Satellite and Optical Communication BEC515D V SEM

Module 5
Optical Sources and Detectors
Sources of Optical Communication are
1) LEDs(Light Emitting Diodes)
2) LASER(Light amplifier by stimulated emission of radiation)
Characteristics of LEDs
1 High radiance/ bright output.
• Is a measure of optical power in watts radiated into unit solid angle
per unit area of the emitting surface.
• Required to couple max optical power into fiber.
2 Fast emission response.
• Is the time delay between application of current pulse and onset of
optical emission.
• It limits the bandwidth with which the source can be modulated
directly by varying the injected current.
3.High quantum efficiency
is a measure of how many electrons are converted into photons.
To achieve high radiance and quantum efficiency, the LED structure
must confine the charge carriers and optical emission to the active region.
Carrier confinement increases charge recombination in active region which
results in high quantum efficiency.
Confinement of optical emission in active region prevents the absorption of
radiation by the materials surrounding the junction and thus increases
radiance.
LED Configurations
To achieve carrier and optical confinement which results in high quantum
efficiency and radiance.
• Homojunction
• Single and Double heterojunction

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Double Hetero Configuration

• Two different alloy layers on each side of active region.

• By sandwitching differently composed alloy layers between two GaAs

layers, both charge carriers and optical field are confined to active
region
• The bandgap difference between adjacent layers confine the charge
carriers to active region.

• The differences in indices of refraction of adjoining layers confines the

optical field to active region.

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• Other parameters influencing the performance of LED are

• Optical absorption in active region
• Carrier recombination at heterostructure interface.
• Doping concentration of active region
• Injection carrier density
• Active layer thickness.
Basic LED configurations
• Surface /Burrus/Front Emitters:
• Edge Emitters:
Surface /Burrus/Front Emitters:

 In surface emitter configuration, the active light emitting region plane

is oriented perpendicular to optical cable axis.
 A well is etched through the substrate of the device , into which a fiber
is then cemented in order to accept the emitted light.
The circular active area generally has 50µm diameter and 2.5µm
thickness.
 The light emission pattern is isotropic pattern and called Lambartian
pattern.
 In surface emitter configuration, the active light emitting region plane
is oriented perpendicular to optical cable axis.
 A well is etched through the substrate of the device, into which a fiber
is then cemented in order to accept the emitted light.
 The circular active area generally has 50µm diameter and 2.5µm
thickness.
 The light emission pattern is isotropic pattern and called Lambartian
pattern.
 Halfpower beamwidth is 120 deg.

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Edge Emitters

 It consists of active region( incoherent light is generated)and two

guiding layers.
 RI of guiding layers< RI of active region.
 This makes the entire structure a waveguide that directs the all optical
power into waveguide core.
 The length of active region ranges from 100 to 150µm.
 Advantage:Emission pattern is more directional than surface emitter.
Light source materials
• The active region of optical sources is a direct band gap semiconductor
material.
• Direct Band gap semiconductor: is a material where the maximum
energy level of the valence band aligns with the minimum energy level
of the conduction band at the same value of momentum. This allows
electrons to transition directly from the valence band to the conduction
band.

• Direct recombination of electrons and holes take place.

• Probability of radiative recombination is higher.
• Efficiency factor is high.
• Hence are preferred for optical sources making.
• Ex: GaAs.

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• For 800-900nm spectrum, the material used is Ga(1-x)Al(x)As.

• The ratio x of AlAs to GaAs determines the band gap of alloy and peak
wavelength of emitted radiation.

• In Ga(1-x)Al(x)As optical source, with x=0.08, results in 800-850nm

optical emission and peak output poer occurs at 810nm.
• Halfpower spectral width is 36nm.

• For longer wavelength In(1-x)Ga(x)As(y)P(y-1) material is used in active

region.
• By varying x and y peal output powers at any wavelength between 1
and 1.7µm can be constructed.
• The peak emission wavelength interms of bandgap energy is given by

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• The relation between Eg and x is given by

Internal quantum Efficiency: Refer class notes and problems on this

concept.
Laser Diode
• Size of laser varies from grain of a salt to entire room.
• Lasing medium may be a gas,liquid,insulating crystal and
semiconductor.
• Semiconductor lasers are exclusively used in optical fiber systems.
• Other types of lasers are Gas laser, solid state lasers.
• In gas/solid state lasers, the emitted radiation is highly
monochromatic(single wavelength) and light beam is very directional.
Operation
• Laser action is a result of following three processes.
• Photon Absorption
• Spontaneous Emission
• Stimulated Emission
• Theses processes are shown by following energy diagram.

• E1 is ground state energy level.

• E2 is excited state energy level.

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• According to planck’s law, a transition between these two states

involves the absorption or emission of photon of energy hv12=E2-E1.
• Normally system is in ground state.
• When photon of energy hv12 impinges on the system, an electron in the
state E1 can absorb the photon energy and excited to E2 state.

• Since excited state is unstable state, very soon electrons return to

ground state there by emitting a photon of energy hv12.
• This occurs without any external stimulation and is called spontaneous
emission.
• These emissions are isotropic, of random phase and appear as narrow
band Gaussian output.

• If a photon of energy hv12 impinges on the system when electrons are

in still excitation level, the electrons will immediately jump to ground
state giving of photon of energy hv12.
• The emitted photon is in phase with incident photon and this emission
is called stimulated emission.
• In equallibrium condition, the density of exited electrons is very small
and hence incident photons will be absorbed and hence stimulated
emission will be negligibly small.

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• If population of excited electrons is more than the ground state,

stimulated emission will be strong. This condition is called population
inversion.
• In practice the population inversion is achieved by many techniques
such a pumping electrons into the material at the device contacts to fill
the lower energy states of conduction band.
LASER Diode Modes and Threshold Conditions
• Semiconductor injection laser diodes are used in optical fiber
communication where >200MHz bandwidth is required.
• Laser diodes have typically BW of <2nm and are capable of coupling
several milli-watts of power in to optical fiber cables of very small core
and small NA.
• The radiation in laser diode is generated within Fabry Perot resonator
cavity.

• Length of the cavity is 250-500µm

• Width 5-15µm.
• Thickness 0.1-0.2µm.
• In resonator a pair of reflecting mirrors directed to each other are
used in resonator.
• The function of these mirrors is to provide strong optical feedback in
longitudinal direction.
• This provides gain mechanism for the resonator that compensates for
optical losses in cavity.
• The resonator resonates at different frequencies.

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Distributed feedback laser (DFL)

• In this type, the lasing action is obtained from Bragg reflectors which
are incorporated in multilayer structure along the length of the diode.

Modes in Laser
• Optical radiation within the resonator cavity sets pattern of electric and
magnetic fieldlines called modes of cavity /LASER.
• These modes are called Transverse magnetic™ and transvers
electric(TE).
• Each mode can be described in terms of longitudinal, lateral and
transverse halfsinusoidal variations of EM fields along the major axes
of the cavity.
• Longitudinal modes: are related to length L of the cavity and
determine the frequency spectrum of emitted optical emission.
• Latteral modes: lie in plane of PN junction and depend on width of
cavity. These modes determine shape of the beam.
• Transverse modes: are associated with EM field and beam profile in
the direction perpendicular to plane of PN junction. These modes
determine radiation pattern,distribution of optical output power
and threshold current density.
Laser Diode structures and Radiation Patterns
• Efficient operation of laser diode requires
1) carrier confinement b/w heterojunction layers.
2) current flow must be restricted laterally along the length of the laser.
Optical confinement methods
• Are used to bound the laser light in lateral direction.
• Method 1:

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• A narrow electrode strip runs along the length of the diode.

• The injection of electrons and holes into the device changes RI of active
region just below it.
• These injected carriers create a weak, complex waveguide that confines
the light laterally. This type of laser is call gain guided laser.
• Adv: These emit more than 200mw power.
• Dis adv: strong instabilities
Highly Astigmatic two peaked beams

Method2
• Dielectric waveguide structures are fabricated in lateral direction.
• The variation of RI of various materials in these structures control the
lateral modes in laser.
• These are called index guided lasers
• If index guided laser supports only fundamental transverse mode and
fundamental longitudinal mode then its called single mode laser.
• These emittes single, well collimated beam of light having a bell shaped
guassian curve.

Types of Index Guided laser

• Positive Index waveguide where central region has high refractive

index than outer regions. Thus all of the guided light is reflected at
dielectric boundry.
• Negative index waveguide where central region of active layer has
lower RI than outer region. At dielectric boundaries, part of light is
reflected and rest is refracted into the surrounding material

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Index Guided Laser Structures

These lasers can be made using any one of the following structures.
• Buried Hetero structure
• Selectively diffused construction
• Varying thickness structure
• Bent layer configuration
Buried Hetero structure
• In this structure a mesa strip of width 1-2µm is etched in double
heterostructure material.
• Then the mesa is embedded in high resistive n type material with an
appropriate band gap and low RI.
• In 800-900nm laser the material is GaAlAs with GaAs active layer.
• In 1300-1600nm laser the material is InP with InGaAsP active layer.
• This configuration strongly traps the light in lateral waveguide.

Selectively diffused construction

 In this structure a chemical dopant such as zinc for GaAlAs lasers and
cadminium for InGaAsP lasers is diffused into active layer below the
metallic contact strips.
 The dopant changes the RI of active layer to form lateral waveguide
channel.

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Varying thickness structure

• A channel is etched in to the substrate.
• Layers of crystal are then grown in the channel, using liquid phase
epitaxy process.
• This process fills in the dipressions and partial dissolves the
protrusions there by creating variation in thickness of active layer.
• When optical wave encounters the active region, thicker area acts as
positive index waveguide of higher RI.

Bent Layer Configuration

• A mesa is etched into the substrate.
• A semiconductor layer grown on to this structure using vapor phase
epitaxy to exactly replicate mesa.
• Active layer will have constant thickness with lateral bends.
• When light travels along the flat top of meta in active area, lower index
material outside of the bends confines the light along the lateral
channel.

Confinement of Current in active region

• Confinement of current in active region is more important to achieve
high continuous output power.

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• Different methods used for confinement of current are

• Preferential dopant diffusion
• Proton Implantation
• Inner strip confinement
• Regrowth of back biased PN junction.
• In each method the device architecture blocks current on both sides of
lasing region.
• This is achieved by high resistive regions or by reverse biased PN
junctions which prevent current from flowing while device is on(ie laser
diode is forward biased).
Preferential dopant diffusion
In this method, partially diffusing p type dopant through an N type capping
layer creates a narrow path for current.

Proton Implantation
Creates a region of high resistivity thus restricting the current to a narrow
path between these.

Inner strip confinement

It grows a lasing structure above a channel etched into a planar material.

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Back biased PN junction

Restricts the current on both the sides of channel.
When active layer is discontinuous, the current can be blocked on both sides
of mesa by growing PN junctions that are reverse biased.

Single Mode LASER

These lasers contain a single longitudinal mode and a single transverse mode.

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How to achieve single longitudinal mode?

• Reduce the length of lasing cavity to a point.
• For ex: reducing longitudinal length of cavity from250µm to 25µm for
1300nm.
• But this method provides optical output power of only few milliwatts
• Hard to handle device ie size is very small.
Alternate method to realize single mode LASERs
• Vertical cavity Surface emitting LASERS
• Has built in frequency selective resonator
• Light emission is perpendicular to semiconductor surface.
• Hence multiple lasers can be integrated on a single chip in the array
form.
Surface Emitting LASER
 Is an ex for single mode laser.
 Active Region is very narrow.
 Hence low threshold current
 High optical output due to high density photons

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Vertical cavity Surface emitting LASERS Configurations

1) Distributed Feedback Lase

 Has built in frequency selective reflector.

 A passive waveguide layer adjacent to active layer. It is a corrugated
grating.
 The light propagates parallel to this.
Distributed Bragg Reflector LASERS(DBL)

Distributed Reflector Laser

Modulation of LASER Diode

• Imposing information on LASER light is called modulation of LASER
Light.

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• In modulation process the output light power is varied in accordance

with information signal.
• Modulation schemes used in optical communication systems are 1)
Pulse modulation 2)Amplitude modulation.
• The modulation rate of Laser diode depends on 3 parameters
• 1) Sponteneous carrier life time (τsp)
• 2) Stimulated Carrier life time (τst)
• 3) photon life time (τph)
Sponteneous carrier life time (τsp)
Depends on
• Semiconductor Band structure
• Carrier Concentration
• 1ns for GaAs at room tempreture.
Stimulated Carrier life time (τst)
Depends on
 Optical density in cavity
 Of order 10ps
Photon Lifetime
Is the average time the photon resides in cavity before being lost by either
absorption or emission

LASER diode can be pulse modulated since photon lifetime is much smaller
than carrier lifetime.
If LASER is completely turned off after each pulse, the spontaneous carrier
life time limits the modulation index.
Since the time period for current pulse of peak Ip is given by

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When LASER diode is used for high speed transmission system, modulation
frequency must be no longer than relaxation oscillations(f) of laser field.

Temperature Effects
• The threshold current of LASER is tempreture dependent.

• T0 relative tempreture insensitivity.

• Iz constant

Effect of changing Ith

• Variation in threshold current due tempreture change causes the
optical power level to vary.
• To maintain constant optical power output with changing temperature
it is necessary to adjust dc bias current level.
• Different methods used to adjust dc bias current level are

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1) Optical feed back

2) Temperature matching transistor
3) Threshold sensing circuits
Optical feed back

• This method uses optical detector to sense the variation in output light
power from laser and compares the power with reference level and
adjust the dc current bias level automatically to maintain constant light
output power.
• In digital transmitter, feed back stabilizing circuit is used to adjust
dc bias current.
• The circuit uses PIN photo diode to monitor the light from LASER.
• The electrical input signal pattern is compared with optical output
power level of LASER.
• This prevents the feedback circuit from erroneously raising the bias
current level during long sequences of digital zeros or during a period
in which there is no input signal on the channel.
• The DC reference through R1 sets bias current during long sequence
of zeros.
• When this bias current adds with laser drive current , desired peak
optical output power is obtained from LASER.
• R2 balances the signal reference current against the PIN photo current.
As the threshold current changes due to temperature or aging the bias
current is automatically adjusted to maintain the balance between data
ref and PIN photo current.
Alternate approach
• Compact thermoelectric coolers maintains LASER at constant
temperature and thus stabilizes optical output power.

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Photodetectors
• Is a crucial element of receiver and it interprets the information
contained in the optical signal.
• It detects the luminescent light falling on it and converts variation of
this optical power into a correspondingly varying electric current.
Types of Photodetectors
• Photo Multipliers-–Large Size, High Voltage Requirement.
• Pyroelectric – Speed is limited by detector cooling rate.
• Semiconductor Based Photo Conductors
• Phototransistors
• Photodiodes—Small Size, fast response time, high sensitivity.
Types of Photo diodes
1) PIN photo detector
2) Avalanche photo diode(APD
PIN Photodiode

• A lightly n doped intrinsic material (i) is sandwitched between N type

and P type.
• A large reverse bias voltage is applied across the device so that intrinsic
region is fully depleted of carriers.
• When a photon having energy greater than or equal to semiconductor
bandgap energy incidents on it and photon gives up its energy and
excites an electron from valence band to conduction band.
• This process generates free electron –hole pairs which are called as
photo carriers.
• These photo carriers are generated in depletion region where all
incident light is absorbed.

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• The high electric field present in depletion region causes the carrier to
separate and be collected across reverse biased PN junction. This give
rise to current flow in external circuit and is called photo current.
• As charge carries flow, they move a distance Ln and Lp for electron and
hole respectively. This distance is called diffusion length.
• The time taken to recombine electron and hole is called carrier lifetime
represented as τn τp.
• The relation between diffusion length and carrier lifetime is given by

• Dn and Dp are electron and hole diffusion coefficients.

• The optical radiation absorption in semiconductor material is given by

• α s(λ) is called absorption coefficient at wavelength λ.

• P0 is incident optical power level.
• P(x) optical power absorbed in a distance x.
• The dependency of optical absorption coefficient on λ for various
semiconductor materials is given below.

• Cuttoff wavelength(λc): is the max wavelength of light which a

semiconductor material absorbs and beyond this absorption is not
possible.
• Ex: Si----1.06µm
Ge----1.6µm
Formula to calculate (λc):

If depletion region has width ‘w’, then total power absorbed in this
region is given by

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• The photo current Ip resulting from power absorption is given by

• Po optical power incident on detector. q is electron charge, hv photo

energy.
Characteristics of Photodetectors
1)High Quantum efficiency
2)High Response speed
These Characteristics dependent on
• Material Bandgap
• λ
• Doping
• Thickness of p, i and n regions

For Problems on this concept ref class notes.

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Additional Information
Incoherent light: emits a light wave having a different frequency,
wavelength, and phase.
Ex: Bulbs. Floscent tubes, sun light, Halogen Lamps, LED, candle light.
Coherent light: emits a light wave with the same frequency, wavelength, and
phase
Ex: Laser light, sound waves.)
Incoherent light:

Coherent light:

Indirect Band Gap Semiconductors

Ex: Si and Ge

Gas LASER:

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EX: helium neon(He Ne) , argon ion, helium cadmium laser,

Applications
• Holograms:
• Laser printing:
• Bar code reading:
• Welding and cutting:
• Scientific laboratories:
Transverse Magnetic Mode:
• a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the plane of incidence.

•
Transverse Electric mode:
• electric field is perpendicular to the direction of propagation:

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