Attenuation in

Optical Fibers
Attenuation/Loss In Optical Fibers
Mechanisms:
Bending loss
Absorption
Scattering loss

dBm refers to a ratio
with respect to a
signal of 1 mW

( )
o
o
o
o
o
=
=
out in
Power transmission is governed by the
following differential equation:

where is the attenuation coefficient
and P is the total power.
P (z)=P exp - Z
is usually expressed in dB/km
( / )
dP
P
dz
dB km o
o
| |
=
|
\ .
out
10
in
P 10
4.343
P
Note that positive means loss
Log
L
Bending Loss
Fiber Optics Communication Technology-Mynbaev & Scheiner
Example bending loss
1 turn at 32 mm diameter
causes 0.5 db loss

Index profile can be adjusted to
reduce loss but this degrades
the fibers other characteristics

Rule of thumb on minimum
bending radius:
Radius>100x Cladding
diameter for short times
13mm for 125m cladding
Radius>150x Cladding
diameter for long times
19mm

This loss is mode dependent

Can be used in attenuators,
mode filters fiber identifier, fiber
tap, fusion splicing

Microbending loss
Property of fiber, under control
of fabricator, now very small,
usually included in the total
attenuation numbers
Bending Loss in Single Mode Fiber
Mode Field distributions in straight
and bent fibers
Microbending Loss Sensitivity vs
wavelength
Bending loss for lowest order modes
Bending Loss
Outside portion of evanescent field has
longer path length, must go faster to keep up
Beyond a critical value of r, this portion of the
field would have to propagate faster than the
speed of light to stay with the rest of the pulse
Instead, it radiates out into the cladding and
is lost
Higher-order modes affected more than
lower-order modes; bent fiber guides fewer
modes
Graded-index Fiber


For r between 0 and a. If =, the
formula is that for a step-index fiber

Number of modes is


( )
o
|
.
|

\
|
A =
a
r
n r n 2 1
1
( ) A
+
=
2
1
2
akn M
o
o
Mode number reduction caused by
bending

(
(

|
|
.
|

\
|
+
A
+
=
3 / 2
2
2
3 2
2
2
1
kR n R
a
N N
straight bent
o
o
Absorption
In the telecom region of the spectrum,
caused primarily by excitation of
chemical bond vibrations
Overtone and combination bands
predominate near 1550 nm
Low-energy tail of electronic
absorptions dominate in visible region
Electronic absorptions by color centers
cause loss for some metal impurities
Electron on a Spring Model
Mechanical Oscillator Model
Response as a function of Frequency
E-Field of a Dipole
Vibrational absorption
When a chemical bond is dipolar (one atom
more electronegative than the other) its
vibration is an oscillating dipole
If signal at telecom wavelength is close
enough in frequency to that of the vibration,
the oscillating electric field goes into
resonance with the vibration and loses
energy to it
Vibrational energies are typically measured in
cm
-1
(inverse of wavelength). 1550 nm =
6500 cm
-1
.
Overtones and combination bands
Harmonic oscillator selection rule says that
vibrational quantum number can change by
only 1
Bonds between light and heavy atoms, or
between atoms with very different
electronegativities, tend to be anharmonic
To the extent that real vibrations are not
harmonic, overtones and combination bands
are allowed (weakly)
Each higher overtone is weaker by about an
order of magnitude than the one before it


Overtone absorptions in silica
Si-O bond fairly polar, but low frequency
01 at 1100 cm
-1
; would need six
quanta (five overtones) to interfere with
optical fiber wavelengths
OH bonds very anharmonic, and strong
01 at 3600 cm
-1
; 02 at 7100 cm
-1
;
creates absorption peak between
windows

Attenuation in plastic fibers
C-H bonds are anharmonic and strong,
about 3000 cm
-1

First overtone (02) near 6000 cm
-1

Combination bands right in telecom
region
Polymer fiber virtually always more
lossy than glass fiber
Absorptive Loss
Hydrogen impurity leads to OH bonds whose
first overtone absorption causes a loss peak
near 1400 nm
Transition metal impurities lead to broad
absorptions in various places due to d-d
electronic excitations or color center creation
(ionization)
For organic materials, C-H overtone and
combination bands cause absorptive loss
Photothermal deflection spectroscopy
HeNe Detector
Arc
lamp
Lock-in
amplifier
Chopper
Lens
Sample
cuvette
Scattering loss: from index discontinuity
Scatterers are much smaller than the
wavelength: Rayleigh and Raman
scattering
Scatterers are much bigger than the
wavelength: geometric ray optics
Scatterers are about the same size as
the wavelength: Mie scattering
Scatterers are sound waves: Brillouin
scattering
Raman scattering
A small fraction of Rayleigh scattered
light comes off at the difference
frequency between the applied light and
the frequency of a molecular vibration (a
Stokes line)
In addition, some scattered light comes
off at the sum frequency (anti-Stokes)

Mie scattering from dimensional
inhomogeneities
Similar effect to microbending loss
Mie scattering depends roughly on
-2
;
scattering angle also depends upon
In planar waveguide devices, roughness
on side walls leads to polarization-
dependent loss
Teng immersion technique
Detector Motor stage
Tunable IR laser
Lock-in Amplifier
Chopper
Intrinsic Material Loss for Silica
Rayleigh Scattering ~ (1/)
4
Due to intrinsic index variations in amorphous silica
Spectral loss profile of a Single Mode
fiber
Fundamentals of Photonics - Saleh and Teich
Spectral loss of single and Multi-mode
silica fiber
Intrinsic and extrinsic loss components for silica fiber