Ofs Fitel, LLC

Ofs Fitel Llc, a Delaware Limited Liability Company

William R Holland

Yaowen Li

William J Strachan

Paul S Westbrook

Thierry Franck Taunay

David J Kudelko

Gregory M Bubel

Sean Sullivan

Jeffrey W Nicholson

Benyuan Zhu

Jerome C Porque

Robert Sienkowski

Yingzhi Sun

Hao Dong

Cassandra Thalman

Systems for holding optical fibers in a predefined orientation and cleaving the optical fibers are shown. In one embodiment, the system comprises a substrate structure with a groove along the top surface of the substrate. The groove extends from the substrate front edge in a direction that is parallel to the orientation of an optical fiber and is dimensioned to receive a portion of a bare optical fiber. The substrate structure also comprises a transverse structure on the top surface, which crosses the groove at an angle. The transverse structure receives ultraviolet light (UV) curable material, which secures the end of the bare optical fiber within the groove. Securing the bare optical fiber allows for proper tension to be applied during cleaving.

Cleaving optical fibers

A waveguide comprises an un-tapered end and a tapered end. The waveguide progressively varies a numerical aperture (NA) of light as the light propagates from the tapered end to the un-tapered end.

Optical combiner

An up-taper is applied by a mode adapter to increase a signal mode area prior to tapering and combining.

Multimode beam combiner

As kilowatt class fiber laser and amplifier systems become more in demand, there are ongoing efforts to improve optical fiber laser and amplifier designs to maximize efficiency and further increase the capacity of these high-energy optical fiber lasers and amplifiers. The present disclosure provides a fiber laser or amplifier system configured to efficiently and conveniently generate and couple high numerical aperture and high-energy pump light into a fiber laser or amplifier system.

Pump and signal combiner for high numerical aperture use

In a TDM- and WDM-based FBG sensor array system, a source emits a light covering a selected wavelength range. The light is amplified and then used to generate a series of pulses that are fed into an array of sensor gratings. The propagation of a pulse through the sensor array results in a time-domain-multiplexed output, comprising a series of output pulses in which each output pulse comprises a reflection of the input pulse at a respective grating in the sensor array. Raman amplification is used to amplify both the pulse input into and the time-domain multiplexed output from the sensor array, which is then coupled into an output processing stage for receiving the sensor output and for reconstructing the wavelength output of each grating in the sensor array. The wavelength change for each grating is then used to calculate a physical parameter(s) to be measured, such as temperature and/or strain.

TDM- and WDM-based FBG sensor array system

The disclosed embodiments show a fused fiber combiner with sensors that are strategically located at various locations, thereby permitting performance monitoring of the fused fiber combiner. Additionally, the disclosed embodiments show various processes for determining causes of any performance degradations.

Monitoring power combiners

Fat-fiber adapter for pump use

A waveguide comprises an annular cross-section and a first numerical aperture (NA) at one end. The waveguide further comprises either an annular or circular cross-section at the other end, which has a second NA. The waveguide has a progressively-varying NA, which varies from the first NA (at one end) to the second NA (at the other end).

Ring combiner

A fiber optical coupler comprises a bundle of optical fibers configured to couple light from a multiplicity of input light sources to an output port, each of the fibers comprising a multimode fiber having a core region and a cladding region surrounding the core region. The bundle has first and second axial sections arranged in tandem and adiabatically coupled to one another via a transition zone that includes an optical interface. Within the first section, the ratio of the cross-sectional core area of each of at least some of the fibers to the total cross-sectional area of each of those fibers is given by R, and within the second section, the ratio of the cross-sectional core area of each of at least some of the fibers to the total cross-sectional area of each of those fibers is given by R&#x3e;R, where Ris substantially constant along the axial length of the second section. In one embodiment, the second section is tapered from a larger diameter at the optical interface to a smaller diameter at the output port. Methods of making such optical couplers are also described.

NA reduction in fiber optical couplers

Optical fiber laser architecture with partitioned pump and signal coupling

All pump combiner with cladless inputs

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to laser combiners, and more specifically, to all-fiber devices that combine optical laser power from multiple separate sources such as lasers or amplifiers. In one embodiment, a method of manufacturing a combiner device comprises: positioning an plurality of fibers into a bundle of fibers; drawing the bundle of fibers to create a tapered section, the tapered section having a first outer diameter at an input end, a second outer diameter at an output end, and a taper ratio of at least three; wherein at least one of the fibers of the bundle of fibers comprises an optical waveguide configured for propagating an optical mode from the input end to the output end, and wherein a mode field diameter of the optical mode at the input end is substantially the same as the mode field diameter at the output end.

Fiber Based Laser Combiners

The present disclosure is directed to optical fibers having glass buffers. As such, some embodiments comprise an optical fiber having a core, a cladding, and a glass buffer. For some embodiments, the glass buffer has an index of refraction that is greater than the index of refraction of the cladding.

Glass buffers

Embodiments of the invention include a fiber laser cavity package having improved fiber management and thermal management capability and methods of making such fiber laser cavity package. Each element of the fiber laser cavity is grouped into plurality of sections and each section is placed onto a heat conducting surface within the fiber laser cavity package to dissipate unwanted heat from the elements. When the fiber laser cavity is stored in the package, the fiber laser cavity is arranged such that fiber crossings are substantially reduced or eliminated within the package.

Fiber laser cavity optical engine package and method of making the same

An all-fiber combiner device is described for combining multiple high power inputs, such as high power laser inputs. The device includes a first tapered fiber section made from fibers that allow for efficient size reduction of the optical signals. The output of the first tapered fiber section may then be coupled to a multimode output fiber for delivery of the combined power beam. Alternately, the first tapered section can be coupled to a second, multimode, tapered section, which provides further size reduction of the core for splicing into a final output fiber, while adding cladding to the main fiber.

Growing community of inventors

Upper Black Eddy, PA, United States of America

William R Holland