RAY THEORY OF

TRANSMISSION:
Acceptance
Angle
Acceptance
Angle,

Acceptance
Cone

Submitted by:
Akhil Arora
M.E. [E.C.E.]
Modular 2014-17
IInd Spell
Roll No. 141602

NATURE OF LIGHT
Concept Light can be explained as
Rays: using Optical
Geometry
Waves: using
Electromagnetic Theory
Photons: using Photoelectric
Effect

We will need
Optical Geometry to explain light propagation
Electromagnetic Theory to understand spectrum
Photoelectric Effect to show lasers and
photodetectors

NATURE OF LIGHT
Spectrum Light as a wave

NATURE OF LIGHT
Polarization Light as a wave
An electromagnetic wave has electric (E) and
magnetic (H) fields. They are perpendicular

The orientation and phase of E defines the

polarization (linear, circular or elliptical)
Circular
polarization

PHYSICS OF LIGHT
The propagation of light can be analyzed in detail
using electromagnetic wave theory.
Light falls in the general category of
electromagnetic waves, much like radio waves.
The behavior of light is sometimes easier to
explain by using ray tracings
The propagation of light in a fiber can be
described in terms of rays.

REFLECTION
REFLECTION :
When a light ray is incident on a reflecting surface, the ray bounces back like
a handball when it hits a wall.
A reflecting surface is one that is highly polished, opaque and coated with
special reflective materials.
The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle
of reflection.
The incident ray is the line AO, the reflected ray is OB and ON is the normal
to the reflecting surface.
The incident and reflected angles, 1 and 2, respectively, are those between
the rays and the line perpendicularReflection
to the surface.

LED or
LASER
Source

REFRACTION
When a ray travels across a boundary between two materials with
different refractive indices n1 and n2, both refraction and reflection
takes place. The case where n1 > n2; that is where the light travels
from high to low refractive index materials.
The refracted ray is broken that is, the angle 2 is not equal to 1.
The relation between 1 and 2 is given by Snells law of refraction.

Refraction

LED
or
LASER

n1 sin 1 n2 sin 2

LIGHT REFRACTED
Lower Refractive index Region

This end
travels
further
than the
other hand

Higher Refractive index

Region

REFRACTIVE INDEX
Refractive Index of a medium
Measures how much the speed of light is reduced

c (vacuum)
ni
i 1
ci (medium)
n typical value: 1.5
i: materials relative permittivity
REAL in fiber (dielectric)
i = j ; negligible in a dielectric

c 3108 m/s, light speed in vacuum

Maximum speed of any physical phenomena
c = 299,792,458 m/s (set by definition)

REFRACTIVE INDEX
Snells Laws (Optical Geometry)
Light = rays
Light propagation straight-line
(homogeneous medium)
(In refraction
there is always
a reflected ray)

n1 sin i n2 sin R
n1 ci n2 cR

i r
ci cr

TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION
When 2, the angle of refraction becomes 90, the
refracted beam is not traveling through the n2
material. Applying Snells law of refraction,

n2
sin 1
n1

The angle of incidence 1 for which 2 = 90 is

called the critical angle c

TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION

If the ray is incident on the boundary between n1 and n2

materials at the critical angle, the refracted ray will travel along
the boundary, never entering the n2 material.
There are no refracted rays for the case where 1
c.
This condition is known as total internal reflection, which can
occur only when light travels from higher refractive index
material to lower refractive index material.
The light can be restricted to the material with the higher index
of refraction if the incident angle is kept above the critical angle.
A sandwich of high index material placed between two slabs of
low index material will allow a beam of light to propagate in the
high index material with relatively little loss.
This concept is used in constructing fibers for fiber optic
communication.

Core is the center of

the optical fiber
made of ultra pure
glass

Index of refraction of
cladding is about 1%
lower than that of the
core.

The critical angle is

approx 82

CRITICAL ANGLE

If light inside an optical fiber strikes the cladding too steeply,

the light refracts into the cladding - determined by the critical
angle. (There will come a time when, eventually, the angle of
refraction reaches 90o and the light is refracted along the
boundary between the two materials. The angle of incidence
which results in this effect is called the critical angle).
n1Sin X=n2Sin90o

Critical Angle

CRITICAL ANGLE
To propagate light
L: limit angle of propagation
OL: limit angle of acceptance

n2

n1

n1 sin L n2 1 L arcsin

n0 sin OL n1 sin 90 L n1 cos L

sin OL

n
n
1 1 sin 2 L 1
n0
n0

n12 n22
1

n12 n12 n0

Air : n0 1 sin OL n12 n22

n12 n22

BASIC PRINCIPLE
When a light ray travelling in one material hits a different material
and reflects back into the original material without any loss of
light, total internal reflection is said to occur.
Since the core and cladding are constructed from different
compositions of glass, theoretically, light entering the core is
confined to the boundaries of the core because it reflects back
whenever it hits the cladding.
For total internal reflection to occur, the index of refraction of the
core must be higher than that of the cladding, and the incidence
angle is larger than the critical angle.

NUMERICAL APERTURE
Light must be fed into the end of the fiber to
initiate mode propagation. As Figure shows,
upon incidence from air (no) to the fiber core
(n
is refracted by Snells Law:
no sin
af)the
n f sinlight
b
sin 2 b cos 2 b 1
90o

no sin a n f 1 cos 2 b

cos b cos 90o c sin c

Laser Source
no sin a n f 1 sin 2 c

The numerical aperture, NA, is

defined as
n f 1 sin 2 c
NA sin a
no

Fiber
The sum of the internal angles in
a triangle is 180 deg.

c b 90o 180o
b 90o c

NUMERICAL APERTURE
The Numerical Aperture is the sine of the largest angle contained
within the cone of acceptance.
NA is related to a number of important fiber characteristics.
It is a measure of the ability of the fiber to gather light at the
input end.
The higher the NA the tighter (smaller radius) we can have
bends in the fiber before loss of light becomes a problem.
The higher the NA the more modes we have, Rays can bounce at
greater angles and therefore there are more of them. This
means that the higher the NA the greater will be the dispersion
of this fiber (in the case of MM fiber).
Thus
higher the NA of SM fiber
the higher will be the
attenuation of the fiber

Typical NA for single-mode fiber is 0.1. For multimode, NA is between

0.2 and 0.3 (usually closer to 0.2).

NUMERICAL APERTURE
CALCULATION

ACCEPTANCE ANGLE
The angle of light entering a fiber
which follows the critical angle is
called the acceptance angle,

n1 = Refractive index of the core

n2 = Refractive index of the cladding
2 1/2
2
Acceptance
Angle,

= sin-1[(n12-n ) ]

Critical Angle,
c

ACCEPTANCE CONE
There is an imaginary cone of acceptance with an
angle
The light that enters the fiber at angles within the
acceptance cone are guided down the fiber core
Acceptance
Angle,
Acceptance
Cone

ACCEPTANCE CONE

Lost by
radiation

Acceptance
angle
Acceptance Cone

A
a
c

Core
Cladding

SKEW RAYS IN FIBER

ACCEPTANCE ANGLE FOR SKEW

RAYS

SKEW RAY PROPOGATION

PROBLEM(1)

What happens to the light which approaches the

fiber outside of the cone of acceptance? The
angle of incidence is 30o as in Fig.1 (calculate the
angle of refraction at the air/core interface, r/
critical angle, c/ incident angle at the
core/cladding interface, i/) does TIR occur?

PROBLEM(2)
Calculate:
angle of refraction at
the air/core interface,
r
critical angle , c
incident angle at the
core/cladding
interface , i
Will this light ray
Answers:
propagate down the
= 8.2
= 78.4
fiber?
= 81.8
r

c
i

light will propagate

core/cladding interface

air/core interface
nair = 1
ncore = 1.46
ncladding = 1.43
incident = 12

PROBLEM(3)
Lets find the critical angle within the
fiber. Then well find the acceptance
angle and the numerical aperture.
The critical angle is

nc
1.450 81.8o.

sin

n
1.465

c sin 1

The acceptance angle

(1.465) 2 (1.450) 2

a sin

12.1o.

Finally, the numerical aperture is

NA sin a 0.209.

PROBLEM(4)
A fiber has the following characteristics: n1 = 1.35 (core
index) and =2%. Find the N.A and the acceptance
angle.
n1 = 1.35 ; = 2% = 0.02
12
N
.
A

(
2

)
W.K.T
1
= 1.35 (2 0.02)1/2 = 0.27
a = sin 1 (N.A) = sin 1 (0.27) = 15.66
Acceptance angle = 2a = 31.33

PROBLEM(5)
A silica optical fiber has a core refractive index of 1.50
and a cladding refractive index of 1.47. Determine (i) the
critical angle at the core cladding interface, (ii) the N.A
for the fiber and (iii) the acceptance angle for the fiber.
n1 = 1.50 ; n2 = 1.47

The critical
angle

n2
c sin
n1

1.47

78.5
1.50

= sin 1
2

N . A (n1 n 2 )1
he numerical aperture

=(1.50 2 1.47 2 )1

0.30

The acceptance angle = 2a = 2 sin 1 (N.A) = 2 sin 1

(0.30)
34.9= 78.5 ; N.A = 0.30 ; Acceptance angle
Critical=angle
= 34.9

PROBLEM(6)
Calculate the numerical aperture and acceptance angle
of fiber with a core index of 1.52 and a cladding index of
1.50.
Hint: n1 = 1.52 ; n2 = 1.50
2
2
N . A (n1 n 2 )1 2= 0.246 and

a = sin 1 (N.A) = 14 14 ;
Acceptance angle = 2 a = 28 28

PROBLEM(7)
The relative refractive index difference for an
optical fiber is 0.05. If the entrance end of the
fiber is facing the air medium and refractive index
of core is 1.46, estimate the numerical aperture

Hint: n1 = 1.46 ; = 0.05 ;

N.A n1 (2

1
)1 2 1.46 (2 0.05) 2

0.46

RAYS
Rays & Modes
A mode prefers a specific propagation
angle
Although modes and rays behave
differently
For our purposes: one mode one ray
Then, multimode multi-ray

FIBER STRUCTURE
What is a fiber?
Dielectric waveguide (usually cylindrical)
An only wire
It does not carry electricity

Carries light (inside)

Tiny size (like a human hair)
Can transmit high data rates

AS FIBER HAS SO MANY PROS, OPTICAL

COMMUNICATIONS ARE USUALLY MADE
VIA FIBER

FIBER STRUCTURE
Structure
Core: doped SiO2
Carries the light (most of it)
Typical values: 8-10; 50; 62.5 m (diameter)

Cladding: pure/doped SiO2

Confines light into the core (like a mirror)
Typical values: 125 m

(Coating: outer protection)

FIBER STRUCTURE
Main parameters
Cores size, radius a
Claddings refractive index n2
Cores refractive index n1 , or n1(r) if it
varies
n2
n1

FIBER STRUCTURE
Fiber types

FIBER STRUCTURE
Step-Index Fiber
n2 = constant (cladding)
(core)
n1 = constant
r
r a n(r ) n1 n(0)

a
n(r)
-a
n2

n1

Relative
n n Index
SI

n1

r a n(r ) n1 1 n2

Typical values (SiO2):

Differencen1 1.461
n2 1.460
SI = 0.01-0.05

FIBER STRUCTURE
Graded Index Fiber
n2 = constant (cladding)
n1 = n(r) variable! (core)
r
a
n(r)
-a
n2

g 12

r
r a n(r ) n(0) 1 2
a

r a n(r ) n(0)1 2

n 2 (0) n22 n(0) n2 n(0) n2 n(0) n2

Relative
Index
GI
Difference

2
2
n ( 0)
2 n ( 0)
2 n ( 0)
since n(0) n2 2 n(0)

12

n2

FIBER STRUCTURE
Index profile parameter g
g 2 parabolic profile (approximat ely )
g IF : r a r a 0

g 0 n ( r ) n2

It does not work as a guide!

g 1 n(r ) straight : triangular profile (approx.)

Most important values

Step-Index fiber: g
Graded index fiber: g 2

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR
PATIENCE