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Optical Communication Fiber

Dispersion in Light Signal Propagation

Under Guidance: Dr. Ghang-Ho Lee

By: Anurag Arvikar
Dispersion ! 2
Overview of Dispersion Origins
Detection threshold

Attenuation

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 Important Factors & Types 4

Intermodal delay/modal delay /Intermodal dispersion

Multimode fibers

Different value of the group velocity at a single frequency

Group velocity is the speed at which energy in particular mode

travels in the fiber
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Intramodal dispersion/Chromatic dispersion

Single mode
Depends on wavelength
Signal distortion increases with the spectral width of the
light source
Wavelength band characterized by rms spectral width.
Material dispersion and Waveguide dispersion
Factors Contributing to Dispersion (1) 6

The wave propagation constant is a slowly varying function

of the angular frequency .
One can see where various dispersion effects arise by
expanding in a Taylor series about a central frequency 0.

1. The 1st term 0z describes a phase shift of the optical wave.

2. The factor 1(0)z produces a group delay tg = z/Vg
 Factors Contributing to Dispersion (2) 7

3. The factor 2 shows that the group velocity of a monochromatic wave

depends on the wave frequency.
Thus the different group velocities of the frequency components of a
pulse cause it to broaden with distance.
The group velocity spreading is the GVD
The dispersion D is related to 2 by

4. The factor 3 is the third-order dispersion.

The third-order dispersion can be related to the dispersion D and the
dispersion slope S0 = D/ (the variation in the dispersion D with
wavelength)
 Material Dispersion
Material dispersion occurs
because the index of refraction
varies as a function of
Because the group velocity of a
mode is a function of the
refractive index, the various
spectral components of a given
mode will travel at different
speeds, depending on .
The pulse spread mat for a source
of spectral width is

where Dmat is the material dispersion

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Waveguide Dispersion 9

This is due to dispersive nature of the bound medium, velocity is a

function of frequency.

This is a chromatic dispersion arises from waveguide effects

Important in waveguides with small effective mode areas .

For large mode areas it is normally negligible and the material

dispersion is dominant
 References 10

[1] Optical Fiber Communications Fourth Edition Gerd Keiser

[2] Fiber-Optic Communication Systems Second Edition- Govind
P. Agrawal
[3] https://www.slideshare.net/eksingh1/optical-fiber-52519883
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