Optical switch and Q-switched laser

Details Optical switch and Q-switched laser Optical switch and Q-switched laser

1993-08-18

1995-08-22

Bovernick, Rodney B.

Coherent light generators

Particular beam control device

Q-switch

372 10, 385 13, 385140, H01S 3121

Patent

active

054447232

ABSTRACT:
A length of an optical fiber having a core and a surrounding cladding is held by a block with a portion of said length having substantially all of its cladding removed on one side of the portion and being exposed, and an index overlay perturbation pad is mounted near and substantially parallel to the portion. A translator moves the pad between a first position in which the pad is sufficiently remote from the portion to allow total internal reflection in the portion and a second position in which the pad is sufficiently close to the portion to allow light to escape from the core. The pad may be made of a metal for polarized modulation, or of a dielectric for unpolarized modulation. The optical switch provides very fast switching for a O-switched fiber laser.

REFERENCES:
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patent: 4822125 (1989-04-01), Beals et al.
patent: 4955034 (1990-09-01), Scerbak
patent: 5272513 (1993-12-01), Vahala et al.
Bergh, et al., "Single-Mode Fibre Optic Directional Coupler", Electronics Letters, vol. 16, No. 7, 27 Mar. 1980, pp. 260-261.
Parriaux, et al., "Distributed Coupling on Polished Single-Mode Optical Fibers", Applied Optics, vol. 20, No. 14, 15 Jul. 1981, pp. 2420-2423.
Berthou, et al., "Switching Characteristics of a Piezoelectrical Actuated Evanescent-Wave Directional Coupler", Electronic Letters, vol. 23, No. 9, 23 Apr. 1987, pp. 469-471.
Zurn, et al., "Elasto-Optic Loss Modulation on Side-Polished Fibre", Electronics Letters, vol. 24, No. 14, 7 Jul. 1988, pp. 829-830.
Markatos, et al., "Optical Fibre Switch", SPIE vol. 798, Fiber Optic Sensors II, 1987, pp. 376-380.
Chandonnet, et al., "High-Power Q-Switched Erbium Fiber Laser Using an All-Fiber Intensity Modulator", Optical Engineering, vol. 32, No. 9, Sep. 1993, pp. 2031-2035.
Chandonnet, et al., "All-Fibre Intensity Modulator for Q-Switching", SPIE vol. 2041, Mode-Locked and Solid State Lasers, Amplifiers, and Applications, 17-19 Aug. 1993, pp. 282-290.

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