Ii-vi Delaware, Inc.

Oclaro (north America Inc.)

Avanex Corporation

Ii-vi Incorporated

Scott R Dahl

Aravanan Gurusami

Timothy K Zahnley

Ian Peter McClean

Martin Richard Williams

Deepak Devicharan

Timothy Kent Zahnley

Douglas Llewellyn Butler

Peter Gerard Wigley

Thomas W McNamara

Siegfried Fleischer

Dragan Pikula

Daniel Ohen Ricketts

Xuefeng Yue

Ming Wu

Monica K Davis

Michael Lee Saenz

Gregory Chilson

A fiber-based master optical power amplifier (MOPA) is configured to utilize a pump source that operates in pulse mode with the arrival time of the pump pulses coordinated with the arrival time of the input pulses. The width of the pump pulses is also controlled, thus providing a mechanism for controlling both the amount of pump energy injected into the fiber amplifier, as well as the overlap in time between the pump pulse and the seed pulse. As the pulse repetition interval (PRI) of the input seed pulse changes, the timing of the pump pulses and their width are also changed so that a 'constant gain' environment is created within the amplifying medium, providing an essentially constant energy output pulse, regardless of differences in ASE generated during different PRIs.

Master oscillator power amplifier

An OTDR system utilizes a laser source that is turned 'on' and kept powered until its light reaches the end of the fiber span being measured (i.e., until the fiber span is fully illuminated). At any point in time after the fiber is fully illuminated, the laser source can be turned 'off'. The return (reflected and backscattered) signal is directed into a photodetector of the OTDR, and is measured from the point in time when the fiber span starts to be illuminated. The measurements are made by sampling the return signal at predetermined time intervals&#x2014;defined as the sampling rate. The created power samples are then subjected to post-processing in the form of a differentiation operation to create a conventional OTDR trace from the collected data.

Edge propagating optical time domain reflectometer and method of using the same

An arrangement for providing real-time, in-service OTDR measurements in an optical communication system utilizing distributed Raman amplification. One or more of the laser diodes used to provide the pump light necessary to create optical gain is modified to also generate short duration pulses that ride above or below the conventional pump light. These short duration pulses (which co-exist with the pump light within the optical fiber) are used in performing OTDR measurements, with a conventional processing system used to evaluate reflected pulses and create the actual OTDR measurements.

In-service optical time domain reflectometry utilizing raman pump source

Described are tunable multiport optical filters that filter systems with many optical channels in a convenient and cost-effective manner. The tunable multiport optical filters of the invention are simple in design and have few optical components. The basic elements are a dispersion element and a rotating reflector. With properly arranged arrays of input and output optical fibers, individual wavelength components from a selected input beam are spatially separated and steered by the rotating reflector to selected output locations. The optical properties from the selected components may be measured by one or more photodetectors. The filters are also useful for selecting and routing optical signals.

Tunable optical filters with multiple ports

The present invention generally relates to the operation of optical network equipment such as optical amplifiers. In one aspect, a method of operating an optical amplifier is provided such that output of the optical amplifier avoids the effects of operating an optical gain medium in a non-linear (kink) region of an L-I curve. The method generally includes operating an optical gain medium in a fully off state or fully on state above the kink region with a PWM signal. In another aspect, the effects of the kink region may be compensated for by utilizing a lookup table. A sample of the optical power of an amplified optical signal may be used to select an entry in the lookup table that compensates for non-linearities in the kink region. In yet a further aspect, a lookup table may be used to control a pulse modulator to compensate for non-linearites in the kink region of the L-I curve.

System of method for dynamic range extension

The present invention generally relates to dynamic thermal management of a device. In one aspect, a method for thermally controlling a device is provided. The method includes setting a value of a set point in a thermoelectric cooler, wherein the set point corresponds to a first operating state. The method also includes monitoring a condition of the device to determine if the device is in the first operating state or a second operating state. Additionally, the method includes dynamically altering the value of the set point according to an algorithm upon determination that the device is in the second operating state. In another aspect, a method for dynamically controlling a device having a thermoelectric cooler is provided. In yet a further aspect, a system for dynamic thermal management of a device is provided.

Dynamic thermal management of laser devices

An optical amplifier system comprises an optical gain medium receiving an input optical signal and outputting an amplified optical signal and a pump laser optically coupled to an input of the optical gain medium, wherein the pump laser emits a series of pulses to the optical gain medium, the pulses being emitted during coherence collapse operation of the pump laser, the time between pulses being shorter than an excited state lifetime of the optical gain medium.

System and method for dynamic range extension and stable low power operation of optical amplifiers using pump laser pulse modulation

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Corning, NY, United States of America

Scott R Dahl