Optical Fiber Communication

(Light Emitting Diodes)

Dr. Sudhish N George

Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Calicut
email id: sudhish@nitc.ac.in

February 29, 2016

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
1 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED for optical communication
Suitable when power requirement is < 10W and desired bit rate
is in the range of 100 200Mbps.
For application in OFC system, LED must have high value of radiance (brightness), fast emission response time and a high quantum
efficiency.
Radiance is measured in terms of the power emitted by the source
per unit area per unit solid angle (measured in steradian, sr ).
Emission response time is a measure of the delay in time between
the application of current pulse to LED and the emission of light.
Quantum efficiency is a measure of the fraction of the total injected
carriers that combine radiatively to produce the emission of photons.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
2 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
LED mainly relies on spontaneous emission in the forward biased
condition.
Spontaneous emission allows a significant number of non-radiative
recombinations to take place due to crystalline impurity and imperfection.
Efficiency is only around 50%.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
3 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
Generally the excess minority carrier density in the extrinsic semiconductor material decays exponentially w.r.t. time t.
n = n(0)exp (t/ )

n(0) is the initial injected excess electron density

represents the carrier recombination life time

n will be only a small fraction of majority carriers.

The carrier recombination life time is equal to the minority carrier
life time i

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
4 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
When there is a constant current flow into the junction diode (an
equilibrium condition is established), the rate at which carriers are
generated will be the sum of externally supplied and thermally generated.
The carrier recombination time rate of LED can be derived from the
continuity equation and is expressed as,
d(n)
J
n
=

dt
ed

in m3 s1
J is the current density flowing through the diode
e is the charge of electron
d is the thickness of recombination region.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
5 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
The condition for equilibrium is obtained by setting the derivative to
zero. i.e.
d(n)
J
n
J
=0=

= n =
dt
ed

ed
represents the steady state electron density when a constant current is flowing into the region.
Also, in the steady state the total number of carrier recombinations
or recombination rate rt is,
rt =

n
J
=
= rr + rnr

ed

rr - radiative recombination (photon) per unit volume

rnr - non-radiative recombination (heat) per unit volume

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
6 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
When the forward-biased current into the device is i, then the total
number of recombinations per second Rt becomes,
i
e
The LED internal quantum efficiency int can be defined as the ratio
of the radiative recombination rate to the total recombination rate.
rr
rr
Rr
int = =
=
rt
rr + rnr
Rt
Rt =

Rr - total number of radiative recombinations per second.

Rr = int

i
e

represents the total number of photons generated per second.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
7 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency

The energy of photon is defined as, E = hf joules, where h is
planks constant and f is frequency of radiated photon.
Then, the optical power generated internally by the LED, Pint is:
i
hci
Pint = Rr hf = int hf = int
e
e

in Watts

Thus, there is a linear relationship between optical power generated

in LED and drive current into the device: Basic working principle of
optical transmitter

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
8 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED power and efficiency
Let the radiative carrier life time be r =

n
and non-radiative
rr

n
.
rnr
Then, internal quantum efficiency
rr
1
1
int =
=
r
rnr =
rr + rnr
1+
1+
nr
rr
carrier life time be nr =

The total recombination lifetime can be written as =

yields,

n
, which
rt

1
1
1
=
+

r
nr
int =

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering NationalFebruary
Institute 29,
of Technology,
2016
9 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Problem
1

The radiative and non-radiative life-times of the minority carriers

in the active region of LED are 60ns and 100ns respectively. Determine the total carrier recombination life-time and power internally generated within the device when peak emission wavelength
is 0.87m and a drive current of 40mA.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
10 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Self Study
Prove that the coupling of LED for the step index fiber in the OFC
system is c = sin2 a , where a is the acceptance angle of the fiber.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
11 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED Characteristics
LED has more linear characteristics than LDs and are mores
suitable for analog OFC system.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
12 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED Characteristics
non-linearity at high current values.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
13 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED Characteristics
Spectrum Characteristics
The spectral linewidth of an LED operating at room temperature in the 0.8
to 0.9 m wavelength band is usually between 25 and 40 nm.
For materials with smaller bandgap energies operating in the 1.1 to 1.7
m wavelength region the linewidth tends to increase to around 50 to 160
nm.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
14 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED Characteristics
Spectrum Characteristics

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
15 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

LED Characteristics
Spectrum Characteristics
The output spectra also tend to broaden at a rate of between 0.1 and 0.3
nmo C 1 with increase in temperature due to the greater energy spread
in carrier distributions at higher temperatures.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
16 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Modulation Bandwidth
can be represented in terms of electrical and optical norms.
Electrical Bandwidth
electrical power output at detector
electrical power input at source
2
/Rout
Iout
I2
= 10log10 2
out
Iin /Rin
Iin2
The electrical 3dB points occur when the ratio of electrical powers is
1
.
2
I2
1
Iout
1
i.e. out
= =
= = 0.707
2
2
Iin
Iin
2
REdB = 10log10

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
17 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Modulation Bandwidth
Optical Bandwidth
ROdB = 10log10

optical power out

optical power in

Iout
Iin
the linear light/current relationship of source and detector.
1
Thus optical 3dB points occur when the ratio of currents is .
2
Iout
1
i.e.
=
Iin
2
= 10log10

Thus, in the optical regime the bandwidth is defined by the frequencies at which the output current has dropped to 1/2 or 0.5 of the
input current to the system.
This corresponds to an electric power attenuation of 6dB.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
18 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Modulation Bandwidth

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
19 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Double Hetrojunction (DH) LED

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
20 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Double Hetrojunction (DH) LED

1

Consists of a p-type GaAs layer snadwiched between a p-type AlGaAs and an n-type AlGaAs layer.

When a forward bias is applied electrons from the n-type layer are
injected through the pn junction into the p-type GaAs layer where
they become minority carriers.

These minority carriers diffuse away from the junction, recombining

with majority carriers (holes) as they do so.

Photons are produced with energy corresponding to the bandgap

energy of the p-type GaAs layer.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
21 Calicut
/ 22

Optical Sources: Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Double Hetrojunction (DH) LED

1

The injected electrons are inhibited from diffusing into the p-type
AlGaAs layer because of the potential barrier presented by the pp
heterojunction.

Hence, electroluminescence only occurs in the GaAs junction layer,

providing both good internal quantum efficiency and high-radiance
emission.

Furthermore, light is emitted from the device without reabsorption

because the bandgap energy in the AlGaAs layer is large in comparison with that in GaAs.

Sudhish N George ( Assistant ProfessorDepartment ofOptical

Electronics
Fiber &Communication
Communication Engineering National
February
Institute29,
of 2016
Technology,
22 Calicut
/ 22