Ofs Fitel, LLC

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Fitel USA Corporation

University of Rochester

Furukawa Electric North America, Inc.

Kenneth Stephen Feder

Paul S Westbrook

Benjamin John Eggleton

Jeffrey W Nicholson

Yaowen Li

Debra A Simoff

Jacob Wrubel

Kenichi Suyama

Mei Wen

John A Rogers

Tristan Kremp

Thomas G Brown

Kirk William Baldwin

Jon W Engelberth

Yue Liang

Mikhail Sumetskiy

Paul Steinvurzel

Raja A Ahmad

Rajan D Deshmukh

Wing Ko

Yufeng Li

Robert A Macharrie

An extended length of optical fiber having an offset core with an inscribed Bragg grating is used a distributed sensor in combination with an optical frequency domain reflectometer (OFDR) to enable measurement small-scale (e.g., sub-millimeter) contortions and forces as applied to the fiber. The offset core may be disposed in a spiral configuration around the central axis of the optical fiber to improve the spatial resolution of the measurement. A reference surface exhibit a predetermined texture (in the form of a series of corrugations, for example, that may be periodic or aperiodic, as long as known a priori) is disposed adjacent to a longitudinal portion of the sensor fiber. The application of a force to the combination of the plate and the fiber creates a local strain in the grating formed along the offset core of the fiber that results in a shift in the Bragg wavelength of the grating. Using ODFR measurement techniques, an analysis of the Bragg wavelength shift allows for a high resolution force measurement to be obtained.

High resolution distributed sensor utilizing offset core optical fiber

Disclosed herein is a coating composition comprising a silsesquioxane component having one or more reactive functional groups that render it curable using ultraviolet radiation; where the one or more reactive functional groups are selected from the group consisting of an acrylate, a vinyl ether, or an epoxy; and optionally, a co-reactive non-silsesquioxane monomer and/or an oligomer having one or more reactive functional groups that are curable using ultraviolet radiation and are selected from the group consisting of free radically curable acrylates, cationically curable epoxies, and cationically curable vinyl ethers; where the coating composition is disposed and cured on an optical article; where the optical article is at least one of an optical fiber or an optical planar waveguide; and where the average functionality of the composition is greater than one.

UV-curable silsesquioxane-containing write-through optical fiber coatings for fabrication of optical fiber Bragg gratings, and fibers made therefrom

A method of, and apparatus for, inscribing a grating in an optical waveguide so as to reduce transverse inscription variations, are provided. The waveguide is exposed to multiple beams or interference patterns of actinic radiation from multiple azimuthal directions. The beams of actinic radiation are preferably split into a plurality of beams that have wave vectors with different longitudinal components, e.g., via gratings such as phase masks. The periods and phases of the interference patterns of the beams of actinic radiation are preferably matched. A control beam may be provided that does not hit the waveguide. A control loop optionally controls at least one of the position or orientation of at least one of the beams of actinic radiation. The gratings are, for example, Bragg gratings.

Method of and apparartus for inscription of fiber gratings from multiple azimuthal angles and fiber so inscribed

The disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for mitigating lensing and scattering as an optical fiber is being inscribed with a grating. The disclosed systems and methods mitigate the lensing phenomenon by surrounding an optical fiber with an index-matching material that is held in a vessel with an integrated interferometer (e.g., phase mask, etc.). The index-matching material has a refractive index that is sufficient to reduce intensity variations of the actinic radiation within the optical fiber. Some embodiments of the system include different vessels for holding the index-matching material, with the vessel having an interferometer integrated into the vessel. These vessels permit the optical fiber to be surrounded by the index-matching material while the gratings are written to the optical fiber.

Index matched grating inscription

The disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for mitigating lensing and scattering as an optical fiber is being inscribed with a grating. The disclosed systems and methods mitigate the lensing phenomenon by surrounding an optical fiber with an index-matching material that is held in a vessel with a sealed phase mask. The sealed phase mask allows it to be in contact with a liquid index-matching material without having the liquid index-matching material seep into the grooves of the sealed phase mask. Thus, for some embodiments, the sealed phase mask may be immersed in a liquid index-matching material without adversely affecting the function of the phase mask.

The disclosed embodiments provide systems and methods for mitigating lensing and scattering as an optical fiber is being inscribed with a grating. The disclosed systems and methods mitigate the lensing phenomenon by surrounding an optical fiber with a liquid index-matching material that is held in a vessel. The disclosed systems also include a replenishment mechanism that replenishes the liquid index-matching material as the optical fiber is pulled through the vessel.

A method of coupling optical fibers containing cores or other structures that twist about the axis of one or both fibers. The fiber end faces are aligned axially to confront one another, and side view images of end regions of the fibers including the contained cores or structures are produced. For each fiber, a brightness profile of a side view image is obtained at an axially offset position from the fiber end face. One or both fibers are rotated about their axes until the brightness profiles for each fiber indicate certain cores or structures in the fibers are aligned. For each fiber, an additional amount of twist from the offset position to the fiber end face is determined. One or both fibers are rotated again to compensate for the additional twist in each fiber, so that the fibers are aligned optimally when coupled.

Splicing twisted multiple core optical fibers

Enhancement of the supercontinuum generation performance of a highly-nonlinear optical fiber (HNLF) is accomplished by performing at least one post-processing treatment on the HNLF. Particularly, UV exposure of the HNLF will modify its dispersion and effective area characteristics so as to increase its supercontinuum bandwidth, without resorting to techniques such as tapering or introducing unwanted reflections into the HNLF. The UV exposure can be uniform, slowly varying or aperiodic along the length of the HNLF, where the radiation will modify the nonlinear properties of the HNLF. Various other methods of altering these properties may be used. The output from the HNLF can be monitored and used to control the post-processing operation in order to achieve a set of desired features in the enhanced supercontinuum spectrum.

Enhanced supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear fibers using post-fabrication processing

Enhancement of the supercontinuum generation performance of a highly-nonlinear optical fiber (HNLF) is accomplished by incorporating at least one Bragg grating structure in the HNLF. The Bragg grating results in reflecting a core-guided signal into signal which also remains core-guided. The supercontinuum radiation generated by such an arrangement will exhibit a substantial peak in its energy at the grating resonance of the Bragg grating and a region of increased radiation in a narrow wavelength band on the long wavelength side of the peak. A number of such Bragg gratings may be formed so as to 'tailor' the enhancements provided in the supercontinuum radiation. Various, well-known Bragg grating modifications (tuning, chirped, blazed, etc.) may also be used in the inventive structure to enhance the generated supercontinuum.

Enhanced supercontinuum generation in highly nonlinear fibers using strong bragg gratings

The specification describes a wavelength monitoring system for multiple wavelength communications systems, such as WDM systems, based on the recognition that the mechanism for spatially separating the individual wavelength bands can be achieved within the optical fiber itself. Individual wavelength bands are separated using a series of discrete gratings spaced longitudinally along the fiber core. The wavelength bands are extracted from the fiber core by converting the energy in the selected band from a core-guided mode to a radiation mode. By using a tilted grating, the light in the radiation mode is directed through the cladding and out of the fiber. Spatial resolution of the selected bands can be any desired physical length. An important implication of this is that detection can be made in the near field using inexpensive detecting apparatus. Near field is defined for convenience in this case as the optical field of the radiated energy without any optically modifying elements (collimating devices, diffraction elements, mirrors, etc.). This eliminates nearly all of the optics, and the attendant expense, in prior art monitoring systems.

Wavelength monitoring optical fibers using detection in the near field

A thermally tunable optical fiber device comprises a length of optical fiber including a device disposed within a microcapillary heater. The microcapillary heater can include a thin film resistive heater. The fiber itself can optionally include a thin film resistive heater overlying the device, and a plurality of nested microcapillary tubes can optionally provide a plurality of successive concentric heaters overlying the device. The heaters films can be films with uniform, tapered or periodically varying thickness. The heaters can be single layer or multiple layer. Multiple layer films can be superimposed with intervening insulating layers or plural layers can be formed on different angular regions of the microcapillary. Thus one can provide virtually any desired temperature versus length profile along the fiber device.

Thermally tunable fiber devices with microcapillary heaters

A reflecting apparatus includes a flexible mirror and at least one rocker arm coupling an applied force to a plurality of spaced-apart locations on the mirror to adjust the shape of the mirror. The reflecting apparatus may be used in an interferometer in the path of one of the interfering beams, and adjustments of the shape of the mirror may be used to control the interference pattern generated. The interference pattern created by the apparatus may be used to create fiber Bragg gratings and phase masks, including chirped gratings and masks. An interferometer may use such a reflecting apparatus in the path of each interfering beam.

Growing community of inventors

Murray Hill, NJ, United States of America

Kenneth Stephen Feder