Optical & Wireless

Communication (21EC72).

Dr. Sangeetha K N
Dept. of ECE
Module-1
• Optical Fiber Structures: Optical Fiber Modes and
Configurations, Mode theory for circular
waveguides, Single mode fibers, Fiber materials.
• Attenuation and Dispersion: Attenuation,
Absorption, Scattering Losses, Bending loss, Signal
Dispersion: Modal delay, Group delay, Material
dispersion.
[Text1 : 3.1, 3.2, 2.3[2.3.1 to 2.3.4], 2.4[2.4.1,
2.4.2],2.5, 2.7].
1. OPTICAL FIBER MODES AND CONFIGURATIONS

• Optical fiber: An optical Fiber is a thin, flexible,

transparent Fiber that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe",
to transmit light between the two ends of the Fiber.
• Optical fibers advantages: transmission over longer
distances, higher bandwidths (data rates), less loss,
immune to electromagnetic interference.
1.1 FIBER STRUCTURE
• An optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide capable of
conveying electromagnetic waves at optical frequencies.
This fiber waveguide is normally cylindrical in form.
• The electromagnetic energy is in the form of the light and
propagates along the axis of the fiber.
• Figure 1 shows the schematic of a silica fiber structure,
which consist of 3 major parts:
1. Core
2. Cladding
3. Buffer jacket

Figure 1: schematic of a silica fiber structure

CORE
• The most widely accepted Single solid cylinder
structure of radius “a” and the refractive index of
core be “n1”. This cylinder is known as “Core”.
• Core material can be made up of SiO2 (Pure Silica
Glass) or plastic.
• In Glass-core fiber information loss is lesser and in
plastic-core fiber information loss is higher.
CLADDING
• The core is surrounded b y a solid cylinder structure of a
Refraction index of cladding be “n2” called “cladding”.
• Refraction index of Cladding “n2” is always smaller than core
refractive index “n1”. i.e n2<n1 or n1 > n2.
• Cladding is mainly used:
• To avoid scattering loss
• Adds mechanical strength to the fiber
• Protects the core from absorbing surface contaminants
• Cladding material can be made up of Glass or plastic.

BUFFER COATING
• Most of the fibers are surrounded with an Elastic, plastic
material called buffer coating.
• This material adds additional strength to the fiber and
increases flexibility.
1.2. FIBER MODES / FIBER TYPES
• Mode is the one which describes the nature of
propagation of electromagnetic waves in a
waveguide, here mode means path.
• Variations in the material composition of the core
or Based on the number of modes that
propagates through the optical fiber give rise to 2
commonly used fiber types:
1. Single-mode fiber
Single-mode step-index fiber
2. Multimode fiber
Multimode step-index fiber
Multimode graded-index fiber
• A single-mode fiber has a small core diameter and can
only transmit one type of light mode at a time.
• A multimode fiber has a larger core diameter and can
transmit multiple types of light modes at the same
time.
• In the case of step-index fiber, the refractive index of
the core and cladding is fixed or constant.
• In the case of Graded index fiber, the refractive index of
the core may vary from the center of the fiber.
• Both step-index fiber and Graded index fiber can be
further divided into: single-mode step-index fiber,
multimode step-index fiber and multimode graded-index
fiber.
Figure 2: Comparison of single-mode, multimode step-index and graded- index optical fiber
• In Single mode step index fiber the core diameter ranges
from 8 to 12 μm. the core size is sufficiently small so that
there is only one path for light ray through the cable. The
light ray is propagated using the principle of reflection.
• In Multimode step index fiber the core diameter ranges 50
to 200 μm. Itis more widely used type, it has larger
diameter which allows more light to enter into the cable.
There are many paths of light. The light rays are
propagated down the core in zig-zag manner. The light ray
is propagated using the principle of total internal
reflection (TIR).
• In Multimode graded index fiber the core diameter ranges
from 50 to 100 μm. The light ray enters the fiber at many
different angles. The light rays no longer follow straight
lines; they follow a winding path being gradually bending
continuously. This cable is mostly used for long distance
communication. The light ray is propagated using the
principle of refraction.
ADVANTAGES OF MULTIMODE FIBER (MMF)
OVER SINGLE MODE FIBER (SMF)
1. Larger core radius makes easy to launch optical
power into the fiber.
2. Facilitates easy connection of similar fiber.
3. Light can be launched into MMF using a LED
source. (SMF uses Laser diode)
4. Less expensive due to use of LED.
5. Require less complexity circuit.
6. Has longer lifetime.
DISADVANTAGES OF MULTIMODE FIBER
(MMF)
1. It suffers Intermodal dispersion: light rays propagate
through different paths, hence their reaching time at
the destination is different. This effect is known as
Intermodal dispersion or modal delay.
1.3 RAYS AND MODES
• For theoretically studying the propagation
characteristics of light in an optical fiber there
are 2 methods:
1. Equation method
2. Geometrical optics or Ray-tracing approach
1. EQUATION METHOD
• The electromagnetic light field that is guided
along an optical fiber can be represented by a
superposition of bound or trapped modes.
• For monochromatic light fields of radian
frequency, a mode travelling in the positive
direction has a time and z dependence given by
2. GEOMETRICAL OPTICS OR RAY-TRACING
APPROACH
• Used when the Ratio of the fiber radius to the
wavelength is large - This condition is known as
small-wavelength limit.
• Ray approach is strictly valid only in the
zero-wavelength limit, it is still relatively accurate and
extremely valuable for nonzero wavelength when
guided modes are large – when multimode fibers are
used.
Advantages of Ray approach
• Compared to the exact electromagnetic wave analysis, it
gives a more direct physical interpretation of the light
propagation characteristics in an optical fiber.
Ray congruence
• When two line segments are congruent, the measurement
of length is the same for both lines.
• Lines have no definite beginning or end, and rays have a
set beginning but no definite end, so they cannot be
congruent.

1.4 STEP-INDEX FIBER STRUCTURE

• In practical step-index fibers the core of radius “a” has a
refractive index “n1” which is equal to 1.48.
• This is surrounded by a cladding of slightly lower index
“n2” where n2 = n1 (1 - Δ).
• The parameter Δ is called the core-cladding index
difference or index difference. (Δ = 0.01)
• Typically values of n2 ranges are: Multimode fiber –1 to 3
% and For Single mode fiber – 0.2 to 1.0 %
1.5 RAY OPTICS REPRESENTATION
• The 2 types of rays that can propagate in a fiber are:
1. Skew ray
2. Meridional ray
1. SKEW RAY
• Skew rays travels through optical fiber without passing
through the axis. They are not confined to single plane.
• These rays are more difficult to track as they travel along
the fiber because they do not lie in a single plane.
• Here the Power loss is more, hence they are also called as
leaky rays.
• These leaky rays are partially confined to the core of
optical fiber and attenuate as the light travels along
circular waveguide.
• The ray optics representation of a skew ray is as shown in the
figure:
2. MERIDIONAL RAYS
• Meridional Ray’s travels through optical fiber with passing
through the axis. they are confined to the axis of fiber.
• Easy to track
• These rays are easy to track as they travel along the fiber
because and confined to the axis.
• If it strikes the core-cladding interface the Total Internal
Reflection (TIR) occurs.
• Here the Power loss is less.
• Meridional rays can be divided into 2 general classes:
1. Bound ray that are trapped in core and propagates along the
fiber axis.
2. Unbound rays that are refracted out of the fiber core.
• The ray optics representation of a Meridional Rays is as shown
in the figure:
• From Snell’s law, the minimum or critical angle ∅𝑐 that
supports Total Internal Reflection (TIR) for the meridional ray
is given by

• Ray striking core-cladding interface at angles less than ∅c

will refract out of core and lost in the cladding as shown in
the dotted line.
• The Snell’s law can be related to the maximum entrance
angle θ0, max which is the acceptance angle θA through
the relation:
• Thus the entrance angle θ0 is less than θA then TIR
occurs at the core-cladding interface.
• The numerical aperture (NA) of a step-index fiber for
meridional rays is given by:

• Where the value of n = 1 for the acceptance angle in air

and the value of Δ< 1.
2. MODE THEORY FOR CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDES
• The Maxwell’s equation for circular waveguide can have 2 modes:
1. TE mode - Transverse Electric Mode – Wave propagation is
perpendicular
2. TM mode – Transverse Magnetic Mode - Wave propagation is
Parallel.
• In optical fibers the core-cladding boundary conditions lead
to a coupling between the electric and magnetic field
components.
• This gives rise to hybrid modes, which makes optical
waveguide analysis more complex than metallic waveguide
analysis.
• The hybrid modes are designated as HE or EH modes,
depending on whether the transverse electric field (the E
field) or the transverse magnetic field (the H field) is larger
for that mode.
• Hybrid mode is obtained due to coupling of core and
cladding of the fiber. Coupling is obtained during core
and cladding interfacing.
• If 𝑇𝐸>𝑇𝑀 that give rise to HE mode and if 𝑇𝑀>𝑇𝐸 it give
rise to EH mode.
• The 2 lowest order modes are designated by HE11 and
TE01, the subscript 11 and 01 refers to modes of
propagation.
• Assume the condition 𝑛1−𝑛2≪1, with this assumption
only 4 field components are needed to be considered.
• The filed components are called Linearly Polarized
(LP) mode and are labeled as LPjm where j and m are
integer designated mode solutions.
KEY MODAL CONCEPTS
• Figure shows the field pattern for lower order TE modes:
• Order of mode is equal to the number of filed zeros across
the guide or it is also related to the angel that the ray
congruence corresponding to the mode plane.
• Higher the steeper angle results are higher number of
modes.
• There are 3 types of modes: Radiation mode, Cutoff mode
and leaky mode.
• Radiation mode –guided mode in fiber that are not trapped in
the core and guided by the fiber.
• Cutoff mode – guided mode in fiber occurs when β satisfies
the condition:
• When the mode is no longer properly guided and is
called cutoff mode.
• Leaky mode - guided mode in fiber that can travel for several
distances and lose power through leakage.
2.1 CUTOFF WAVELENGTH AND V NUMBER
• The important parameter connected with cutoff condition is V
number defined by:

• Where V = V number or normalized, a = core radius, n1 and

n2 are refractive index of core and cladding, 𝜆 = Wavelength,
NA = Numerical aperture and Δ= Core cladding index
difference.
• V number is a dimensionless number which determines how
many modes that fiber can support.
• The wavelength at which all higher order modes are cutoff
when 𝑉≤2.405, is called as cut-off wavelength (𝜆𝑐).
• V number can also be used to express the number of modes
(M) in the multimode step index fiber when V is large. The
calculate number of modes M is give by:
• For larger values of V the fraction of average optical power
residing in cladding can be estimated by:
3. SINGLE-MODE FIBERS (SMF)
• In multimode fiber intermodal dispersion effect limits the
speed at which information can be transmitted over a
fiber. This effect can be avoided by single-mode fiber.

3.1 CONSTRUCTION OF SINGLE MODE FIBER

• Single-mode fiber is constructed based on 2 criteria:
1. Dimension of the core diameter (2a) be a few wavelength
(Usually 8-12).
2. Having small index differences (Δ) between the core and
cladding.
• The core-cladding index difference varies between 0.2 to
1.0%.
• V (V number) is slightly less than 2.4.
3.2 MODE-FIELD DIAMETER (MFD)
• In single-mode fibers the geometrical distribution of light
in the propagation mode is needed when predicating the
performance characteristics of a fiber – Mode-Field
Diameter (MFD)
• MFD determines – Mode field distribution, optical source
wavelength, core radius, refractive index.
• MFD determines fiber properties like – splice loss, bending
loss, cut-off wavelength, waveguide dispersion.
• Figure below shows this effect for Ex. V=2 only, only 75%
of optical power is confined to core. i.e. The % increase for
larger values of V and less for smaller values of V.
Figure: Distribution of light in SMF. A Gaussian distribution for
MFD is width of the optical power .
• A standard technique to find the MFD is to measure the
far-field intensity distribution and then calculate the
MFD using the Petermann II Equation is given by:
• Where the parameter = Spot size or mode field radius and
far-field intensity distribution at radius r.

• An approximation to the relative spot size which

for step-index fibers is accurate to better than 1% in the
range 1.2<V<2.4 are given by:
• For V=2.405 for single mode fiber, produces .
• As V decreases from 2.4, the spot size increase.
• The spot size thus becomes larger than the core radius a.
• As a result V becomes smaller the optical beam become less
tightly bound to the core and makes optical power loss from
the cladding.
3.3 PROPAGATION MODES IN SINGLE-MODE
FIBERS
• In a Single-mode fiber there are 2 independent,
degenerated propagation modes:
1. Horizontal mode - polarization in the x-direction.
2. Vertical mode -polarization in the y-direction.
• These modes are very similar, but their polarization
planes are orthogonal.
• These may be chosen arbitrarily as the horizontal (H) and
the vertical (V) polarizations as shown in Fig. 2.29.
• The modes propagate with different phase velocities, and
the difference between their effective refractive indices is
called the fiber birefringence,

• We may define the birefringence as

• Where, is the free-space propagation constant.

• If light is injected into the fiber so that both modes are
excited, then one will be delayed in phase relative to the
other as they propagate.
• When this phase difference is an integral multiple of 2π, the
two modes will beat at this point and the input
polarization state will be reproduced.
• The length over which this beating occurs is the fiber beat
length,
4. FIBER MATERIALS
• In selecting materials for optical fibers, the 3 requirements
must be satisfied:
1. It must be possible to make long, thin, flexible fibers
from the material.
2. The material must be transparent at a particular optical
wavelength in order for the fiber to guide light
efficiently.
3. Physically compatible materials that have slightly
different refractive indices for the core and cladding
must be available.
• The material that satisfies these requirements is: Glasses or
plastics. The 3 basic fiber materials are:
1. Glass fibers
2. Active glass fibers
3. Plastic optical fibers
1. GLASS FIBERS
• Glass fiber are made up of mixing metal oxides, sulfides
or selenides.
• When the glass is heated upto the room temperature,
glass remains hard solid upto several hundred degree.
• As temperature increases further, at very high
temperature glass begins to soften which is called as
Melting temperature of the glass.
• Commonly used oxide glass is Silica(SiO2) which has
RI (Refractive Index) ranging from 1.458 at 850nm to
1.44 at 1550nm.
• To produce similar material with slight different RI by
using fluorine or various oxides (referred as dopants)
such as B2O3, GeO2 or P2O5 are added to silica.
• As Shown in Figure below Adding GeO2 or P2O5
increases the RI and adding silica with fluorine or B2O3
decreases the RI.
• For RI (Cladding) < RI (core) fibers compositions
which can be used are:

Fig: Variation in refractive index as a function of doping concentration in silica glass

2. ACTIVE GLASS FIBER
• Active glass fibers are made up of incorporating rare-earth
elements into a normally passive glass gives the resulting
material new optical and magnetic properties.
• These new properties allow the material to perform
amplification, attenuation, and phase retardation on the light
passing through it.
• Doping (Adding impurities) can be done for Silica, Tellurite,
and halide glasses.
• 2 common Doping materials for fiber laser Erbium and
Neodymium.
• The ionic concentrations of the rare-earth elements are low to
avoid clustering effects.
3. PLASTIC OPTICAL FIBERS
• Aim of POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) To provide High speed
service directly to customer premises.
• Developers created a high-bandwidth graded-index polymer
(plastic) POF.
• Core of the fiber is usually made up of :Polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA POF) or perfluorinated polymer (PF
POF).
• Plastic optical fiber has greater signal attenuation compared to
glass fiber, they are Tough and durable.
• 1mm diameter graded-index POF is sufficient to replace the
conventional fiber cable routes.
• Coupling between different fibers can be performed by using
optical connectors:
1. Core diameter compatible with core size plastic fibers can be
connected.
2. Similar size plastic and glass fiber can be connected.
• The POF is inexpensive.
• Attenuation and Dispersion: Attenuation,
Absorption, Scattering Losses, Bending loss, Signal
Dispersion: Modal delay, Group delay, Material
dispersion.
1. ATTENUATION
• Attenuation is the reduction in the strength of a signal
as it passes through the fiber.
• The basic attenuation mechanisms in a fiber are
absorption, scattering, and bending loss / radiative
losses of the optical energy.
• Absorption – Related to fiber material .
• Scattering –Related to fiber material and with
structural imperfections.
• Bending loss / radiative effects - fiber geometry.
1.1 ATTENUATION UNITS
• As the light propagates through the fiber, its power “P”
decreases exponentially with the distance “z”.
• If P(0) is the optical power of the fiber at origin where z =
0, then the power at the distance “z” is given as:

• Where α = Fiber loss or fiber attenuation coefficient given in

units of km-1 which is given as:

• Where P(0) = P(in) and P(z) = P(out)

• Commonly α is expressed in units of decibels per kilometer
(dB/km) where α is given as:
1.2 ABSORPTION
• Absorption is caused by three different mechanisms:
1. Absorption by atomic defects in the glass composition.
2. Extrinsic absorption by impurity atoms in the glass
material.
3. Intrinsic absorption by the basic constituent atoms of the
fiber material
1. ATOMIC DEFECTS
• Atomic defects are imperfections in the atomic structure of
the fiber material.
• Examples of these defects include missing molecules, or
oxygen defects in the glass structure.
• Usually, absorption losses arising from these defects are
negligible compared with intrinsic absorption effects.
• However, they can be significant if the fiber is exposed to
ionizing radiation, as might occur in a nuclear reactor
environment, Radiation damages the materials by
changing its internal structure.
• The dose of a material is used to measure radiation
absorbed in silicon which is expressed in the units of
rad(Si) Radiation unit 1 rad(Si)=0.01J/kg.
• Higher the radiation level, larger the attenuation as shown
in figure (a) and attenuation will relax with time as shown
in figure (b).
2. EXTRINSIC ABSORPTION
• Absorption factor in silica fibers is the presence of minute
quantities of impurities in the fiber material.
• These impurities include OH- (water) ions that are
dissolved in the glass and transition metal ions such as
iron, copper, chromium, and vanadium.
• Transition metal impurity levels were around 1 part per
million (ppm) in glass fibers
• Impurity absorption losses occur either because of electron
transitions within these ions or because of charge
transitions between ions.
• Table: Example of absorption loss in silica glass at
different wavelength

• Absorption by water molecules causes the attenuation

peak around 1400nm for standard fiber. The dashed curve
is the attenuation for low-water-peak fiber.
• The peaks and valleys in the attenuation curves resulted in the
designation of the various transmission windows shown in
figure

Figure: Transition windows for optical fiber attenuation as a function of wavelength

3. INTRINSIC ABSORPTION
• Intrinsic absorption is associated with the basic fiber
material (e.g., pure SiO2)
• Intrinsic absorption is defined as the absorption that
occurs when the material is in a perfect state with no
density variations or impurities.
• Intrinsic absorption results from electronic absorption
bands in the ultra - violet region and from atomic
vibration bands in the near-infrared region as shown in the
figure.
• Ultraviolet and infrared absorption loss is represented by
the unit dB/km at any wavelength interms of μm can be
expressed as:
1.3 SCATTERING
• Scattering losses in glass arise from microscopic variations in
the material density, from compositional fluctuations, and from
structural in homogeneities or defects occurring during fiber
manufacture.
• Glass is composed of a randomly connected network of
molecules - molecular density is either higher or lower than the
average density in the glass.
• In addition, since glass is made up of several oxides, such as
SiO2, GeO2, and P2O5, compositional fluctuations can occur.
• These two effects give rise to refractive-index variations that
occur within the glass over distances. These index variations
cause a Rayleigh-type scattering of the light.
• The expressions for scattering-induced attenuation are fairly
complex owing to the random molecular nature and the
various oxide constituents of glass.
• Where n = Refractive index, KB = Boltzmann’s
constant = 1.38054*10-23J/K, Tf = Temperature, p =
photo elastic coefficient, λ = Wavelength, βT =
Isothermal compressibility.
1.4 BENDING LOSS
• Radiative losses / bending loss occur whenever an optical
fiber undergoes a bend of finite radius of curvature.
• Fibers can be subject to two types of curvatures:
1. Macroscopic bends - having radii that are large compared
with the fiber diameter.
2. Microscopic bends - deviations along the fiber axis.
1. MACRO BENDING LOSS
• Large curvature radiation losses known as macro bending
losses.
• For slight bends the loss is extremely small and
unobservable. If Radius of curvature decreases, the loss
increases exponentially.
• Figure shows the mode filed in curved optical fiber. At certain
critical distance xc from the center of the fiber, the filed tail
would have to move faster than the speed of light to keep up
with the core field. This is not a possible condition hence
optical energy radiates away.
• The amount of optical radiation from the bent fiber depends
on filed strength xc and the radius of curvature R.
• Thus the total Effective number of modes (Meff) is fiber by:
2. MICRO BENDING LOSS
• Micro bends are repetitive small-scale fluctuations in the
radius of curvature of the fiber axis
• They are caused due to non uniformities in the manufacturing
of the fiber.
• The latter effect is often referred to as cabling or packaging
losses.
• An increase in attenuation results from micro bending because
the fiber curvature causes repetitive coupling of energy
between guided modes and the non-guided modes in the fiber.
Figure: Small scale fluctuations in the radius of curvature of the fiber axis lead to micro
bending loss
2. SIGNAL DISPERSION IN FIBER
• Optical signal weakens from attenuation mechanisms and
broadens due to dispersion effects as it travels along a fiber,
this causes pulses to Overlap.
• After a certain amount of overlap occurs, the receiver can no
longer distinguish the individual adjacent pulses and error
arises when interpreting the received signal.
Figure: Broadening and attenuation of 2 adjacent pulses as they travel along a fiber
THERE ARE 3 TYPES OF SIGNAL DISPERSION
1. Intermodal delay / Modal delay / intermodal dispersion:
• Appears only in multimode fibers which causes pulses to
widen.
• Modal delay is a result of each mode having a different value
of the group velocity at a single frequency.
2. Intramodal dispersion / Chromatic dispersion:
• Appears only in single-mode fibers which causes pulses to
widen.
• The phenomenon also is known as group velocity dispersion,
since the dispersion is a result of the group velocity being a
function of the wavelength
• The two main causes of intramodal dispersion are as follows:
i. Material dispersion - It arises due to variations of the
refractive index of the core material. Material dispersion is
also referred as chromatic dispersion. This refractive index
property causes a wavelength dependence of the group
velocity of a given mode; that is, pulse spreading occurs even
when different wavelengths follow the same path.

ii. Waveguide dispersion – causes pulse spreading because only

part of the optical power propagation along a fiber is confined
to the core. Within a single propagating mode, the
cross-sectional distribution of light in the optical fiber varies
for different wavelengths. Shorter wavelengths are more
completely confined to the fiber core, whereas a larger portion
of the optical power at longer wavelengths propagates in the
cladding as shown in the figure.
3. Polarization-mode Dispersion:
• Fiber has 2 polarization states, each mode will travel at a
slightly different velocity.
• The resulting difference in propagation times between the two
orthogonal polarization modes will cause pulse spreading.

2.1 MODAL DELAY

• Intermodal delay / Modal delay / intermodal dispersion
appears only in multimode fibers which causes pulses to
widen.
• Modal delay is a result of each mode having a different value
of the group velocity at a single frequency.
• Steeper the angle of propagation of the ray congruence,
higher the mode number which slower the group velocity.
• The variation in group velocity results is group delay spread
which result in intermodal dispersion.
• The maximum pulse boarding factor (ΔT) arises from modal
delay is the difference between the travel time Tmax of the
longest ray convergence path and the travel time Tmin of the
shortest ray convergence path. Pulse broadening is obtained
from tracing ray for the fiber of length L is given by:
• The fiber capacity is specified in terms of the bit rate-distance
product (BL) and given by:

• The Root Mean Square (RMS) value of the time delay is used
for determining total modal delay in multimode fiber, then the
RMS impulse response (σs) is given by:

• Where L = Length of the fiber, NA = Numerical aperture

2.2 GROUP DELAY
• As the signal propagates along the fiber, each frequency
component can be assumed to travel independently and to
undergo a time delay or group delay per unit length τg /L in
the direction of the propagation given by:

• Where L = distance travelled by the pulse, β = propagation

constant along the fiber axis, k=2Π/λ, and the group velocity
Vg is given by:
• If the spectral width of the optical source is not too wide, the
delay difference per unit wavelength along the propagation
path is approximately d τg /dλ.
• For spectral components that are δλ apart and which lie δλ/2
above and below a central wavelength λ0, the total delay
difference δτ over a distance L is

• In terms of the angular frequency ω, this is written as

• The factor β2 = d2β/dω2 is the GVD (Group Velocity
Dispersion) parameter, which determines how much a light
pulse broadens as it travels along an optical fiber.
• If the spectral width δλ of an optical source is characterized by
its rms value σλ then the pulse spreading can be approximated
by the rms pulse width,

• The factor D designated as the dispersion. It defines the pulse

spread as a function of wave length and is measure din
picoseconds per kilometer per nanometer.
2.3 MATERIAL DISPERSION
• Material dispersion occurs because the index of refraction
varies as a function of the optical wavelength.
• Since the group velocity Vg of a mode is a function of the
index of refraction, the various spectral components of a given
mode will travel at different speeds, depending on the
wavelength.
• Material dispersion is, therefore, an intramodal dispersion
effect and is of particular importance for single-mode wave
guides and for LED systems.
• To calculate material-induced dispersion, we consider a plane
wave propagating in an infinitely extended dielectric medium
that has a refractive index n(λ) equal to that of the fiber core.
The propagation constant β is thus given as
• Substituting this expression for β with k=2Π/λ yields the
group delay τmat resulting from material dispersion.

• The pulse spread σmat for a source of spectral width σλ is

found by differentiating this group delay with respect to
wavelength and multiplying by σλ to yield

• where Dmat(λ) is the material dispersion.