OPTICAL FIBRES

Fibre optics is a branch of physics based on the transmission of light through transparent
fibres of glass or plastic. These optical fibres can carry light over distances ranging from a
few centimeters to hundreds of kilometers. An optical fibre is a thin, flexible pure glass
material of diameter 5 – 50µm. These are the
backbones of optical communication systems
where the communication takes place using light
rays called light guides of optical wave guides.
They are transparent dielectrics and able to guide
visible and infrared light over long distances.

Construction
It is made of a high purity silica glass, thin cylinder of 5 - 50µm in diameter called core at the
centre, which is surrounded by a similar glass material but of lesser refractive index called
cladding. The cladding is enclosed in a poly-
urethane jacket, which safeguards the fibre
against chemical reaction with surrounding
called sheathing. Many such fibres are
grouped to form an optical cable.

Propagation Mechanism
The basic principle of transmission in an optical fibre is total internal reflection. For this the
condition is that, the core should have a refractive index more than the cladding. To illustrate
the total internal reflection, consider a set of two media having refractive indices n1 and n2
such that n1 > n2.
Let a beam of light AO incident on the interface
through the first medium at an angle θ1 in the
medium of refractive index n1. The ray will refract
away from the normal, since n1 > n2.
Consider the ray BO incident at an angle where the
refracted ray just grazes the surface making an angle
900. This angle of incidence where the refracting
angle is 900 is called critical angle (θc). But for the

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ray incident at an angle more than θc, the ray reflects back into the same medium. This
phenomenon is known as total internal reflection.
For refraction, we have the Snell’s law
n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2
At critical angle, n1 sinθc = n2 sin90
n2 n2
 sin  c  or  c  sin 1
( )
n1 n1
In total internal reflection, the loss of
light energy is zero, since the materials are of highest purity. Therefore the entire energy is
returned along the reflected light. Hence it is total internal reflection. Under such
circumstances the light beam is completely trapped inside the core and cannot escape from
the core.

Acceptance angle and numerical aperture

Consider a ray that travels along AO entering into the core at an angle θ 0 of the fibre axis. Let
it refract along OB at an angle θ1 in the core and at B, it just moves along the interface
between core and cladding. Therefore (90-θ1) is the critical angle. Hence any ray enters at an
angle of incidence greater than θ0 at O will have an angle less than (90-θ1) i.e. the critical
angle at the interface. Thus will be refracted and lost.

On the other hand, if the ray enters into the core at an angle less than θ0 will have an angle
more than (90-θ1) at the interface and undergoes total internal reflection. This angle θ0 at the
centre of the core is called acceptance angle.
If the angle θ0 is rotated about the axis forms a cone and this is called acceptance cone. Thus
any light beam falling within the cone will undergo total internal reflection and other get
refracted and lost. The sine of the maximum acceptance angle i.e. sinθ 0 is termed as
numerical aperture (NA). It signifies the light gathering capacity of an optical fibre.

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Condition for propagation
Consider an optical fibre with a core and cladding. Let n1, n2 and n0 be the refractive indices
of the core, cladding and surrounding medium respectively.
Let AO be the incident ray that falls at an angle θ0 refracts along BC at an angle θ1.
According to the Snell’s law, n0 sinθ0 = n1 sinθ1 --- (1)

At the point B, the ray is incident at an angle (90-θ1) at the interface. Therefore by Snell’s
law, n1 sin(90-θ1) = n2 sin90
 n1 cosθ1= n2
n2
or cos  1  ---(2)
n1
Re-writing equation (1), we have
n1 n
sin  0  sin  1 = 1 (1  cos 2 1 )
n0 n0
Substituting for cosθ1 from eqn. (2), we have

n1 n22 n12  n 22
sin  0  (1  )
n0 n12 n0

Assuming the surrounding medium be air,  n0=1

 sin  0  n12  n 22

Since sinθ0 = numerical aperture (NA),

 NA  n12  n 22

If θi is the angle of incidence of an incident ray, then the ray will be able to propagate only
when θi < θo

or sini  sin0 or sin  i  n 12  n 22

or sin  i  NA , which is the condition for propagation.

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Fractional index (  ): It is defined as the ratio of the difference between refractive indices
of the core and the cladding to the refractive index of the core in an optical fibre.
n1  n 2
 
n1
We can establish a relationship between the numerical aperture and the fractional index
change as follows.
n1  n 2
We have,   or n1  n2  n1 
n1

But NA  n12  n 22  ( n1  n 2 )( n1  n 2 ) = ( n1  n 2 )  n1

Since n1 ~ n2, (n1 +n2) = 2n1

 NA  2n12 

or NA  n1 2

From above, we can see that the value of NA increases with the increase in , so as to receive
a maximum light into the fibre. But fibres of large  will not be useful since it leads a
distortion known as ‘intermodal dispersion’.

Modes of propagation
It is expected that all the rays having angle less than the acceptance angle should travel in
core by series of total internal reflection. But theoretically it is not so. According to
Maxwell’s equation, out of the light that enters into the core within the acceptance angle
sustaining the propagation in the fibre, only some light waves in terms of a certain number of
modes will sustain propagation. There are different types of fibre modes. They are guided
mode, leaky mode and radiation mode. The number of modes supported for the propagation
in the fibre is determined by a parameter called V-number is given by
d
V= n12  n 22 where d is the diameter of the core, λ is the operating wavelength, n1, n2

are the refractive indices of core and cladding respectively.
d d
We can write V = (NA) or V = n1 2
 
2
V2 1  d
The total number of modes N is given by N    NA 
2 2  

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Types of optical fibres
The types of optical fibres are mainly depending on the refractive indices of cladding and the
core. Generally the refractive index of the cladding is kept constant and the refractive index
of the core is varied in a particular way. The curve which represents the variation of
refractive index with respect to the radial distance from the axis of the fibre is called
refractive index profile.
Based on these, the optical fibres are classified into 3 categories.
1) Step index single mode fibre
2) Step index multimode fibre
3) Graded index multimode fibre

1. Step index single mode (mono-mode) fibre

This fibre is made of a small (5 – 10 µm diameter) core with a thick cladding, about 10
times the core diameter (40 - 100µm outer diameter) and a suitable protective sheathing.
Both the core and the cladding have uniform but different refractive indices. Since the
profile forms a step due to the abrupt change in the refractive index between the core and
the cladding, it is termed as step-index fibre. Because of its narrow core it can guide just a
single mode fibre.

This is extensively used in the world. It is suitable for long distance, high data rate
communications, since it has a large bandwidth. Due to small core diameter, only lasers
are suitable for transmission.

2. Step – index multi mode fibre

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 The construction of this fibre is similar to that of the single mode fibre, except for the
large diameter so that it is able to support propagation of large number of modes.
The core and the cladding have uniform but different refractive indices. Hence it is step –
index. Its V parameter is greater than 2.4 and hence it can transmit many modes.
In this mode both laser and LED light can be used as source. It is less expensive. The
scattering and absorption losses are more and hence it is suitable for short distance
communications.

3. Multimode graded index fibre

The construction is similar to multimode step index fibre except for the refractive index
of the core. The refractive index of the core decreases across the core radially outward
direction from the axis and becomes equal to that of the cladding at the interface. But the
RI of the cladding remains uniform. Due to that variation in the RI of the core, the fastest
components of the rays take the longer path and the slower components take the shorter
path in the core so that the time taken by different modes is almost same. This reduces the
intermodal dispersion and hence losses are minimum. These are most suitable for large
bandwidth, medium distance and medium bit rate communication systems. Both laser and
LED can be used as source.

Attenuation [Fibre Loss]

It is the loss of light intensity as it travels in the fibre. The loss increases with increasing
distance, which reduces the average power reaching the receiver.
There are 3 different ways in which the attenuation takes place.
1. Absorption: The absorption losses are due to the impurities present in the fibre or due to
the fibre itself. The types of impurities present in the fibre are generally the transition
metal ions, chromium, cobalt and copper. The electrons of these materials absorb the
photons and get excited to the higher energy level. When they come back, they re-emit
certain wavelengths, which are different from the laser wavelength. Hence it is a loss.

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 This loss of power will be converted into heat in the fibre. The other kind of impurities is
hydroxyl (OH) ions, which absorb a large amount of energy.
Also the fibre itself can absorb light energy in a smaller way. This is called intrinsic
absorption, which is attributed to the electronic and vibrational reasons.
2. Scattering losses: It is due to the in-homogeneity if the refractive index in the fibre. This
is called Rayleigh scattering, where a light wave travels though a medium scatters with
the object whose dimensions are smaller then the wavelength of the light used. Due to
Rayleigh scattering, the photons move in random directions and in all probabilities leave
the fibre and thus become a loss.
1
Rayleigh scattering 
4
The sharp variation in the RI is due to in-
homogeneity in the material because glass fibre
consists of randomly connected networks of
molecules and it is having a mixture of many oxides such as SiO2, GeO2, P2O5 which
results in rapid fluctuations of the composition which results in the variation of density of
the material.
The other types of scattering losses are due to the structural in-homogeneity and defects
created during fibre fabrications. Now the manufacturing methods are such that these
losses are negligible compared to the Rayleigh scattering.

3. Radiation losses: These losses are due to bending of the fibres. There are two types:
a) Macroscopic and b) microscopic.
The bends having radii greater compared to the fibre
diameter are called macroscopic bends. In such curved
fibres the incident angle falls below the critical angle
and no total internal reflection takes place.
Microscopic bending occurs due to non-uniformities in
the manufacturing of the fibre where of the light rays
may leak through the fibre. Micro bending losses
could be minimized by extruding a compressible
jacket over the fibre that will keep the fibre relatively
straight.

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Attenuation coefficient ()
When the light travels in the material medium, there will always be loss in its intensity with
distance traveled. The loss of intensity is expressed in terms of a quantity called attenuation
coefficient, is given by the equation

10 P 
or    log 10  out  dB / km.
L  Pin 
where L is the length of the optical fibre through which the optical signal travels and P in &
Pout are the initial and final intensities of the signal expressed in watts.

Applications of optical fibres

Point to point communication:

Optical fibre communication is the transmission of information by propagation of optical
signal through optical fibres over a large distance. The optical signal is derived from

electrical signal at the transmitting end and converted back to electrical signal at the receiving
end. The voice is an analog electrical signal which is to be converted into binary data. The
binary data comes out as a stream of electrical pulses from the coder. These pulses are
converted into pulses of optical power by modulating the light emitted by the optical source
such as LED or laser. This unit is called an optical transmitter from which the optical power
is fed into the fibre.

Now the optical light is tunneled into the core within the half angle acceptance cone, which
will sustain the propagation within the fibre by means of total internal reflection. As it

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propagates, there may be attenuation losses or delay distortions. The attenuation losses are
due to absorption or scattering of photons and delay distortion is due to spreading of pulses
with time. These effects cause continuous degradation of the signal as the light propagates.
To reduce this effect repeaters are used in the transmission path. It consists of a receiver and
transmitter arranged adjacently, which receives the signal, reshapes, amplifies it and re-
transmit back into the optical fibre.
At the receiving end, the optical signal is fed into a photo detector where the signal is
converted into pulses of electric current. These pulses then fed to the decoder, which converts
the sequence of binary data stream into an analog signal, which will be the same information,
which was sent at the transmission end.
Other applications of optical fibres are
1) as sensing device which senses the parameters like pressure, voltage, current etc.
2) Data link communication
3) Local area network – information can be exchanged between the terminals located at
different places.

Intensity based fibre optic displacement sensor:

A sensor transforms one physical variable into another. Displacement sensor is a type of
intensity modulated sensor where the light reflected from the body undergoing displacement
is detected by using an optical fiber in combination with a detector. It measures the distance
between the sensor and an object by detecting the amount of displacement through a variety
of elements and converting it into a distance.
It consists of a bundle of transmitting fibers coupled to the laser source and a bundle of
receiving fibers coupled to
the detector as shown in the
figure. Here the light is sent
through a transmitting fibers
and is made to fall on a
moving target. The reflected
light from the target is sensed
by a detector. With respect to
intensity of light reflected
from its displacement of the
target is measured.

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Based on the intensity of the light received, the displacement of the target can be measured,
(i.e.) if the received intensity is more than we can say that the target is moving towards the
sensor and if the intensity is less, we can say that the target is moving away from the sensor.

Optical sensors are very much useful in medical field. A medical endoscope is a tubular
optical instrument, used to inspect or view the internal parts of human body which are not
visible to the naked eye. The photograph of the internal parts can also be taken using this
endoscope. It also plays an important role in many applications, such as structural health
monitoring, industrial control, and so on. The measurements of many physical parameters
like stress, strain, temperature, and acceleration could be converted to the measurement of
displacement.

Advantages:
1. Carry large amount of information.
2. The materials used for the fabrication of optical fibre are cheap. (silicon di-oxide,
glass etc)
3. Cost per meter per channel would be lesser compared to metallic cable.
4. Light weight – easy to transport.
5. No interference since no light enters from outside.
6. No disturbance when compared to metallic wires.
7. No tapping of informations.
8. No sparks are generated since the signal is optical.

Limitations:
1) Splicing (connecting) of two fibres is highly expensive.
2) May break when bent in very small curvatures.
3) Expansion and contraction of fibres may take place due to variation in temperature,
which lead to loss in signal power.

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