Week 7

OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

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Optical Sources
 Optical transmitter coverts electrical input signal into
corresponding optical signal.

 The optical signal is then launched into the fiber. Optical

source is the major component in an optical transmitter.

 Popularly used optical transmitters are Light Emitting Diode

(LED) and semiconductor Laser Diodes (LD).

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Characteristics of Light Source of
Communication
To be useful in an optical link, a light source needs the following
characteristics:
 It must be possible to operate the device continuously at a variety of

temperatures for many years.

 It must be possible to modulate the light output over a wide range of

modulating frequencies.
 For fiber links, the wavelength of the output should coincide with

one of transmission windows for the fiber type used.

 To couple large amount of power into an optical fiber, the emitting

area should be small.

 To reduce material dispersion in an optical fiber link, the output

spectrum should be narrow.

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Characteristics of Light Source of
Communication
 The power requirement for its operation must be low.
 The light source must be compatible with the modern solid state
devices.
 The optical output power must be directly modulated by varying the
input current to the device.
 Better linearity of prevent harmonics and intermodulation distortion.
 High coupling efficiency.
 High optical output power.
 High reliability.
 Low weight and low cost.

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Semiconductor Light Sources
• A PN junction (that consists of direct band gap
semiconductor materials) acts as the active or recombination
region.

• When the PN junction is forward biased, electrons and holes

recombine either radiatively (emitting photons) or non-radiatively
(emitting heat). This is simple LED operation.

• In a LASER, the photon is further processed in a resonance cavity

to achieve a coherent, highly directional optical beam with narrow
linewidth.
An LED bulb produces light by passing the electric current through
a semiconducting material—the diode—which then emits photons
(light) through the principle of electroluminescence.
 LEDs produce different colors by using various materials
which produce photons at different wavelengths. ... High-
brightness red and amber LEDs use the aluminum indium
gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) material system. Blue, green and
cyan LEDs use the indium gallium nitride (InGaN) system

6
 LED vs. laser spectral
width

Single-frequency laser Laser output is many times

(<0.04 nm) higher than LED output; they
would not show on same
scale

Standard laser
(1-3 nm
wide)

LED (30-50 nm wide)

Wavelength
Semiconductor
 Two types of semiconductors
 Extrinsic (impure) conductivity high and has

two types P-type and N-type

 Intrinsic (pure) conductivity low

tetravalent semi-Conductor (Silicon ,

Geranium)
It has 4 own electrons and 4 electron is share
with neighbor atoms
When we apply heat a free electronics is
produced
Due to that free electron a free space will be
recognize as hole or charge carrier 8
 When we apply heat the electronics a free
electronics
 Due to that free electron a free space will be

recognize as hole or charge carrier

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 Extrinsic (impure)
 When we add the impurity in any

semiconductor is called doping process

 When we add (Tri-valent = velen 3 or Penta-

valent = velen 5) atoms in tetravalent semi-

Conductor

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Review of Semiconductor Physics

−23 -1
kB = 1.38×10 JK

a)Energy level diagrams showing the excitation of an electron from the valence
band to the conduction band. The resultant free electron can freely move under the
application of electric field.
b)Equal electron & hole concentrations in an intrinsic semiconductor created by
the thermal excitation of electrons across the band gap
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
 n-Type Semiconductor

a) Donor level in an n-type semiconductor.

b) The ionization of donor impurities creates an increased
electron concentration distribution.
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
 p-Type Semiconductor

a) Acceptor level in an p-type semiconductor.

b) The ionization of acceptor impurities creates an increased
hole concentration distribution
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
Intrinsic & Extrinsic Materials
• Intrinsic material: A perfect material with no impurities.
Eg
n = p = ni ∝ exp(− ) [4-1]
2k BT
n & p & ni are the electron, hole & intrinsic concentrat ions respective ly.

Eg is the gap energy,T is Temperature.

• Extrinsic material: donor or acceptor type
semiconductors.
pn = ni [4-2]
2

• Majority carriers: electrons in n-type or holes in p-type.

• Minority carriers: holes in n-type or electrons in p-type.
• The operation of semiconductor devices is essentially
based on the injection and extraction of minority
carriers.
 The pn Junction

Electron diffusion across a

pn junction creates a barrier
potential (electric field)
in the depletion region.

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

 Reverse-biased pn Junction

A reverse bias widens the depletion region, but allows minority carriers to move
freely with the applied field.
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
 Forward-biased pn Junction

Lowering the barrier potential with a forward bias allows majority carriers to
diffuse across the junction.
Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000
Light emission can occur through three fundamental
processes known as Absorption, spontaneous emission and
stimulated emission.

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 BASIC CONCEPT OF LIGHT RADIATION
 There is only one way that light can be produced: that is, through
the rapid change of state of an electron from a state of relatively
high energy to a (more stable) state of lower energy.

 Under normal conditions, all materials absorb light rather than

emit it.


 The absorption process can be understood by referring to Fig.,

where the energy levels E 1 and E2 correspond to the ground state
and the excited state of atoms of the absorbing medium.

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Absorption

E2

Eg=hν

E1

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Absorption

 If the photon energy hν of the incident light of frequency ν is

about the same as the energy difference Eg = E2−E1, the photon
is absorbed by the atom, which ends up in the excited state.

 Incident light is attenuated as a result of many such absorption

events occurring inside the medium.

 The excited atoms eventually return to their normal “ground”

state and emit light in the process.

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ABSORPTION AND EMISSION OF
RADIATION
 By quantum theory atoms exist only in certain discrete energy states
such that absorption and emission of light causes them to make
transition from one state to another energy states.

 The frequency of absorbed or emitted radiation (f) is related to the

energy difference between the higher energy state “E 2” and lower
energy state “E1”.

 Where:
“h” is plank’s constant (h = 6.624 x 10-34 J-s) 22
Absorption:
 An atom is initially in the lower energy state “E1”.

 When a photon with energy (E2-E1) is incident on the

atom. It may be exited into higher energy state “E2”
through absorption of photons.

 This process is also called stimulated absorption.

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Emission:
 When an atom is initially in the higher energy state “E2”,
it can make a transition to the lower energy state “E1”
providing emission of a photon (Optical energy).

 The emission occurs in two ways

 Spontaneous Emission.
 Stimulated Emission

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Spontaneous Emission:
 When an electron is elevated to a high energy state this state is
usually unstable and the 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 but the wavelength will be determined by the
amount of energy that the emitting electron must give up.

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Spontaneous Emission

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Stimulated Emission:
 It means that photons stimulate the emission of more
photons.

 When a photon having an energy equal to energy

difference between two states (E2 – E1) interacts with the
atom in upper energy state causes it to return to the lower
energy state with the creation of second photon, having
same phase and frequency.

 This means that when an atom is stimulated to emit light

energy by an incident wave, the liberated energy can add
to the wave in a constructive manner, providing
amplification. 27
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.

 In this case the incident photon must have the right energy
(wavelength) within quite small limits.

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Stimulated Emission

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Stimulated emission
 when stimulated emission takes place the emitted photon has
exactly the same wavelength, phase and direction as that of the
photon which stimulated it.

 In this case the incident photon must have the right energy
(wavelength) within quite small limits.

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Summary

31
 Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
• For photonic communications requiring data rate 100-200 Mb/s
with multimode fiber with tens of microwatts, LEDs are usually
the best choice.

• LED configurations being used in photonic communications:

• 1- Surface Emitters (Front Emitters)
2- Edge Emitters
LED Structures
 Heterojuncitons
 A heterojunction is an interface between two adjoining single crystal

semiconductors with different bandgap.

 Heterojuctions are of two types, Isotype (n-n or p-p) or Antisotype

(p-n).

 Double Heterojunctions (DH)

 In order to achieve efficient confinement of emitted radiation double
heterojunctions are used in LED structure.
 A heterojunciton is a junction formed by dissimilar semiconductors.
 Double heterojunction (DH) is formed by two different
semiconductors on each side of active region. Fig. shows double
heterojunction (DH) light emitter.
33
Cross-section drawing of a typical
GaAlAs double heterostructure
light emitter. In this structure, x>y
to provide for both carrier
confinement and optical guiding.
b)Energy-band diagram showing
the active region, the electron &
hole barriers which confine the
charge carriers to the active layer.
c)Variations in the refractive
index; the lower refractive index
of the material in regions 1 and
5 creates an optical barrier
around the waveguide because
of the higher band-gap energy
of this material.

1.240
λ ( µ m) =
Eg (eV)

Optical Fiber communications, 3rd ed.,G.Keiser,McGrawHill, 2000

LED configurations
At present there are two main types of LED used in optical fiber links

 Surface emitting LED.

 Edge emitting LED.

 Both devices used a DH structure to constrain the carriers and the

light to an active layer.

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Surface Emitting LEDs
 In surface emitting LEDs the plane of active light emitting region is
oriented perpendicularly to the axis of the fiber. A DH diode is grown
on an N-type substrate at the top of the diode as shown in Fig.
 A circular well is etched through the substrate of the device. A fiber is
then connected to accept the emitted

Schematic of high-radiance surface-emitting LED. The active region is limitted

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to a circular cross section that has an area compatible with the fiber-core end face.
Surface Emitting LEDs
 The active region is kept small by allowing electrical contact
with a small portion of the lower surface.

 The two lower P layer served as a reflectors. They restrict the

recombination to the area near PN junction.

 The circular well etched into the upper N layer focus the light
emitted by the active area on to the fiber.

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Surface Emitting LEDs
 At the back of device is a gold heat sink. The current flows through
the p-type material and forms the small circular active region
resulting in the intense beam of light.

 Diameter of circular active area = 50 μm

 Thickness of circular active area = 2.5 μm
 Current density = 2000 A/cm2 half-power
 Emission pattern = Isotropic, 120o beamwidth.

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EDGE EMITTER LED’S (ELED) / STRIPE
GEOMETRY, DH-Al GAAS
 This is another high radiance structure currently used in optical communication.
 It takes advantage of transparent guiding layers with a very thin active layer (50 to
100µm) in order that the light produced in the active layer spread into the
transparent guiding layers, reducing self-absorption in the active layer.
 The multiple layer serve two purposes,
 P-Layer1 and N-Layer1 concentrates the electrons and holes injected by supply
voltage in the active area.
 P and N Layers2 keep the light generated near the active region.
 The SiO2 insulation allows contact with the diode layers only A low and A narrow
stripe (called stripe geometry). This further concentrates the injected current to a
small region and improves the efficiency of the light generation.
 The base emitter structure produce a relatively narrow beam, about 30 O (at the half
power points) in the perpendicular direction and 120 O in the horizontal direction.
 The reduced beam width produced more efficient coupling to allow N.A Fiber.

39
Light Source Material
 The spontaneous emission due to carrier recombination is called
electro luminescence.
 To encourage electroluminescence it is necessary to select as
appropriate semiconductor material.
 The semiconductors depending on energy bandgap can be
categorized into,
 Direct bandgap semiconductors.
 Indirect bandgap semiconductors.
 Some commonly used bandgap semiconductors are shown in
following table.

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Light Source Material

41
Spectral width of LED types
Power and Efficiency
 Efficiency
 Efficiency can be defined in terms of photons generated per
electron.

 Quantum efficiency or internal efficiency (ηQ):

 Power efficiency or external efficiency (ηPT):

 It is defined as:
 Where,
 POUT = Emitted output power
 PEL = Electrical input power
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Coupling efficiency (ηC):
 It is a function of the structure of source and its light intensity
distribution, as well as size and N.A of fiber.

 It is defined as:

 Where,
 θa -> Acceptance angle of light rays as fiber

44
Total efficiency (ηT):
 It relates the power into fiber to the electrical power
input.

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Internal Quantum Efficiency & Optical Power

Rr τ nr
η int = [4-8]

= r
τ
r
nr
=
η int : internal quantum efficiency in the active region
R +R τ r + τ nr τ
Optical power generated internally in the active region in the LED is:

hcI
I
P = η q hν = η int
int int
qλ
[4-9]

Pint : Internal optical power,

I : Injected current to active
region
47
Wavelength and Linewidth
 Device were first available for 820 to 850 nm wavelengths.
This is first low loss window.

 Then operation was shifted to 1.3µm wavelength, where

dispersion in single mode fiber is minimum.

 Now 1.55µm wavelength sources are produced.

 Lower △λ (linewidth) yields a wider bandwidth and thus

higher data rate. (100 – 1000 GHz).

48
Led characteristic properties:
 Efficiency:
 Quantum efficiency:-
 It relates to the input current to the light generated
internally,

 ηθ varies between 0.5 to 0.8 (50% to 80%)

49
 External efficiency:-

 Where,
 POUT = Emitted optical power
 PEL = Electrical input power
 POUT << PINT
 ηPT = 0.5 to 2% (very small)

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V-I Curve:
 Voltage-Current relationship is similar to regular diode.

 VF varies from 1.3 to 2V and IF is typically 50 to 100mA.

 Some LED’s goes to 1 to 3 A

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Modulation of LED
Modulation of LED
Drawbacks & Advantages of LED
 Advantages

 Simple design.
 Ease of manufacture.
 Simple system integration.
 Low cost.
 High reliability.
 Robust
 Linear

54
Drawbacks & Advantages of LED
 Drawbacks

 Large line width (30-40 nm)

 Large beam width (Low coupling to the fiber)
 Low output power
 Low E/O conversion efficiency
 Refraction of light at semiconductor/air interface.
 The average life time of a radiative recombination is only a
few nanoseconds, therefore
 nodulation BW is limited to only few hundred megahertz.
 Low coupling efficiency.
 Large chromatic dispersion.

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Numerical
Example1: A LED fiber combination has ŋQ= 50% , ŋpt = 1% and ŋc= 5% . The LED input power is
100mW. Find the optical power in the fiber.

Solution:
ŋT = ŋpt x ŋc = PF
PF = 0.01 x 0.05 = 50uW
Pout = PF/ ŋc
= 1mW

Example 2 : A lambertian light source with a total power output of 1.2mW is coupled to a fiber.Assume
that the active light source area is smaller than the fiber core. Find the power coupled to the fiber with
NA = 0.2.
Solution:
ŋc = NA2
= 0.04
Pout = PF/ ŋc
PF = 0.04 x 1.2m = 48uW

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