Qinetiq Limited

Laurent Michaille

Terence John Shepherd

David Maurice Taylor

Charlotte R H Bennett

David Mark Benton

Apparatus comprising an optical fiber laser having at least two laser cores and means arranged to combine laser output from the at least two laser cores at a first end of the optical fiber laser to produce a combined laser output having one or more beat signals.

Method and apparatus for generating optical beats

A multicore optical fibre includes a microstructured cladding material formed from a plurality of cladding elements arranged in an array and each cladding element comprising at least two different materials each having different refractive indices, and a plurality of core elements formed within interstitial regions between adjacent cladding elements. A fibre so formed may have a large number of cores per unit cross-sectional area as compared with prior art fibres, and thus allows the fibre to have relatively short distances between adjacent cores for a given required inter-core isolation. A fibre so formed has utility in many areas requiring high core density, such as inter-chip optical communication, or optical communication between circuit boards.

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Malvern, United Kingdom

Laurent Michaille