Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 1 FIBER OPTICS Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Lecture: 3 Propagation of Light in an Optical Fiber
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Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 1
FIBER OPTICS Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Lecture: 3
Propagation of Light in an Optical Fiber
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 2
Light energy can be modelled in three different forms which relate the
particular model of light to the context in which it is talked about. Light can be
characterized in any one of the following models
Ray Model
Wave Model
Quantum Model
In the simplest possible context, light is treated as a ray and the different
phenomena exhibited by light are explained in terms of the ray-model of light. Some
phenomena exhibited by light are not adequately explained by the Ray-Model of
light. In that case, we resort to the more advanced nature of light such as the wave
and the quantum models. In this section we shall mainly deal around the ray model
of light and attempt to explain the propagation of light in an optical fiber treating light
as a ray.
Constructionally, an optical fiber is a solid cylindrical glass rod called the core,
through which light in the form of optical signals propagates. This rod is surrounded
by another coaxial cylindrical shell made of glass of lower refractive index called the
cladding. This basic arrangement that guides light over long distances is shown in
figure 2.5.
Fig. 3.1: Constructional Details of an Optical Fiber
The diameter of the cladding is of the order of 125 µm and the diameter of the
core is even smaller than that. Thus it is a very fine and brittle glass rod that we are
dealing with. In order to provide mechanical strength to this core-cladding
arrangement, other coaxial surrounding called the buffer coating and jacketing layers
are provided. They do not play any role in the propagation of light through the optical
fiber, but are present solely for providing mechanical strength and support to the
fiber.
The light energy in the form of optical signals propagates inside the core-
cladding arrangement and throughout the length of the fiber by a phenomenon called
the Total Internal Reflection (TIR) of light. This phenomenon occurs only when the
refractive index of core is greater than the refractive index of cladding and so the
cladding is made from glass of lower refractive index. By multiple total internal
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 3
reflections at the core-cladding interface the light propagates throughout the fiber
over very long distances with low attenuation. We shall now discuss the essential
requirements of the propagation of light through an optical fiber, over long distances
with minimum loss, in detail.
Figure 3.2 shows a section of the core of an optical fibre. If a ray of light is
incident on the core of an optical fibre from the side, the ray of light simply refracts
out from the fibre on the other side. The ray shown in figure 3.2(in green)
demonstrates the situation.
Figure 3.2: Launching of light into an optical fiber.
No matter what the angle of incidence of the light is, any light that enters the
fiber from the side does not propagate along the fiber. The only option thus available
with us is to launch the light through the tip of the fiber. That is, in order to guide light
along the fiber, the light must be incident from the tip of the optical fiber. The red ray
of light in figure 3.2 explains this situation. In other words, if the tip of the optical fiber
is not exposed to light, no light will enter the fiber. Although there may be ambient
light, as long as the tip is protected, no light from the sides propagates along the
fiber. Equivalently, if there was propagation of light through the fiber, no light would
emerge from the sides of the fiber. This characteristic of the optical fiber imparts the
advantage of information security to the Optical Fiber Communication Technology.
At this juncture, one basic question that may come to the reader’s mind is that
whether a partial reflection at the core-cladding interface suffices the propagation of
light along the fiber over long distances? The answer to this question is very clearly a
no. The reason is that, at each reflection a part of the optical energy launched into
the optical fiber would be lost and after a certain distance along the length of the
fiber the optical power would be negligibly low to be of any use. Thus total internal
reflection is an absolute necessity at each reflection for a sustained propagation of
optical energy over long distance along the optical fiber. This precisely is the sole
reason of launching light into the fiber at particular angles so that light energy
propagates along the fiber by multiple total internal reflections at the core-cladding
interface.
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 4
We have already stated that for explaining propagation of light in an optical
fiber, the Ray-Model of light shall be used. The Ray-Model of light obeys the Snell’s
laws. Following figure depicts a situation of a typical refraction phenomenon taking
place at the interface of two optically different media having refractive indices n1 and
n2:
Figure 3.3: Refraction of light at a media interface
The angles measured in the expression for Snell’s law are measured with
respect to the normal to the media interface at the point of incidence. If n2 > n1 , then
the angle of refraction is greater than the angle of incidence and the refracted ray is
said to have moved away from the normal. If the angle of incidence (θ1) is increased
further, the angle of refraction (θ2) also increases in accordance with the Snell’s law
and at a particular angle of incidence the angle of refraction becomes 90o and the
refracted ray grazes along the media interface. This angle of incidence is called the
critical angle of incidence (θc) of medium 2 with respect to medium 1. One should
note here that critical angle is media-relative. That means, the same optically denser
medium may have different critical angles with respect to different optically rarer
media. If θ1 is increased beyond the critical angle, there exists no refracted ray and
the incident light ray is then reflected back into the same medium. This phenomenon
is called the total internal reflection of light. The word ‘total’ signifies that the entire
light energy that was incident on the media interface is reflected back into the same
medium. Total Internal Reflection (TIR) obeys the laws of reflection of light. This
phenomenon shows that light energy can be made to remain confined in the same
medium when the angle of incidence is greater than the angle of reflection. Thus we
can see that there are two basic requirements for a TIR to occur:
1. The medium from which light is incident, must be optically denser than the
medium to which it is incident. In figure 3.3 n2 > n1.
2. The angle of incidence in the denser medium must be greater than the
critical angle of the denser medium with respect to the rarer medium.
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 5
LAUNCHING OF LIGHT INTO AN OPTICAL FIBER
Light propagates inside an optical fiber by virtue of multiple TIRs at the core-
cladding interface. The refractive index of the core glass is greater than that of the
cladding. This meets the first condition for a TIR. All the light energy that is launched
into the optical fiber through its tip does not get guided along the fiber. Only those
light rays propagate through the fiber which are launched into the fiber at such an
angle that the refracted ray inside the core of the optical fiber is incident on the core-
cladding interface at an angle greater than the critical angle of the core with respect
to the cladding. But before delving into rigorous mathematical calculations, let us first
visualise how light energy can be launched into a fiber. Figure 3.4 shows one of the
possibilities of launching light into an optical fiber where the light ray lies in a plane
containing the axis of the optical fiber. Such planes which contain the fiber axis are
called meridional-planes and consequently the rays lying in a meridional-plane are
called meridional-rays. Meridional rays always remain in the respective meridional
plane.
Figure 3.4: Launching of Meridional Rays
There may be infinite number of planes that pass through the axis of the fiber
and consequently there are an infinite number of meridional planes. This indirectly
indicates that there are an infinite number of meridional rays too, which are incident
on the tip of the fiber making an angle with the fiber-axis as shown in the above
figure. These meridional rays which get totally internally reflected at the core-
cladding boundary meet again at the axis of the optical fiber as shown in the figure
3.5 below. In the figure the meridional plane is the plane of the paper which passes
through the axis of the fiber and the incident rays, refracted rays and the reflected
rays lie on the plane of the paper. Though only two rays are shown in the figure for
the sake of clarity, in practice there would be a bunch of rays that would be
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 6
convergent at the same point. Meridional rays are classified into bound and unbound
rays. The rays that undergo TIR inside the fiber core remain inside the core at all
times along the propagation and are called as bound rays. The rays that fail to
undergo TIR inside the core are lost into the cladding and are called unbound rays.
The dotted ray shown in figure 3.4 is an unbound meridional ray.
Figure 3.5: Meridional Rays meeting at the axis.
Since all the reflected rays meet at the same point a region of high optical
intensity is generated at that point (point A in figure 3.5). Since these rays undergo
multiple TIR at the core-cladding boundary, they meet repeatedly at the axis at
regular intervals along the fiber. This causes multiple regions of maximum intensity
along the axis of the fiber. Also, different sets incident rays would have different
angles of reflection at the core-cladding boundary and consequently have different
points of maximum intensities along the fiber axis. Thus it can be visualized easily
that at the output end of the optical fiber, maximum intensity will be in the axial
region of the fiber core and the intensity would gradually decrease as we move away
from the axis towards the periphery of the core.
Another way of launching a light ray into an optical fiber is to launch it in such
a way that it does not lie in any meridional plane. These rays are called skew rays. A
pictorial representation of launching a skew ray is shown in the figure 3.6 below.
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 7
Figure 3.6: Launching of Skew Rays
Skew rays propagate without passing through the central axis of the fiber. In
fact the skew rays go on spiralling around the axis of the optical fiber. The light
energy carried by them is effectively confined to an annular region around the axis
as shown in figure 3.6. Consequently, at the output, skew rays will have minimum
energy at the axis of the optical fiber and it will gradually increase towards the
periphery of the core.
Thus when light energy is launched into an optical fiber, there arises two
possible energy distributions; one, which has maximum intensity at the axis due to
meridional rays and the other, which has minimum intensity at the axis due to the
skew rays. Thus, on the whole, there are two ways of launching light into an optical
fiber; light can be launched either as meridional or as skew rays.
Assuming that light is launched as meridional rays into the optical fiber, let us
now carry out a simple analysis. For that let us concentrate on figure 3.7 below. The
figure shows a cross-section of an optical fiber with a core of refractive index n1 and
a cladding of refractive index n2. The incident ray AO (shown by dotted line) is
incident at an angle ϕ with the axis of the fibre. The refracted ray for AO in the core
(dotted line ON1) fails to be incident on the core-cladding interface at angle greater
or equal to the critical angle of the core w.r.t. cladding and hence refracts out of the
core and is lost to the cladding. In other words, the angle of incidence of a refracted
ray at the core-cladding interface in turn depends on the initial angle at which the
incoming ray was launched into the fiber. If this launching angle (with the fiber axis)
is decreased, the angle of incidence which the refracted ray makes at the core-
cladding interface increases. If this increase is such, as to exceed the critical angle
of the core-cladding interface, then total internal reflection of the refracted ray takes
place and the light remains in the core and is guided along the fiber. The ray CO is
launched into the fiber at such an angle ‘α’ that its refracted ray is incident at the
core-cladding boundary at its critical angle ‘θc’. If any light ray is launched at an
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 8
angle more than α then the refracted ray just refracts out to the cladding because the
angle of incidence of its refracted ray at the core-cladding interface is less than the
critical angle. Thus the angle α is indicative of the maximum possible angle of
launching of a light ray that is accepted by the fiber. Consequently, the angle α is
called the angle of acceptance of the fiber core. Since the optical fiber is symmetrical
about its axis, it is very clear that all the launched rays, which make an angle α with
Figure 3.7: Launching of Light into an Optical Fiber
the axis, considered together, form a sort of a cone. This cone is called the
acceptance cone of the fiber as shown in the above figure. Any launched ray that lies
within this cone is accepted by the fiber and the light of this ray is guided along the
fiber by virtue of multiple TIRs as shown by the red ray BO in the figure 3.7.
NUMERICAL APERTURE OF OPTICAL FIBER
With the same initial assumption of meridional launching of light into an optical
fiber, let us consider the figure 3.8 below. The figure 3.8 shows a cross-section of a
core of refractive index n1 and a cladding of refractive index n2 that surrounds the
core glass. An incident ray AO is incident from medium1 at the tip of the fiber making
an angle α with the axis of the fiber, which is the acceptance angle of the fibre. The
refracted ray for this incident ray in the core then is incident at the core-cladding
interface at the critical angle θc of the core with respect to the cladding. The angle of
refraction for critical angle of incidence is 900 and the refracted ray thus grazes along
the core-cladding boundary along BC as shown in the figure 3.8. According Snell’s
laws, the incident and the refracted rays lie in the same meridional plane, which is
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 9
the plane of the paper in this case. Applying Snell’s law at the medium1-core
interface we get:
(3.1)
Figure 3.8
From the figure it is clear that,
and so substituting this in
equation (3.1), we get:
(3.2)
From the basic trigonometric ratios,
√ (3.3)
Applying Snell’s law at the core-cladding interface we get:
√ (
)
(3.4)
Substituting equation (3.4) in equation (3.2) we get:
√
Since the initial medium 1 from which the light is launched is air most of the
times, n = 1. The angle α is indicative of light accepting capability of the optical fiber.
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 10
Greater the value of α, more is the light accepted by the optical fiber. In other words,
the optical fiber acts as some kind of aperture that accepts only some amount of the
total light energy incident on it. The light accepting efficiency of this aperture is thus
indicated by sin α and hence this quantity is called as the numerical aperture (N.A.)
of the optical fiber. Thus for an optical fiber in air, with core refractive index n1 and
cladding refractive index n2 and having an acceptance angle of α is given by
√
(3.5)
Numerical Aperture is one of the most fundamental quantities of an optical
fiber. It indicates the light collecting efficiency of an optical fiber. More the value of
N.A. better is the fiber. For greater values of N.A. the difference on the right hand
side of equation 3.5 has to be maximized. For maximizing the difference, either the
refractive index of the core (n1) has to be increased or the refractive index of the
cladding (n2) has to be reduced. Since the core used is always glass, the value of its
refractive index n1 is thus fixed (approximately 1.5). The only option thus available
with us is to reduce the value of n2. But it too has a limitation of the lowest value of 1
for air because till date no material is known which has a refractive index lower than
that. If we make n2 =1, we would then get the maximum possible N.A. for an optical
fiber. But then we are basically talking about removing the cladding because, if there
is a cladding, the value of n2 will always be greater than 1. Thus one can clearly say
that from the point of view of light accepting efficiency, the presence of a cladding is
undesirable.
The above discussion suggests that although the optical fiber is made of core
and cladding, the presence of cladding is undesirable because it reduces the light
accepting efficiency of the optical fiber. However, with a deep thought, one can
realise that the prime concern behind prolonged research on optical fibers was not
just to put light inside an optical fiber with the best efficiency but also to propagate
the light over long distances with the least attenuation. That means if we have a
source of optical signal and an optical fiber with the highest light accepting efficiency
but is incapable of propagating the accepted light; the optical fiber is of no use in
spite of its high N.A. Thus judging the need of a cladding just on the basis of light
launching efficiency would be highly inappropriate. In other words, light launching
efficiency is just one of the key characteristic aspects of an optical fiber. There are
other attributes too which have to be given importance while determining the quality
of an optical fiber. One of such attributes of an optical fiber is its bandwidth. Large
bandwidths are desirable for high data rates of transmission.
When optical fiber is used for transmission of information, light signal
launched into it cannot be of continuous nature. For a carrier signal to carry
information, one or more of its characteristics has to be altered in accordance to the
data signal. In an optical fiber light is launched in the form of optical pulses to
Fiber Optics, Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay Page 11
transmit the required information. Light energy launched into the fiber may be
considered to travel in the form of numerous rays in accordance to the Ray-Model.
These rays travel different paths inside the core of an optical fiber because different
light rays are incident on the tip of the optical fiber at different angles within the
acceptance cone itself. This causes different light rays in the acceptance cone to
travel along different paths in the core of the optical fiber and accordingly take
different time intervals to travel a given distance too, which leads to a phenomenon
of pulse broadening inside the core of the optical fiber. Thus the pulse of light which
might originally be of width T seconds now might be of T+∆T seconds inside the fiber
core. The figure 3.9 below depicts a pictorial description of how light pulse broadens