Dispersion in optical fibers

The Spectral Width of Optical Sources

The success of optical communication technology is stimulated by the development of optical

fibers and the invention of lasers.

Currently sources used in optical

communication are LEDs and LDs

Surface emitting LED

Edge emitting Light Emitting Diode (LED) 2

Surface emitting Light Emitting Diode (LED)
The Spectral Width of Optical Sources
Lasers emit coherent photons and LEDs emit incoherent photons
Coherent means all photons have similar frequency, phase and directionality. Important characteristic of
Laser beam)

Laser Diode (LD) Laser Diode device structure

Laser is an optical oscillator, and

works on stimulated emission
principle. It’s a resonant amplifier
whose output is fed back into its
input with matching phase.

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The Spectral Width of Optical Sources
These sources do not have a single wavelength. Instead they have a wavelength spectrum spread as shown
The center wavelength  correspond to the maximum power
The spectral width or the linewidth   is based
on half power point
Usually sources used for optical fiber
communication have     
Source Spectral Width (nm)
LED 20-100
LED emission spectrum
LD 1-5
Nd: YAG Laser 0.1
HeNe Laser 0.002

A source having  = 0 is called a “monochromatic” source

The smaller  is the more coherent the source is.

A real source can never have  = 0 (perfectly
monochromatic)

Comparison of LED and Laser

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spectrum
Material Dispersion and Pulse Distortion

Since optical fibers are made of Silica material, it becomes important to understand the
characteristics of this material. One of the characteristics is dispersion, which,
unfortunately, limits the data rate carried by the optical fiber.

Dispersion: The phase velocity of a wave is a function of wavelength, ( v = v() or v = v( f ) )

The famous Newton Experiment

If dispersion is caused by the material property, then it

is called “Material Dispersion”

Glass (or Silica) , n = n()

is a dispersive material

c c
v   v ( )
n n ( )
Illustration of a dispersive prism decomposing white light into
the colors of the spectrum, as discovered by Newton

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Violet
Red

n1 sin i  n2 sin t
n1
sin t  sin i
n2   )
 t  t   )
A triangular prism, dispersing light; waves shown to illustrate the
differing wavelengths of light.
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Signal Distortion due to Material Dispersion (Concept)
Consider a real pulse of light (from a source with nonzero bandwidth) as it propagates through a fiber

Wavelength Component of the pulse

Delayed due to material dispersion

Optical Power

The source has a frequency spread, each wavelength travels at a different velocity due to material
dispersion. Thus the pulses are delayed with respect to each other, resulting in an output pulse which is
“distorted”

The output pulse is wider than the input. The longer the fiber is, the wider the output pulse will be.
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Material Dispersion in Silicon Dioxide (Silica)
n ( )  v ( )

Pure silicon dioxide

This graph is for Silica material which is Pure silicon dioxide

used for optical fiber communication

There is an inflection point around 1.3 mm

Silica is most commonly found in

nature as sand or quartz

This is important for later reference

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Pulse Spread due to Material Dispersion t/L is the travel time per unit length
Let t be the time for a pulse to travel a path L
t/L t/L t/L is a function of , then t)
t/L)2

Non-Dispersive medium t/L)1 Dispersive medium



1 2

to
to+t
Optical Power
Input Pulse

t t

Optical Power
Output Pulse
1 1
Travel time t1 (fastest)
t t

2 2 Travel time t2 (slowest)

t t

t is the pulse spread (measured between half power point) 9

1 and 2 are the half power wavelength of the optical source

of optical source
    2  1 Spectral width

1 is the shortest wavelength of the pulse

Spectrum
2 is the longest wavelength of the pulse

t  t t
The factor     2  1
1 2
Difference in arrival time per unit length
L L L
Analysis We will try to relate t 
 
this to material dispersion L

Pulses do not travel with phase velocity v
k
d L d t dk
But they travel with the group velocity vg   
dk t dk L d
 c n
since v   k 
k n c

 dn nd  dk  dn n t
dk  +  +  (a ) From the group velocity
c c d c d c L
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t dk  dn n 2 c  2 c
  + (a )   2 f  d  d
L d c d c  2
Substitute in (a)
 2 c 

t    dn n  dn n n 
 +   +   n (1)
L c   2 c  c c d c c c
 2 d  
  
From the previous figure
t  t 2 t 1 
    
L
    L L d t 
 (2)
   2  1 ) d   L 
   2  1 v e ry c lo se
t 
 
(1) in (2)  L   n   n    n 
 c c c
t  
     n   Pulse spread per unit length due to material dispersion
L c
This shows that the pulse spread per unit length depends on the spectral width of the source and n of
the material
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It is convenient to define the parameter M   n  Called the material t  
     n  
c dispersion parameter L c

t  
M  
ps 
    M   n m  km 
L
Note:  = 1.3 mm then M = 0
 < 1.3 mm M > 0
 > 1.3 mm M < 0
 t  t t 
    2  1 
L  L L
Silicon Dioxide (Silica)
Note :  is always > 0
• When M is positive the equation predicts that the pulse spread is negative
• This means that  t   t 
    
 L 1  L 2
The travel time for the shorter wavelength 1 is larger than the travel time for the longer
wavelength 2

The longer wavelength travels faster

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Example 1: Find the amount of pulse spreading in pure silica for an LED operating at 0.82
mm and having a 20 nm spectral width. The path is 10 km long. Repeat if  = 1.5 mm and a
50 nm spectral width

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Example 1: Find the amount of pulse spreading in pure silica for an LED operating at 0.82
mm and having a 20 nm spectral width. The path is 10 km long. Repeat if  = 1.5 mm and a
50 nm spectral width

Solution t 
     M 
L

  0 .8 2 m m From the figure, M = 110 [ps/nm.km] at 0.82 mm

t 
    1 10  2 0  2 2 0 0 [ p s / km ]  2 .2 [ n s / km ]
L
The spread after 10 km = 2.2 ×10 = 22 ns

  1 .5 m m From the figure, M = 15 [ps/nm.km] at 1.5 mm

t 
    1 5  5 0  7 5 0 [ p s / km ]  0 .7 5 [ n s / km ]
L

The spread after 10 km = 0.75 ×10 = 7.5 ns

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Example 2: Repeat the previous example if the source is a LD with a 1 nm spectral width
for both wavelengths.

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Example 2: Repeat the previous example if the source is a LD with a 1 nm spectral width
for both wavelengths.

Solution t 
     M 
L

  0 .8 2 m m From the figure, M = 110 [ps/nm.km] at 0.82 mm

t 
    1 1 0  1  1 1 0 [ p s / km ]  0 .1 1 [ n s / km ]
L
The spread after 10 km = 0.11 ×10 = 1.1 ns

  1 .5 m m From the figure, M = 15 [ps/nm.km] at 1.5 mm

t 
    15  1  1 5 [ p s / km ]  0 .01 5 [ n s / km ]
L
The spread after 10 km = 0.015 ×10 = 0.15 ns
Note: Thus a LD produces much smaller pulse spread due to material dispersion than LED source
because  is much smaller
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t 
    M 
L

Δτ =IMI ΔλL

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Waveguide Dispersion
This dispersion is due to the modal (guiding) nature of the optical fiber.

The effective refractive index of any particular mode depends on the geometrical
structure of an optical fiber, which varies with wavelength and leads to waveguide
dispersion.

We consider one type of a dispersion at a time and the other is considered as zero.
Since dispersion is a weak phenomenon.
Waveguide Dispersion

Using the same procedure followed in

material dispersion, it can be shown
that

t  
  
     n eff
L c
t 
     M 
L
Pulse spread per unit length due to
Waveguide Dispersion


M 
neff
c
is the waveguide dispersion parameter

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Dispersion in SMF
Single-mode fibers have only material and waveguide
dispersion, and the total dispersion is a sum of the two. Note
that the two dispersions are of different signs, and that this gives
rise to a zero-dispersion wavelength in single-mode fibers
around 1.3 mm.

Dispersion vs. wavelength

for single-mode fiber, with
zero-dispersion point
shown
Dispersion modified SMFs

Material and Waveguide Dispersions. Dispersions in 3 types of SMF.

Summary To summarize

Pulse spread per unit length due to the three types of dispersions and distortions

Material Dispersion t  
     n     M  
L c

t  
Waveguide Dispersion      M  
     n eff
L c

Multimode Distortion   t   n1  n1  n2 
 L n2c

Notes:
• Both material and waveguide dispersion depend on the type of optical source, while multimode
distortion does not depend directly on the optical source
• In multimode fiber all three mechanisms exist, multimode distortion is usually large
• In single mode fiber, the multimode distortion does not exit

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Example : A multimode step-index fiber has n1 = 1.52, n2 = 1.5. The material dispersion
parameters of the fiber is 250 [ps/nm×km], which makes material dispersion dominant over
waveguide dispersion.
Estimate the total pulse spread in 1 km length of fiber when the fiber is used with an LED
source of spectral width 50 nm.

Solution
Example : A multimode step-index fiber has n1 = 1.52, n2 = 1.5. The material dispersion
parameters of the fiber is 250 [ps/nm×km], which makes material dispersion dominant over
waveguide dispersion.
Estimate the total pulse spread in 1 km length of fiber when the fiber is used with an LED
source of spectral width 50 nm.

 t )d is  L  M + M )    L M   sign not important

 250 ps 
 1 km )    5 0 n m )  1 2 .5 ns
 n m  km 

 t )mod  L
n1
n  n 
n2c  1 2  
1 km ) 1.52 ) 0.02 )
 67.8 ns
km
3  105
1.5)
s
2 2
t    t )d is + t ) m od  69 ns Note: the dispersion effect is negligible

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Digital Modulation

Return to Zero (RZ) digital modulation

T T T/2

1 1 0 1

0.35 T
RRZ  L  DataRate-Length Product
t 
 
L
Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) digital modulation
T

1 1 0 1

 0.35  0.7
RNRZ  2  
 t  t

0.7
RNRZ  L 
t  Datarate-Length Product
 
 L

• One bit of the NRZ requires 1/2 the bandwidth of one bit of the RZ
• Therefore the maximum bit rate in NRZ is twice that of the RZ
Example :

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Solution

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