ELEC 3223/4248/8301 THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG HO#1

Kenneth K. Y. Wong 1
st
Semester 14/15

PHOTONIC SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGIES
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #1
Assigned: Tuesday 23/9/14
Due: Tuesday 7/10/14

1. (10 points) A 1.55-m fiber-optic communication system is transmitting digital signals over
100 km at 2 Gb/s. The transmitter launches 2mW of average power into the fiber cable,
having a net loss of 0.3 dB/km. How many photons are incident on the receiver during a
single 1 bit? Assume that 0 bits carry no power, while 1 bits are in the form of a rectangular
pulse occupying the entire bit slot (NRZ format).

2. (10 points) A bit stream at 10 Gb/s is transmitted using on-off keying. Bits 0 and 1 are equally
likely. At the transmission wavelength of 1.55 m, the single-mode fiber has a loss of 0.25
dB/km. The transmitted signal has an average power of 0 dBm. The receiver requires an
average power of at least 200 photons/bit in order to achieve sufficiently low error probability.
What is the maximum fiber length over which the signal can be transmitted? You may neglect
dispersion.

3. (10 points) Show that the resonant frequencies f
n
of a Fabry-Perot cavity satisfy f
n
= f
0
+ nf,
n integer, for some fixed f
0
and nf. Thus these frequencies are spaced equally apart. Note
that the corresponding wavelengths are not spaced equally apart.

4. (10 points) Show that the fraction of the input power that is transmitted through the Fabry-
Perot filter, over all frequencies, is (1 R)/(1 + R). Note that this fraction is small for high
value of R. Thus, when all frequencies are considered, only a small fraction of the input
power is transmitted through a cavity with highly reflective facets.

5. (10 points) Derive the power transfer function of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, assuming
only one of its two inputs is active.

6. (15 points) Consider the Mach-Zehnder interferometer we introduced in the class. With the
help of a block diagram, show how a 1 n demultiplexer can be constructed using n 1 MZIs.
Assume n is a power of two. You must specify the path length differences L that must be
used in each of the MZIs.

7. (10 points) Show that the external quantum efficiency of a planar LED is given approximately
by
ext
= n
1
(n + 1)
2
, where n is the refractive index of the semiconductor-air interface.
Consider Fresnel reflection and total internal reflection at the output facet. Assume that the
internal radiation is uniform in all directions.

8. (15 points) A 250-m-long InGaAsP laser has an internal loss of 40 cm
1
. It operates in a
single mode with the modal index 3.3 and the group index 3.4. Calculate the photon lifetime.
What is the threshold value of the electron population? Assume that the gain varies as G =
G
N
(N N
0
) with G
N
= 6 10
3
s
1
and N
0
= 1 10
8
. Then determine the threshold current for
by taking 2 ns as the carrier lifetime. How much power is emitted from one facet when the
laser is operated twice about the threshold?


OptiSystem Simulations on Agrawal Chapter 1
Install OptiSystem Lite on a Windows-based PC using the CD-ROM supplied with the Agrawal text.
Using the pulldown menu Help Topics/Contents, you can find an introduction to OptiSystem Lite.
Full documentation is contained in the folder:
C:\Program Files\Optiwave Software\OptiSystem Lite\doc
OptiSystem Lite allows you only to run simulations stored in two folders:
C:\Program Files\Optiwave Software\OptiSystem Lite\samples
includes a variety of examples, some of them rather complex.
C:\Program Files\Optiwave Software\OptiSystem Lite\book\Samples
contains examples that illustrate Chapters 1-9 of Agrawal. Unless otherwise noted, the simulations
you will be asked to run are located in these folders.
C:\Program Files\Optiwave Software\OptiSystem Lite\book\Technical Description
provides detailed explanations of these simulations.


9. (10 points) Run the simulation Ch.1-Modulation_Formats. This simulation examines the
waveforms and power spectra of baseband electrical NRZ and RZ waveforms. One crude
measure of the bandwidth occupied by a baseband signal is the frequency of the first null in
its power spectrum. Set the bit rate (a global parameter) to 10 Gb/s. Plot the power
spectrum of NRZ and of RZ with duty cycles of 50% and 33.3%. Compare the frequency of
the first null in these power spectra. If we compute the power spectrum of these baseband
NRZ and RZ waveforms, which use rectangular pulses, we expect the first null to occur at a
frequency equal to the reciprocal of the pulse width. Verify that you obtain this result.

10. (5 points bonus) Feedback questions:
a. How much time did you spend on this HW?
b. Any questions about the lectures/problem sets?
c. Comment on the class?