A wavelength division method and system employing a radiation transmissive planar waveguide provided with collimating and focusing lenses and with a periodic radiation transmissive diffraction grating incorporating radiation reflecting elements in spaced array, preselected, in demultiplexing service, to separate into individual entities an optical signal input constituting a multiplicity of coherent radiation signals of different characteristic wavelengths transmitted simultaneously via the waveguide and, in multiplexing service, to consolidate a multiplicity of coherent radiation signals individually introduced to the grating via the waveguide along angular courses substantially coincident with the angular courses taken by individual radiation signals of corresponding wavelengths exiting the grating during demultiplexing service, and means directing the signals to dedicated receptors.

Optical wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing system

A wavelength division multiplexer that integrates an axial gradient refractive index element with a diffraction grating to provide coupling from a plurality of input optical sources (each delivering a single wavelength) which are multiplexed to a single polychromatic beam for output to a single output optical receiver. The device comprises means for accepting optical input from at least one optical source, the means including a planar surface (20a); a coupler element (20) comprising an axial gradient refractive index collimating lens (26) having a planar entrance surface onto which the optical input is incident and a homogeneous index boot lens (24, 28) affixed to the axial gradient refractive index collimating lens and having a planar but tilted exit surface (20b); a diffraction grating (22) on the tilted surface of the homogeneous index boot lens which combines a plurality of spatially separated wavelengths from the optical light; and means to output at least one multiplexed, polychromatic output beam, the means including a planar surface (20a). The device may be operated in the forward or reverse direction as a multiplexer or demultiplexer.

Integrated bi-directional axial gradient refractive index/diffraction grating wavelength division multiplexer

An Optical Tapped Delay Line (OTDL), which resolves multiple wavelength signals having extremely narrow wavelength spacing, is combined with other known optical devices to provide a wide variety of optical processing application, including: multiplexing and de-multiplexing a multi-channel signal; adding a signal to, or dropping a signal from, a multi-channel optical signal; specialized coding processing such as generating code division multiple access signals; wavelength locking (stabilizing) a signal; filtering a signal; and analyzing and monitoring a signal spectrum. The OTDL (247) spatially separates individual channels to allow separate processing on each channel. The devices and processes disclosed have particular application to dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and permit a significant improvement in the quantity of information that can be carried on DWDM signals while enhancing signal quality.

Method and apparatus for optical signal processing using an optical tapped delay line

A MicroOptoElectroMechanical (MOEM) IR detector utilizes a novel combination of integrated MEMS and photonics to achieve high responsivity with low noise. Increasing incident radiant energy bends a bimaterial arm that moves a coupling waveguide into the evanescent field of a principal optical waveguide. This, in turn, modulates the light in the principal waveguide. This device has high detection sensitivity to incident radiation due to the combination of the length of the lever arm and the sensitivity of the evanescent field. The device exhibits low noise because photons are being modulated instead of electrons.

Optomechanical radiant energy detector

A multi/demultiplexer is disclosed wherein the light-conducting fibers are cemented into a perforated plate made of a photolithographically etchable material, and their terminal faces are ground down and polished together with the surface of the perforated plate. To compensate for focusing differences, a plate of appropriately matched thickness is disposed between the transparent supporting block and the surface of the perforated plate.

Wavelength multi/demultiplexer

An integrated optical wavelength demultiplexer has deposited on a waveguide layer a pair of Luneburg lenses, the first for collimating light from an optical fiber, the second for focussing light at an array of photodetectors formed under the waveguide layer. Between the lenses is the dispersive element, a thin-film prism of a highly dispersive low-loss material such as arsenic trisulfide. A known integrated optical demultiplexer, which uses a chirped diffraction grating to spatially disperse (rather than angularly disperse) the optical wavelengths, would suffer a greater insertion loss particularly for wavelengths coupled out at a later point in the grating. Demultiplexing with a thin-film prism should also result in the capability to handle a larger number of channels, for a given channel isolation and substrate area.

Ettore Colombini

Papers

Integrated optical wavelength demultiplexer