Optical Fiber Communication

Optical Sources
Engr.Mujeeb Abdullah. [email protected] Lecturer ( Dep of Electrical Engineering)

OPTICAL SOURCES

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Optical Sources

There are two types of light sources used in fiber optic:

Light Emitting diode (LED) LASER diodes (LDs)

LEDs may have two types of source:

Surface-emitting LED Edge-emitting LED

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 A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting. Early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible. The LED consists of semiconducting material doped with impurities to create a p-n junction. As in other diodes, current flows easily from the p-side or anode, to the n-side or cathode, but not in the reverse direction. Charge-carrierselectrons and holesflow into the junction from electrodes with different voltages. When an electron meets a hole, it falls into a lower energy level, and releases energy in the form of a photon.

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Optical Sources

LASER diodes are:

Fabry- Perot (FP-LD)

Distributed feed back (DFB- LD) Vertical cavity surface-emitting Laser (VCSE-LD)

All light emitters are complex semiconductors that convert an electrical current in to light.
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Optical Sources

The conversion process is fairly efficient as it creates very little heat compared to the heat generated by incandescent lights.

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Optical Sources

LEDs and Laser diodes are of interest for fiber optic because of five inherent characteristics.

Small size High radiance

(Emit a lot of light in a small area)

Small emitting area

(Area is comparable to the dimension of optical fiber cores)
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Optical Sources

Very long life

(offer high reliability)

Can be modulated at high speed LEDs are used as visible indicator in most electronics equipment. LASER diodes are most widely used in compact disk players.

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How Light is Generated

How an atom can be stimulated ?

Atom is stimulated by using light energy.

Energy can also be imparted to an atom by heat, Electrical force or by collision with other particles.

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How Light is Generated

Atoms contain two specific types of energy: Binding energy of nucleus.

Electron energy.

Electrons have different specific energy levels in which they move around the nucleus.
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How Light is Generated

Forbidden zone between each energy level is known as Energy gap.

For an electron to move from one energy level to another, it must gain or lose the exact energy difference between the two levels.

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How Light is Generated

When the electron is orbiting in the nucleus at its lower energy level E1 , it is said to be in its unexcited or ground state.

Bohr model of the hydrogen atom

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How Light is Generated

E2

E5 E4 E3
r

E1

+
E3

E2 Ground state E1

Bohr model of the hydrogen atom showing permissible electron energy levels.

Energy level diagram of the hydrogen atom.

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How Light is Generated

Direct Transition.

When the stimulated electron drops directly back to its ground state, its called direct transition.

Indirect Transition.

When the electron returns to its ground state in two or more steps, its called indirect transition.
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How Light is Generated

The result of direct transition is emission of radiations of a single wavelength.

The result of indirect transition is the emission of radiations of two or more wavelengths.

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How Light is Generated

E5 E4
E3

Excited state

E2
l =122nm

E1

Electron Energy Absorption-Direct transition

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How Light is Generated

E5 E4
E3

Excited state

l =122nm
E2

E1

Direct transition
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How Light is Generated

E5 E4 E3

Excited state

E2
l =103nm (UV)

E1

Electron Energy Absorption-Indirect transition.

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How Light is Generated

E5 E4
E3

Excited state

E2

E1

Indirect transition
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Semiconductor Material
Semiconductors
Conduction properties lie between conductor and insulator Conduction properties can be described by Energy Bands At low temperature conduction band is completely empty By raising the temperature, electron exited across the band gap.

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Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Best Light source for bit rates less than approx 100 200 Mb/s and multimode fiber. LED is a solid-state component and has nearly unlimited life expectancy.

It is physically more sturdy than its glass-encapsulated predecessors and requires far less operating power.
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LED Operation

LED is a PN junction diode that emits light through the recombination of electrons and holes when current is forced through its junction.

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LED Operation
Emitted Photon Recombined electron and hole
- + - + - +

Emitted Photon

Basic operation of a light emitting diode

- + - +

- + - + - +

N-Type Region (Cathode)

+ + + +

+ + + +

+ + + +

P-Type Region (Anode)

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How does it work?

P-n junction

Electrical Contacts

A typical LED needs a p-n junction There are a lot of electrons and holes at the junction due to excitations Electrons from n need to be injected to p to promote recombination Junction is biased to produce even more e-h and to inject electrons from n to p for recombination to happen

Recombination produces light!!

Injection Luminescence in LED

Under forward bias majority carriers from both sides of the junction can cross the depletion region and entering the material at the other side. Upon entering, the majority carriers become minority carriers For example, electrons in n-type (majority carriers) enter the p-type to become minority carriers The minority carriers will be larger minority carrier injection Minority carriers will diffuse and recombine with the majority carrier. For example, the electrons as minority carriers in the p-region will recombine with the holes. Holes are the majority carrier in the pregion. The recombination causes light to be emitted Such process is termed radiative recombination.

Recombination and Efficiency

(a) p ECEg EF EV eVo n+ (b) p Eg h =Eg n+

Electrons in CB
Holes in VB

Ideal LED will have all injection electrons to take part in the recombination process In real device not all electron will recombine with holes to radiate light Sometimes recombination occurs but no light is being emitted (non-radiative) Efficiency of the device therefore can be described Efficiency is the rate of photon emission over the rate of supply electrons

Calculate
If GaAs has Eg = 1.43ev What is the wavelength, lg it emits? What colour corresponds to the wavelength?

LIGHT EMITTING DIODES

The released energy takes the form of a photon.

Wg hf
Wg h c

l c l h Wg

(6.1)

Wg is in joules and l is in meters

Now

1 eV 1.6 10-19 J , h 6.626 10-34 J s

6.1

Joseph C. Palais

32

Construction of Typical LED

Light output
Al SiO2

p
n
Electrical contacts

Substrate

LED Construction
Efficient light emitter is also an efficient absorbers of radiation therefore, a shallow p-n junction required. Active materials (n and p) will be grown on a lattice matched substrate. The p-n junction will be forward biased with contacts made by metallisation to the upper and lower surfaces. Ought to leave the upper part clear so photon can escape. The silica provides passivation/device isolation and carrier confinement

Efficient LED
Need a p-n junction (preferably the same semiconductor material only different dopants) Recombination must occur Radiative transmission to give out the right coloured LED Right coloured LED hc/l = Ec-Ev = Eg so choose material with the right Eg Direct band gap semiconductors to allow efficient recombination All photons created must be able to leave the semiconductor Little or no reabsorption of photons

Direct band gap materials e.g. GaAs not Si

UV-ED l ~0.5-400nm

Eg > 3.25eV
LED - l ~450-650nm Eg = 3.1eV to 1.6eV IR-ED- l ~750nm- 1nm Eg = 1.65eV

Candidate Materials
Materials with refractive index that could allow light to get out Readily doped n or p-types

Typical Exam Question

Describe the principles of operation of an LED and state the materials requirements criteria to produce an efficient LED. (50 marks)

Visible LED
Definition: LED which could emit visible light, the band gap of the materials that we use must be in the region of visible wavelength = 390- 770nm. This coincides with the energy value of 3.18eV- 1.61eV which corresponds to colours as stated below:

Colour of an LED should emits

Violet ~ 3.17eV Blue ~ 2.73eV Green ~ 2.52eV Yellow ~ 2.15eV Orange ~ 2.08eV Red ~ 1.62eV

The band gap, Eg that the semiconductor must posses to emit each light

LED Driver Circuits

The optical output of LED is approximately proportional to the drive current.

LEDs are usually driven with either a digital signal or an analog signal. The key concern is driving the LED so that maximum speed is achieved.
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LED Structures
LED for optical used should have
High radiance out put
High quantum efficiency

High confinement of the charge carrier to the

active region of PN junction For this double hetrostructure configuration is used

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LED Structures
Radiance or brightness: It is a measure ,in watts, of the optical power radiated into a unit solid angle per unit area of emitting surface

Quantum efficiency: It is related to fraction of injected electron-hole pairs that recombine radiatively.

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LED Structures
Charge carrier confinement: It is used to achieve a high level of radiative recombination in the active region of the device.

Optical confinement:
It is used to prevent absorption of the emitted radiation by the material surrounding the pn junction

*By confining the charge carrier and optical emission high radiance and high quantum efficiency can be achieved
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LED Structures
To achieve carrier and optical confinement double heterostructure of two different alloy layers on each side of active region is used.

The band gap differences of adjacent layers confine the charge carriers, while the difference in the indices of refraction of adjoining layers confine the optical field to the central active region.

This dual confinement leads to both high efficiency and high radiance.
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LED Structures
Two different alloy layers on each side of the active region Recombination region is maximum confined to 0.3 um. Two LED configuration
Surface emitter
Edge emitter
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*Energy Bands in a Double Heterojunction

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Double-heterostructure configuration

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Surface-emitting LED
Emitting region is perpendicular to the axis of the fiber The circular active area in practical surface emitters is normally 50 um in diameter and up

to 2.5 um thick.
The emission pattern is essentially isotropic with a 120 half power beam width.

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Surface-Emitting LEDs

The surface-emitting LED (S-LED) emits light over a vary wide angle. This type of light source is often called a Lambertian emitter, because of the nature of the emission pattern

This broad emission angle is attractive for use as an indicating LED, therefore it is difficult to focus more than a small amount of the total light output in the fiber.
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Surface-Emitting LEDs

The key advantage of surface-emitting LEDs is their low cost, making these light emitters the dominant type in use.

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High radiance surface emitting LED. The active region is limited to a circular section having an area compatible with the fiber core end face
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Edge-Emitting LEDs

This type has a much narrower angle of light emission and also has a smaller emitting area. This allows a larger percentage total light output to be focused into the fiber core.

The disadvantage of E-LEDs is that they are very temperature sensitive compared to S-LEDs.
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Edge emitting double heterojunction LED.

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Light-emission cone

Only light falling within a cone defined by the critical angle will be emitted from an optical source.
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LED spectral patterns

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Some LED and Laser Diode Material Mixtures and their Characteristics

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Quantum Efficiency
The active region of an ideal LED emits one photon for every electron injected.

Each charge quantum-particle (electron) produces one light quantum-particle (photon). Thus the ideal active region of an LED has a quantum efficiency of unity.
The internal quantum efficiency is defined int =
number of photons emitted from active region per second number of electrons injected into LED per second

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Quantum Efficiency
The external quantum efficiency is defined as
number of photons emitted into free space per second number of electrons injected into LED per second

ext =

The external quantum efficiency gives the ratio of the

number of useful light particles to the number of

injected charge particles.

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Coupling light output to a fibre is the most difficult and costly part of manufacturing a real LED or laser device
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Laser Diodes
LASER is an acronym of Light Amplification Stimulated Emission Radiations. by of
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Advantages:
Ideal laser light is single-wavelength only. This is not exactly true for communication lasers. Lasers can be modulated (controlled) very precisely. Lasers can produce relatively high power. Indeed some types of laser can produce kilowatts of power. In communication applications, semiconductor lasers of power up to about 20 milli watts are available Because laser light is produced in parallel beams, a high percentage (50% to 80%) can be transferred into the fibre.
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Disadvantages:
Lasers have been quite expensive by comparison with LEDs. Reason: Temperature control and output power control is needed. The wavelength that a laser produces is a characteristic of the material used to build it and of its physical construction. Lasers have to be individually designed for each wavelength they are going to use. Amplitude modulation using an analogue signal is difficult with most lasers because laser output signal power is generally non-linear with input signal power
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An Ideal Beam of LASER Radiation

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Properties of LASER LASER has three main characteristics:

Monochromatic

Coherent
Collimated

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Properties of LASER
Monochromatic

Radiation which occurs at a single wavelength or color.

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Properties of LASER
Coherent

It means all waves vibrate in step, there by constructively reinforcing each adjacent wave.
A. =
Coherent light Constructive interference

B.
Incoherent light

=
Destructive interference

OPTICAL INTERFERENCE
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Properties of LASER
Collimated

It means rays are travelling in the same direction on parallel paths.

Collimating lens

Source

Source

Target area

B
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LASER Principles Laser action is the result of three key process

1. Photon absorption

2. Spontaneous emission
3. Stimulated emission

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Laser transition processes

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LASER Principles

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LASER Principles Spontaneous emission

When an electron is elevated to a high energy state this state is usually unstable. Electron will spontaneously return to a more stable state very quickly (within a few picoseconds) emitting a photon as it does so.

When light is emitted spontaneously:

Its direction and phase will be random Wavelength will be determined by the amount of energy

that the emitting electron must give up.

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LASER Principles Stimulated emission

In some situations when an electron enters a high energy

(excited) state it is able to stay there for a relatively long

time (a few microseconds) before it changes state spontaneously.

When an electron is in this semi-stable (metastable) high energy state it can be stimulated by the presence of a photon of light to emit its energy in the form of another photon.
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Stimulated emission
**It is of fundamental importance to understand that
when stimulated emission takes place the emitted photon has exactly the same wavelength, phase and

direction as that of the photon which stimulated it.

**The photon that triggered (stimulated) the emission itself is not absorbed and continues along its original path accompanied by the newly emitted

photon.

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LASER Principles

Photon absorption
E2

E1

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LASER Principles

Absorption
E5 E4 E3

Excited state

E2
l =122nm

E1

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LASER Principles

Spontaneous emission
E2

E1

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LASER Principles Spontaneous Emission

E5 E4 E3

Excited state

l =122nm
E2

E1

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LASER Principles

Stimulated emission
E2

E1

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LASER Principles Stimulated Emission

E5 E4 E3

Excited state

l =122nm
E2

E1

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Population Inversion

Under normal conditions, the population of unexcited atoms greatly exceeds the population of excited atoms.

This result, predominance of the spontaneous emission and the resulting radiation is largely incoherent.

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Population Inversion

For a LASER to operate, situation must be reversed, called population inversion. Once the majority of the atoms in a material are in an excited state, stimulated emission will be greater than spontaneous.
Population inversion is achieved by various Pumping techniques.
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Energy Pumping

Energy level diagram for a typical laser material.

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Energy Pumping

The energy population in a Lasing medium is inverted by a method known as energy pumping. Energy can be pumped, into a material in a number of ways, depending upon the composition of the material Optical pumping.

Electronic pumping.
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The amount of light leaving the end mirror (partially

reflected) equals the amount of energy being pumped into

the cavity ,minus losses .

The amount of reflectivity needed in the end mirrors is a function of the amount of gain in the cavity.
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Types of LASER Diodes

Fabry-Perot LASER Diode

Distributed Feedback LASER Diode

Vertical Cavity Surface-emitting LASER Diode

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Fabry-Perot LASER Diode Radiation is generated by the cavity Cavity size is very small like 250-500 Um long, 5-15 um wide and 0.1 to 0.2 um thick Reflecting mirrors are used at both sides of the cavity Mirrors provide strong feedback to the cavity to have the mechanism The side of the cavity are formed by roughening the edges to reduce unwanted emission

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Fabry-Perot resonator cavity

Fabry-Perot resonator cavity for a laser diode. The cleaved crystal ends function as partially reflection mirrors. The unused end ( the rear facet) can be coated with dielectric reflector to reduce optical loss in the cavity. Note that the light beam emerging from the laser forms a vertical ellipse, even though the lasing spot at the active-area facet is a horizontal ellipse.

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Two parallel light-reflecting surfaces define a FabryPerot cavity or etalon.

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Fabry-Perot laser spectrum

Typical spectrum from a Fabry-Perot GaAls/ GaAS aser diode

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Distributed Feedback LASER (DFB)

DFB LASERs offer better performance, less noise and also higher cost than FP. They are nearly monochromatic. DFB LASERs are used for high speed digital application and for most anloge application because of their faster speed, low noise and superior linearity. Lasing is achieved from the Bragg reflectors (gratings) along the length of the diode
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DFB laser

Structure of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode

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Optical output vs. drive current

Relationship between optical power and laser diode drive current. Below the lasing threshold the optical output is a spontaneous LED-type emission.
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Vertical Cavity Surface-emitting LASER Diode

VCSELs dont use monitor photodiode as they emit their light in a vertical plane perpendicular to the semiconductor wafer. Dramatically reduce the cost of LASERs to near those of LEDs

Available @ 850 nm

Generates interest @ 850 window

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Vertical Cavity Surface-emitting LASER Diode

1300 nm VCSELs to be ready

Currently Conventional LASERs used @ 1300nm

VCSELs are manufactured in such a way that they are ideal for application requiring arrays of devices.

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Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSELs)

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Modulation of Laser Diodes

The process of putting information onto a light wave is called modulation.

Two types:
1. Direct Modulation 2. External Modulation For Data rates of less than approximately 10 Gb/s (Typically 2.5 Gb/s), the process of imposing information on a laser-emitted light stream can be realized by direct modulation. For higher data rates external modulator is used to temporally modify a steady optical power level emitted by the laser.
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Modulation of Laser Diodes

The basic limitation on the direct modulation rate of laser diodes depends on: 1. Spontaneous emission carrier lifetimes.

2. Stimulated emission carrier lifetimes.

3. Photon lifetime.
Spontaneous carrier life time is a function of the semiconductor band structure and the carrier concentration. Stimulated carrier life time depends on the optical density in the lasing cavity. The photon lifetime is the average time that the photon resides in the lasing cavity before being lost either by absorption or by emission through the facets.
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Modulation of Laser Diodes Pulse modulation is carried out by modulating the

laser only in the operation region above

threshold.

In this region the carrier lifetime is now shortened

to the stimulated emission lifetime, so that the

high modulation rates are possible.
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Modulation methods

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Modulation of Laser Diodes

Directly modulated laser diode, the modulation frequency can be no larger than the frequency of the relaxation oscillations of the laser field. The relaxation oscillation depends on both the spontaneous lifetime and the photon lifetime.

Spontaneous life time

Photon life time

Threshold current

Total current
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Relaxation oscillation peak

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External Modulation Directly modulated lasers can not operate smoothly at data rates greater than 2.5 Gbps. It is suitable to use external modulators above this data rate.

There are two types of external modulators

1. Electrooptical modulator 2. Electroabsorption modulator
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1.Electrooptical modulator

The electrooptical (EO) modulator typically is made of lithium niobate (LbNiO3). 1. Light beam is split in half 2. A high-speed electric signal then changes the

phase of the light signal in one of the paths.

3. The constructive recombination produces a bright signal and corresponds to a 1 pulse. 4. Destructive recombination corresponds to a 0 pulse.
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2. Electroabsorption modulator

The electroabsorption modulator (EAM) typically is constructed from indium phosphide (InP).

It operates by having an electric signal change the transmission properties of the material in the light path to make it either transparent during a 1 pulse or opaque during a 0 pulse

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Bias Current

Electronic Modulation Current

Pcw

P (t)

Constant Optical Output Power

Modulated Optical Output Power

Operational concept of generic external modulator

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Phase

CW
Input Light

Shifter

Modulated Input Light

Beam
Splitter

Beam
Combiner

Operational concept of an electrooptical lithium niobate external modulator

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Temperature Effects
Threshold current Ith (T) of laser diode also depends on the temperature. This parameter increases with temperature in all types of semiconductor lasers. So, output optical power can be stabilized in two ways: 1. Controlling dc-bias current level. 2. Controlling temperature level. Adjustment in the dc-bias (varies with temperature) current level is necessary for constant optical power level. One possible method for achieving this automatically is an optical feedback scheme.
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Temperature Effects
Optical feedback can be carried out by using a photodetector either to sense the variation in optical power emitted from the rear facet of the laser or to tap off and monitor a small portion of the fiber-coupled power emitted from the front facet. The Photodetector compares the optical power with a reference level and adjusts the dc-bias current level automatically to maintain a constant peak light output relative to the reference. Another standard method of stabilizing the optical output of a laser diode is to use a miniature thermoelectric cooler.

Normally both methods are used together

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Temperature dependence

Temperature-dependent behavior of the optical output power as a function of the bias current for a particular laser diode.
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Construction of a laser transmitter that uses a rear-facet photodiode for output monitoring and a thermoelectric cooler for temperature stabilization
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Laser diode module

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High-performance optical transmitter containing a DFB laser, a fiber mounting block, a thermoelectric cooler, and a monitoring photodiode.
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