Rca Inc.

David Sarnoff Research Center, Inc.

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Jacob M Hammer

Clyde C Neil

William Phillips

Robert Alfred Bartolini

Nils W Carlson

Gary A Evans

Charlie J Kaiser

Michael Ettenberg

An optical device having a substrate with a waveguide layer on a surface thereof and a grating in the waveguide. The grating has a period such as to deflect light passing along the waveguide out of the optical device. The angle at which the light is emitted from the waveguide can be varied by varying the index of refraction of the material of the waveguide under the grating. This can be achieved by applying a voltage across the waveguide.

Optical beam scanner

The optoelectronic interconnection of the present invention provides a means for interconnecting a plurality of integrated circuits and each having at least one termination. The termination includes a transmitting section and a receiving section. Each transmitting section includes means for converting an output electrical signal from the integrated circuit to an optical signal in the form of a beam and an output grating for emitting the optical beam from the integrated circuit. Each receiving section includes an input grating for receiving an input optical signal in the form of a beam, means for amplifying the optical signal and a photodetector for converting the optical signal to an electrical signal which is fed to the circuit. The integrated circuits may be mounted adjacent each other with the output signals being emitting from the integrated circuits in the same direction. A reflector is mounted over the integrated circuits to reflect an output signal beam from the transmitting section of one integrated circuit to the receiving section of another integrated circuit. Each of the transmitting sections is capable of varying the angle at which the output signal beam is emitted therefrom so as to varying the integrated circuit to which the beam is reflected.

Optoelectronic interconnections for integrated circuits

An optical amplifier comprising a substrate of a semiconductor material having a pair of opposed surfaces and a body of semiconductor material on one of the surfaces. The body includes a pair of clad layers of opposite conductivity types having an intermediate quantum wall region therebetween. The clad layers are of a semiconductor material which form a heterojunction with the material of the quantum well region. The clad layers and quantum well region forms a waveguide which extends along the body. A gain section is in the body along the waveguide. The gain section includes a capping layer over the outermost clad layer, a contact on the capping layer and a contact on the other surface of the substrate to allow a voltage to be applied across the gain section. The gain section is adapted to generate light in the active region when a voltage is applied thereacross. A light input section having a grating extending across the body is at one end of the gain section. The light input section is adapted to direct light into the body and along the waveguide. A light output section having a grating extending across the body is at the other end of the gain section. The light output section is adapted to direct the amplified light from the gain section out of the body. The periods of the gratings are such that no self-oscillation of the light in the waveguide occurs.

Optical amplifier

The setting of a screw-operated tapered rod is used to control the separation between a spring-loaded beam element and a base element of a microtranslator with a positioning resolution of the order of 200 nanometers or less in a direction substantially parallel to a given single axis. A microtranslator assembly incorporating two such microtranslators oriented substantially perpendicular to one another is suitable for aligning a laser diode with a single-mode optical fiber to effect maximum coupling of light therebetween.

Microtranslator and microtranslator assembly

Miniaturized optics comprising transverse and lateral cylindrical lenses composed of millimeter-sized rods with diameters, indices-of-refraction and spacing such that substantially all the light emitted as an asymmetrical beam from the emitting junction of the laser is collected and translated to a symmetrical beam.

Miniaturized symmetrization optics for junction laser

A method of forming a blazed grating in a surface of a body comprising the steps of forming a patterned layer having a grating therein overlying the surface of the body, non-uniformly coating the surface of the grating with a masking layer and exposing the non-uniformly coated surface to a material removal means which preferentially removes the patterned layer where it is uncoated and the surface of the body producing an asymmetric groove pattern in the surface of the body.

Method of formation of a blazed grating

Enhanced optical coupling by phase evanescent fields is achieved by covering the planar layer of a waveguide with a thin metal oxide film incorporating a relief phase grating. The grating is originally formed in a metallic film covering the planar layer, which metallic film is converted to a metal oxide film by heating in an oxygen-containing atmosphere.

Method for making planar optical waveguide comprising thin metal oxide

Planar optical waveguide comprising thin metal oxide film incorporating

A species of fiber-optic thermometer, employing a gas-sealing movable reflecting element trapping a sealed gas column in a capillary as a temperature-sensitive medium, transfers a proportion of fiber-optic input light to a fiber-optic output as a single-valued function of temperature. This species provides a miniature thermometer exhibiting high temperature sensitivity.

Fiber-optic thermometer

A species of fiber-optic thermometer, employing input and output fiber-optics immersed in a given liquid partially filling a capillary, transfers a proportion of fiber-optic input light to the fiber-optic output as a single-valued function of temperature. This species can provide a miniature thermometer exhibiting high temperature sensitivity.

Couplers for coupling achromatic light having wavelengths of blue through red to and from an optical film waveguide along collinear paths parallel with the waveguide. Each coupler is constituted by a prism made of a material which, over the range of wavelengths of interest, has a change in refractive index which differs from the change in refractive index of the waveguide film by less than 0.5 percent of the refractive index of the prism material.

Optical waveguide with prism coupler for parallel light

A technique for generating long narrow microstructures based upon the shadowing effect of thick slits placed between a source and a substrate. The method is particularly well suited for forming optical waveguides using a mask having a slit with a width larger than the width of the stripe to be deposited and being thick relative to the width of said slit.

Process for forming an optical waveguide

The optical efficiency, with which a coupling portion of a fiber-optic can be coupled by evanescent fields to a planar optical waveguide through a phase-matching diffraction grating on the surface of the planar optical waveguide, is increased by deforming the coupling portion so that it is a negative replica of the undulating surface of the diffraction grating.

Optical coupler having improved efficiency

More efficient optical coupling between light wave energy traveling in a fiber-optic, which may be a multimode fiber-optic, and single or few mode light wave energy traveling in a planar optical waveguide is accomplished by deforming the initially cylindrical shape of the coupled portion of the fiber-optic core, such as by flattening the coupled portion of the fiber-core in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane of the planar optical waveguide and fanning out this portion of the fiber-optic core in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the planar optical waveguide.

Optical waveguide coupler employing deformed shape fiber-optic core

An electro-optic modulator wherein a light waveguide is in the form of a film disposed on a prismatic substrate and beneath modulating electrodes. The substrate has opposite end faces disposed at predetermined angles to its longitudinal axis and cooperates with grating couplers on the waveguide to direct an entrance beam through the waveguide and to provide an exit beam along a predetermined path relative, e.g., parallel, to the entrance beam.

Growing community of inventors

Plainsboro, NJ, United States of America

Jacob M Hammer