Jds Uniphase Corporation

Lumentum Operations LLC

Thomas Friessnegg

Sheldon McLaughlin

Josh P Kemp

Yi Liang

Paul Colbourne

Shane H Woodside

John Martinho

A method and a controller for operating an array of variable optical retarders are disclosed. Neighboring pixels of the array of variable optical retarders are driven with disordered temporal bit sequences. An optical beam illuminating the pixels tends to integrate time-domain modulation caused by individual pixels driven in a non-coordinated or disordered fashion, which reduces the overall time-domain modulation amplitude of the optical beam.

Method and controller for operating a variable optical retarder and an array

A method for the rapid measurement of polarization dependent properties of an optical device under test uses a novel technique to generate light in four different polarization states in which each state is individually sensed at a different interference frequency. The device for executing this method includes a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (M-Z) having a reference arm and a signal arm. In the signal arm, a device called a 'polarization state frequency multiplexer' (PSFM) splits the light into four ports, transforms each part into one of four predetermined polarization states and then combines the light in the different polarization states together. The combined light is then passed through the device under test and combined/interfered with the light propagating through the reference arm at the output of the M-Z interferometer. Since the optical frequency of the input light to the M-Z interferometer is scanned through a range of wavelengths at a fixed repetition rate, the output light intensity (reference pattern) from the interferometer is modulated. By analyzing the M-Z interferometer output in the frequency domain, the signal levels of each polarization state can be identified and measured.

Polarization state frequency multiplexing

A system for determining response characteristics, insertion loss and group delay, of an optical component by applying a sweeping wavelength optical signal that is modulated with an RF signal, measuring the insertion loss and group delay at a series of wavelengths and correlating the measurements to wavelengths. A method for synthesis of an effective modulation frequency in determining the group delay response characteristics of an optical component by obtaining a series of measurements over a sample optical spectrum using a given modulation frequency and calculating a weighted average of the group delays in the series of measurements giving a result substantially equivalent to a measurement taken using a modulation frequency equal to the effective modulation frequency.

Measuring response characteristics of an optical component

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Ottawa, Canada

Thomas Friessnegg