waveform with fidelity, will add no noise longer wavelength, I .3-1.6 um-spectral region are not nearly
to the detection system, will produce the maximum so advanced, and are the subject of intense worldwide research
and development efforts.
It is the purpose of this paper to present an overview of this
Manuscript received February 13, 1980; revised June 19, 1980. subject area, providing the reader with an understanding of the
The author is "ith Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974. basics of photodetectors, their properties and limitations, as
0018-9219/80/1000-1247$00.75 0 1980 IEEE