Tuesday 14 April 2020

Communications LEDs are most commonly made from Indium gallium

Communications LEDs are most commonly made from Indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP) or gallium arsenide (GaAs). Because InGaAsP LEDs operate at a longer wavelength than GaAs LEDs (1.3 micrometers vs. 0.81–0.87 micrometers), their output spectrum, while equivalent in energy is wider in wavelength terms by a factor of about 1.7. The large spectrum width of LEDs is subject to higher fiber dispersion, considerably limiting their bit rate-distance product (a common measure of usefulness). LEDs are suitable primarily for local-area-network applications with bit rates of 10–100 Mbit/s and transmission distances of a few kilometers. LEDs have also been developed that use several quantum wells to emit light at different wavelengths over a broad spectrum and are currently in use for local-area WDM (Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) networks.

Today, LEDs have been largely superseded by VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) devices, which offer improved speed, power and spectral properties, at a similar cost. Common VCSEL devices couple well to multi mode fiber.

A semiconductor laser emits light through stimulated emission rather than spontaneous emission, which results in high output power (~100 mW) as well as other benefits related to the nature of coherent light. The output of a laser is relatively directional, allowing high coupling efficiency (~50 %) into single-mode fiber. The narrow spectral width also allows for high bit rates since it reduces the effect of chromatic dispersion. Furthermore, semiconductor lasers can be modulated directly at high frequencies because of short recombination time.
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Commonly used classes of semiconductor laser transmitters used in fiber optics include VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser), Fabry–Pérot and DFB (Distributed Feed Back).

Laser diodes are often directly modulated, that is the light output is controlled by a current applied directly to the device. For very high data rates or very long distance links, a laser source may be operated continuous wave, and the light modulated by an external device, an optical modulator, such as an electro-absorption modulator or Mach–Zehnder interferometer. External modulation increases the achievable link distance by eliminating laser chirp, which broadens the linewidth of directly modulated lasers, increasing the chromatic dispersion in the fiber. For very high bandwidth efficiency, coherent modulation can be used to vary the phase of the light in addition to the amplitude, enabling the use of QPSK, QAM, and OFDM.

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