Application created in COMSOL Multiphysics 6.
Fiber Simulator
This Application is licensed under the COMSOL Application License 6.4.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. See [Link]/trademarks.
Introduction
The transmission speed of optical waveguides is superior to microwave waveguides because
optical devices have a much higher operating frequency than microwaves, enabling a far
higher bandwidth.
Today, the silica glass (SiO2) fiber is forming the backbone of modern communication
systems. Single-mode step-index fibers are used for long-haul communication, including
transoceanic. Both graded-index and step-index multimode fibers are used for
short-distance communication, for example, within institutions and university campuses
and within buildings.
Also used for short-distance communication is plastic (polymer) optical fibers. The
advantage of these fibers, compared to silica fibers, is the robustness to bending and
stretching. Plastic optical fibers are generally less expensive than silica fibers, but have a
higher attenuation and distortion of the signal, making them suitable only for
short-distance communication at lower bit rates than used with silica fibers.
For almost all commercial fiber types, the design consists of a concentric layer structure
with the inner layer(s) forming the core and the outer layer(s) forming the cladding. Since
the core has a higher refractive index than the cladding, guided modes can propagate along
the fiber.
About the Fiber Simulator
This app performs mode analyses on concentric circular dielectric layer structures. Each
layer is described by an outer diameter and the real and imaginary parts of the refractive
index. The refractive index expressions can include a wavelength dependence, by including
the parameter wl, and a dependence on the radial coordinate, by including the variable r.
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Thus, the simulator can be used for analyzing both step-index fibers and graded-index
fibers. These fibers can have an arbitrary number of concentric circular layers.
Reset Predefined Show Create Compute Plot Create Open
input designs geometry mesh solution results report documentation
Fiber design
Materials
Simulation
parameters
Information
Figure 1: The Fiber Simulator application user interface.
Three different predefined fiber designs can be studied:
• A standard telecom step-index single-mode fiber.
• A step-index multimode fiber.
• A graded-index multimode fiber.
The properties can be changed in the Fiber Design Table section.
In the Available Materials section, a list of materials is shown. The refractive index data for
those materials can be included in the refractive index expressions by referring to the tag
of the material. For instance, to refer to the “SiO2 (Malitson)” data for the real part of the
refractive index, use the expression mat3.n(wl), as this material has the tag mat3.
Similarly, to refer to the imaginary part of the refractive index for the same material, use
the expression [Link](wl).
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In the Simulation Parameters section, the wavelength sweep is defined. It is also possible to
enter the number of modes that should be searched for. The application will find the
modes closest to the maximum refractive index for each wavelength in the wavelength
sweep.
The Information section provides the current status for the application.
In the Home ribbon, click the Reset button from the Input section to reset the model to the
default input parameters. From the Design section, select one of the three predefined fiber
designs. Clicking the Show Geometry button displays the geometry in the Graphics window.
In the Simulation section, click Mesh and then create a mesh with one of the different mesh
element sizes. The mesh is displayed in the Graphics window. Click the Compute button to
compute a solution.
The Results section includes buttons for displaying different plot types. The different plots
show:
• The Mode Field for a selected wavelength and mode.
• The Mode Field Diameter versus wavelength for a selected mode.
• The Group Delay for all modes versus wavelength. The group delay is defined as the
inverse of the group velocity, 1/vg.
• The Dispersion coefficient versus wavelength for a selected mode. The dispersion
coefficient is defined as
D = ------- -----
d 1
dλ v g
and describes how many picoseconds longer a pulse with 1 nm bandwidth becomes
when propagating 1 km in the fiber.
• The Attenuation versus wavelength for a selected mode.
• The Refractive Index distributions — both the radial distribution for a selected
wavelength and the average refractive index for the different layers versus wavelength.
The group delay and the dispersion coefficient plots are only available for simulations
including three or more wavelength points.
In the Documentation section, click Report to create a Microsoft Word report or Help to
retrieve this help file.
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The Embedded Model
The geometry nodes and the material nodes in the embedded model are dynamically
added, deleted, and modified as rows are added to, deleted from, or modified in the Fiber
Design Table in the application.
The Electromagnetic Waves, Frequency Domain physics interface contains only a Wave
Equation, Electric domain feature with a Perfect Magnetic Conductor boundary condition on
all exterior boundaries.
In Study 1, a parametric sweep over the wavelength parameter wl is defined with a Mode
Analysis study step. The application controls the number of modes to solve for and the
effective index around which modes should be found.
Study 2 performs a parametric sweep over the wavelength parameter only for the first
wavelength and the last wavelength, to get a linearization of the maximum refractive index
for the structure versus wavelength. This expression will be used when determining the
modes using the Maximum refractive index option for the Mode search method setting.
Application Library path: Wave_Optics_Module/Applications/fiber_simulator
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