LOSSES IN FIBER

OPTICS
Lecturer
Abdullahi Mohamed Haji Nur
Faculty of Engineering , HU
 LOSSES IN FIBER
OPTICS

Attenuation, dispersion-intermodel,
Intramodel, bend loss-micro macro
scattering losses-Linear, Non linear,
Absorption
Link Budget, Power Budget
Block diagram and working of OTDR
 TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF
OPTICAL FIBERS

The transmission characteristics of most interest:

attenuation (loss) and bandwidth.
Now, silica-based glass fibers have losses about 0.2
dB/km (i.e. 95% launched power remains after 1 km of fiber
transmission). This is essentially the fundamental lower
limit for attenuation in silica- based glass fibers.
Fiber bandwidth is limited by the signal dispersion
within the fiber. Bandwidth determines the number of bits of
information transmitted in a given time period.
ATTENUATION

Attenuation means loss of light energy as

the light pulse travels from one end of the
cable to the other.
It is also called as signal loss or fiber loss.
It also decides the number of repeaters
required between transmitter and
receiver.
Attenuation is directly proportional to the
length of the cable.
ATTENUATION
ATTENUATION
ATTENUATION
ATTENUATION
ATTENUATION---EXAMPLES
SOLUTION
 ATTENUATION

Attenuation is defined as the ratio of optical output

power to the input power in the fiber of length L.
= 10log10 Pi/Po [in db/km]
where, Pi= Input Power
Po= Output Power, is attenuation constant
The various losses in the cable are due to
Absorption
Scattering
Dispersion
Bending
 BENDING LOSSES

The loss which exists when an optical fiber undergoes bending

is called bending losses.
There are two types of bending

i) Macroscopic bending
Bending in which complete fiber undergoes bends which
causes certain modes not to be reflected and therefore causes
loss to the cladding.
ii) Microscopic Bending
Either the core or cladding undergoes slight bends at its surface.
It causes light to be reflected at angles when there is no further
reflection.
BENDING LOSSES
 Macroscopic Bending

Microscopic
Bending
 BENDING LOSSES

Optical power escapes from tightly bent fibers

Bending loss increases at longer wavelengths
 ABSORPTION LOSS

Material absorption is a loss mechanism related to both the

material composition and the fabrication process for the fiber.
The optical power is lost as heat in the fiber.
The light absorption can be intrinsic (due to the material
components of the glass) or extrinsic (due to impurities
introduced into the glass during fabrication).

Absorption of light energy due to heating of ion impurities results

in reducing of light at the end of the fiber.
Two types:
1. Intrinsic Absorption
2. Extrinsic Absorption
Intrinsic Absorption:
Caused by the interaction with one or more components
of the glass
Occurs when photon interacts with an electron in the
valence band & excites it to a higher energy level .
Extrinsic Absorption:
Also called impurity absorption.
Results from the presence of transition metal ions like
iron, copper & from OH ions i.e. from water.
DISPERSION LOSS
 DISPERSION LOSS

As an optical signal travels along the fiber, it becomes

increasingly distorted.
This distortion is a sequence of intermodal and
intramodal dispersion.
Two types:
1. Intermodal Dispersion
2. Intramodal Dispersion
DISPERSION LOSS
DISPERSION LOSS
Intermodal Dispersion:
Pulse broadening due to intermodal dispersion
results from the propagation delay differences
between modes within a multimode fiber.
Intramodal Dispersion:
It is the pulse spreading that occurs within a
single mode.
Material Dispersion
Waveguide Dispersion
1) Material Dispersion:
Also known as spectral dispersion or chromatic
dispersion.
Results because of variation due to Refractive Index of
core as a function of wavelength, because of which
pulse spreading occurs even when different
wavelengths follow the same path.
2) Waveguide Dispersion:
Whenever any optical signal is passed through the
optical fiber, practically 80% of optical power is
confined to core & rest 20% optical power into
cladding.
 SCATTERING LOSSES

It occurs due to microscopic variations in the material density,

compositional fluctuations, structural in homogeneities and
manufacturing defects.
Linear Scattering
Rayleigh Scattering losses
Mie Scattering Losses
Waveguide Scattering Losses

Non-linear Scattering
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS)
Stimulated Raman Scattering(SRS)
 LINEAR SCATTERING

a) Rayleigh Scattering Losses:

These losses are due to microscopic variation in the
material of the fiber.
Unequal distribution of molecular densities or atomic
densities leads to Rayleigh Scattering losses
Glass is made up of several acids like SiO2,etc.
compositions, fluctuations can occur because of
these several oxides which rise to Rayleigh
scattering losses
b) Mie Scattering Losses:
These losses results from the compositional fluctuations
& structural inhomogenerics & defects created during
fiber fabrications, causes the light to scatter outside the
fiber.
c) Waveguide Scattering Losses:
It is a result of variation in the core diameter,
imperfections of the core cladding interface, change in
RI of either core or cladding.
 II) NON-LINEAR SCATTERING

a) SBS Scattering:
Stimulated Brillouin Scattering(SBS) may be
regarded as the modulation of light through
thermal molecular vibrations within the fiber.
b) SRS Scattering:
Stimulated Raman Scattering is similar to SBS
except that high frequency optical phonon rather
than acoustic phonon is generated in scattering
processes.

Phonon:
Collective excitation in a periodic arrangement of
atoms or molecules in solid.
 OPTICAL TIME
DOMAIN
REFLECTOMETER
 WHAT IS OTDR?

It is a trouble shooting device to find faults, splices and

bends in fiber optic cable.
It is used to measure time and intensity of light reflected
on an optical fiber.
It can detect light loss and identify trouble areas making
repair easy.
OTDR test can be anywhere along the length of fiber
from ten seconds to three minutes
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

OTDR emits a high-power pulse that hits

the fiber and bounces back.
What comes back is measured, factoring in
time and distance, and results in trouble
spots which can be targeted for repair.
The more quickly trouble areas are
identified and addressed the less fiber optic
network will suffer from data transfer
problems.
BLOCK DIAGRAM

Coupler Fiber
Pulsed
Laser

Photo
Detector
APD

Integrator Log Chart

Amplifier Recorder
 WORKING

A light pulsed is launched into the fiber in forward

direction from an injection laser using a coupler or
beam splitter.
Beam splitter or coupler makes possible to couple the
optical excitation power impulse into the tested fiber
and to deviate the back scattered power to the optical
receiver.
The backscattered light is detected using an Avalanche
Photodiode receiver.
 WORKING

Output of photodiode receiver drives an integrator.

Integrator improves SNR by giving an arithmetic
average over a number of measurements taken at one
point.
This signal is fed to Logarithmic amplifier and
average measurements for successive points within
the fiber are plotted as a Chart Recorder.
Overall link length can be determined from the time
difference between reflection from the fiber input and
output end faces.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FIBER LOSSES