Tellium, Inc.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

At+t Corp.

Agere Systems Guardian Corp.

Igal M Brener

Nicolas H Bonadeo

David Reese Peale

James Albert Walker

Stephen G Grubb

David A Miller

Douglas Raymond Dykaar

Joseph Shmulovich

Martin C Nuss

Partha Pratim Mitra

Gadi Lenz

Keren Bergman

Benny P Mikkelsen

Jason Blain Stark

Karsten Rottwitt

Leonard C Feldman

Robert E Betzig

David J Thomson

Daniel D Lee

Dan L Philen

Kophu Chiang

Chauhan Daniel Lee

Jerry I Dadap, Jr

Shi-Sheng Lee

Roey Harel

Netzer Amorai-Moriya

Ming Chou

An optical transmission system is formed to include an optical phase conjugator at alternate repeater sites to minimize the presence of four-wave mixing and other Kerr effect nonlinearities in systems using optical fiber transmission paths (particularly in systems using DWDM and launching relatively high power signals into the low dispersion fiber). Raman gain is included in each fiber span (or in alternate fiber spans) so as to provide a &ldquo;negative absorption&rdquo; along the length of the fiber and thereby provide for essentially symmetrical power distribution along the length of each span, where the presence of such a symmetric,power distribution on each side of an optical phase conjugator has been found to significantly improve its performance.

Optical transmission system with reduced Kerr effect nonlinearities

An optical switch includes a plurality of first optical fibers, a plurality of second optical fibers, a first MEMS array, and a second MEMS array. The first MEMS array is optically coupled with the first optical fibers to receive optical signals from the first optical fibers and to direct the optical signals, wherein the first MEMS array defines a first array incidence angle between a normal direction to the first MEMS array and a direction of the received optical signals. The second MEMS array is optically coupled with the first MEMS array to receive the directed optical signals and to re-direct the directed optical signals with the second optical fibers wherein the second MEMS array defines a second array incidence angle between a normal direction to second MEMS array and a direction of the re-directed optical signals. The configuration of the components is provided to provide reduced optical losses.

Optical switch having MEMS array with reduced optical loss

An optical network element uses steerable mirrors in an optical switch to couple optical inputs and optical outputs. An optical switch has at least one array of the steerable mirrors, which can be oriented so as to reflect an optical signal between an input and an output. A shorter optical path between the input and the output reduces optical losses because optical losses in an optical switch using mirrors are directly proportional to the total length of the optical path. Reducing the optical path depends upon the switching tilt angle used in steering the mirrors. But tilting the micro-mirrors near their critical tilt angle or repeatedly across large tilt angles will degrade reliability or control. However, the total optical path can be shortened and the reliability of steerable mirrors can be maintained or increased if at least some of the micro-mirrors in an array are offset angled.

Optical switch with an array of offset angled micro-mirrors

An optical network element using steerable mirrors in an optical switch. A steerable mirror in the switch is connected to a potential bias having a magnitude greater than zero in order to reduce the operating potential of the integrated control system that steers the mirror.

Voltage reduction in integrated control systems of mirrors

The position of a micro-mirror, for example, in an optical switch, may be monitored using an optical position control signals that are detected by a detector arrangement. The position of the micro-mirror may be adjusted by detecting the position of the beam spot and comparing the detected position to a desired position.

Optical monitoring of the angular position of micro mirrors in an optical switch

An optical switch having a fiber/lens array and a switching substrate may be properly aligned using one or more static mirrors or photodetectors provided on the switching substrate. The static mirrors may be designed to reflect incident light back into an input fiber, where the back reflected light may be detected, or to a detector provided at a predetermined position. Accordingly, the position of the switching substrate and/or fiber/lens array may be adjusted until reflected light having predetermined power is detected. In another embodiment, the position of the switching substrate and/or fiber/lens array may be adjusted until predetermined power is detected by the photodetectors provided on the switching substrate.

Optical switch and method for aligning optical switch components

A waveguide structure for use with a pump laser is disclosed that is designed to counteract the decrease in pump power density. The waveguide structure may comprise an erbium-doped waveguide amplifier, a nonlinear waveguide wavelength converter device, or an optical fiber. The waveguide structure has a waveguide region that is tapered over a pump propagation distance, said distance being defined as a predetermined distance between a first pump site and a second pump site over which the pump light is propagated for signal amplification or conversion. The taper reduces the depletion in pump power as compared with prior art systems and may be kept substantially constant over the pump propagation length, thereby counteracting pump depletion.

Article comprising a waveguide structure with improved pump utilization

An accurate and simplified method of non-destructively measuring the zero-dispersion wavelength along the length of a single-mode fiber is disclosed. The method includes the steps of measuring the FWM intensity of the optical fiber at a plurality of wavelengths, plotting the measured FWM intensity at each of the plurality of wavelengths to obtain a curve representative of the FWM intensity of each of the plurality of wavelength, and performing a non-linear inversion on the curve to obtain the zero-dispersion wavelength along the length of the fiber.

High-resolution zero-dispersion wavelength mapping in single mode fiber

A THz imaging system with the emitter region of the THz generator designed so that the sample to be analyzed is placed in the near field of the generator allows radiation to impact the sample without intervening optics.

Near field terahertz imaging

The specification describes pulse generators and detectors for the far infra-red and operating at frequencies of the order of 10.sup.10 to 10.sup.13 Hz (the Terahertz range). These devices rely on electric field interactions with optical beams in biased metal semiconductor microstructures. The electric field is created between metal electrodes on the semiconductor surface and the electric field is enhanced, according to the invention, by configuring the electrode gap geometry with sharp electrode features.

Terahertz generators and detectors

A new method to fabricate strain patterns on a strained semiconductor structure, is disclosed. The method is based on the new concept of reverse side etching of a laterally homogeneous, strained structure so that strain changes can be induced in the front-side, pre-strained area as a result of the reverse side etching process. Semiconductor structures such as quantum-wires, quantum dots, and quantum well devices may be formed by the disclosed methods where the reverse side etching provides strain control of the material properties of the semiconductor structure without processing the front side which is generally the active and the most sensitive region of the semiconductor structure. Such semiconductor structures can be formed by a process including the steps of forming a strained layer on the front-side of the structure, and etching the reverse side of the substrate to form a pattern of strain into the front-side, thus forming selectively strained regions.

Reverse side etching for producing layers with strain variation

Apparatus and methods of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) are described. A sensing technique is used, in which a light source having an optical cavity is reflectively coupled to the sample surface. Changes in the surface properties of the sample at the sensed location alter the optical feedback in the light source. This leads to detectable changes in the output characteristics of the light source.

Growing community of inventors

Westfield, NJ, United States of America

Igal M Brener