Ii-vi Delaware, Inc.

Siegfried Fleischer

Martin Richard Williams

Aravanan Gurusami

Timothy K Zahnley

Scott R Dahl

Thomas W McNamara

Mark H Garrett

Mark Filipowicz

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

A free space variable optical attenuator (VOA) utilizes a beamsplitter to create tap beams (of both the input signal and the beam-steered output signal) that are directed into monitoring photodiodes. The beamsplitter is configured to exhibit a non-equal splitting ratio such that the tap beams are only a relatively small portion of the input/output beams. The free space configuration eliminates the need for fiber-based couplers, splices and connections to external monitors, as required in prior art VOA monitoring systems. The VOA utilizes a voltage-controlled, MEMS-based tilt mirror to provide beam steering of the propagating, free space beam in a known manner to introduce attenuation (power reduction) in the output signal.

Free space variable optical attenuator with integrated input/output power monitors

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Siegfried Fleischer