Investigation into the temperature dependence of chromatic dispersion in optical fiber

The change in the chromatic dispersion of optical fiber with temperature is an important design parameter for 40-Gb/s systems. We derive an equation for the change in dispersion with a temperature that is more general than what has previously been published. We present experimental results for the change in fiber dispersion with temperature for six commercially available fiber types of interest for 40-Gb/s communication systems. In addition, we demonstrate that the empirical model developed by Ghosh et al in 1994 for the temperature-dependent index of refraction of SiO/sub 2/ can be used to accurately model the temperature dependence of the chromatic dispersion of a wide variety of optical fibers.