Holey fibers filled with raman active fluid

Details Holey fibers filled with raman active fluid Holey fibers filled with raman active fluid

2001-07-17

2002-12-17

Spyrou, Cassandra (Department: 2872)

Optical waveguides

Optical fiber waveguide with cladding

Utilizing nonsolid core or cladding

C385S027000, C359S341100, C359S341300, C359S342000, C359S334000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06496634

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is the field of optical communications and optical fiber transmission and control of light signals.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The field of fiber optic communications has exploded in the last thirty years with inventions which provide optical fibers with low loss over hundreds of kilometers, lasers which are reliable and long lived, and optical amplifiers which remove the need to convert optical signals to electrical signals for amplification and reconversion back to optical signals.
The most common types of optical amplifier are short lengths (1 to 10 meters) of optical fiber doped with ions (typically erbium) which provide gain for optical signals when pumped with a pump laser. The short length of amplifying fiber are spliced into the long length passive fibers which carry the optical signals for tens to hundreds of kilometers between amplification steps. Other optical amplifiers make use of the Raman gain in the silica of the optical fiber. There is no doping of amplifying ions into the silica, since the non-linear properties of the silica itself are used for the amplification.
One recent development of optical fibers is the development of holey fibers, where the fibers are produced with voids or holes filled with air. The holey fibers produce different dispersion characteristics in the optical fibers. References pertinent to the above prior art are: E. J. Woodbury and W. K. Ng, Proc. IRE 50, 2347 (1962); E. J. Woodbury and G. M. Eckhardt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,265 (Feb. 27, 1968); M. D. Levenson and S. S. Kano, “Introduction to Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy, Revised Edition,” Academic Press (San Diego 1988); Y. R. Shen, “Principles of Nonlinear Optics,” John Wiley & Sons (New York, 1984); G. P. Agrawal, “Nonlinear Fiber Optics,” Academic Press (San Diego, 1989); A. M. Zheltikov, “Holey Fibers”, Physics—Uspekhi 43, (11) 1125-1136 (2000), Hecht, J.,“Holey fibers cut their losses”, Technology Review, Apr. 17, 2001; Kafka, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,779, and Islam, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,903. The above references and patents are hereby incorporated by reference, including incorporated material.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to amplify optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to attenuate optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control optical signals selectively, so that one or more optical signals of a large plurality of signals are controlled while others of the plurality are not controlled. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control dispersion of optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to shift power from one optical signal to another optical signal. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to perform logical operations on two optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber apparatus to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber methods to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber systems to control optical signals.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a system, apparatus and method of use of an optical fiber having voids in the cladding and/or core, wherein the voids are filled with a fluid having non-linear optical properties for the control of light signals. Non linear optical properties are anticipated to be Raman gain for amplifying or attenuating optical signals, and resonant and non-resonant non-linear index of refraction for 4 wave parametric generation, amplification, and control of optical signals.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2002/0118938 (2002-08-01), Hasegawa
J.H.Lee, et al., “A Holey fibre Raman amplifier and all-optical modulator”, ECOC 2001, pp. 46-47, Sep. 2001.*
Z.Yusoff, et al., “Raman effects in a highly nonlinear holey fiber: amplification and modulation”, Optics Letters, 27(6), pp. 424-426, Mar. 2002.

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