Article comprising an optional waveguide tap

Optical waveguides – With optical coupler – Particular coupling structure

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

G02B 634

Patent

active

06002822&

ABSTRACT:
A dispersive optical waveguide tap comprises a blazed refractive index grating in the core of the waveguide, coupling means, focusing means and utilization means. The grating is selected such that guided mode light of predetermined wavelength will, in the absence of the coupling means, be directed into one or more cladding modes of the waveguide. The presence of the coupling means, in optical co-operation with the waveguide, changes the guiding conditions such that the cladding modes are substantially eliminated from a portion of the waveguide that includes the cladding, whereby the grating directs the guided mode light into one or more radiation modes. The blaze angle typically is .ltoreq.15.degree.. The focusing means serve to bring the radiation mode light substantially to a focus in at least one dimension, the focal point (or line) depending on the wavelength of the light. The utilization means exemplarily comprise an array of photodetectors, and the coupling means exemplarily comprise an appropriately shaped glass member and index matching means. Dispersive waveguide taps are advantageously used in WDM optical communication systems, e.g., to provide status information (e.g., channel wavelength, channel power, including presence or absence of a channel) to, e.g., a system maintenance unit. The status information facilitates maintenance of operating conditions by conventional feedback control. Any optical element that can bring the tapped radiation to a focus on the utilization means can serve as a focusing element. Exemplary focusing elements are optical lenses (cylindrical or non-cylindrical), diffraction gratings, volume gratings (holograms), and combinations thereof.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5061032 (1991-10-01), Meltz et al.
"Tilted Fiber Phase Gratings", by T. Erdogan et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. A, vol. 13, No. 2, Feb. 1996, pp. 296-313.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Article comprising an optional waveguide tap does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Article comprising an optional waveguide tap, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Article comprising an optional waveguide tap will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-871112

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.