Difference between the effect of SiO2 fiber and GeO2 fiber on the fiber parameters using Sellmeier formula

Abstract

The material of fiber and its length affect its characteristics such as chromatic dispersion D(λ) and bit error rate (BER). So in this paper two types of glasses, the fused silica (SiO2) and fused Germania (GeO2) were considered to study these effects and find which fiber is better to use in optical communications for wavelengths in the range (1-2) µm. Chromatic dispersion comes from combining two dispersions (waveguide dispersion and material dispersion). To solve the material dispersion, the Sellmeier formula was used. The numerical results and the figures shown in this paper were obtained by using Matlab software 2008. As a result of this paper, the GeO2 fiber is better than SiO2 fiber in communications because it has higher BER and less D(λ), and the fiber length is inversely proportional to the BER.

Keywords

• fused silica (SiO2)
• fused Germania (GeO2)
• SiO2 fiber
• GeO2 fiber
• Sellmeier formula