Optical fiber system with photonic integrated circuit coupled to multicore optical fiber

Abstract

Disclosed herein are optical integration technologies, designs, systems and methods directed toward Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and other interferometric optical sensor, ranging, and imaging systems wherein such systems, methods and structures employ tunable optical sources, coherent detection and other structures on a single or multichip monolithic integration. In contrast to contemporary, prior-art OCT systems and structures that employ simple, miniature optical bench technology using small optical components positioned on a substrate, systems and methods according to the present disclosure employ one or more photonic integrated circuits (PICs), use swept-source techniques, and employ a widely tunable optical source(s). In another embodiment the system uses an optical photonic phased array. The phase array can be a static phased array to eliminate or augment the lens that couples light to and from a sample of interest or can be static and use a spectrally dispersive antenna and a tunable source to perform angular sweeping. The phased array can be active in 1 or 2 dimensions so as to scan the light beam in angle. The phased array can also adjust focus. The phased array can implement an optical waveform that will extend depth of field focus for imaging. The phase array can also be a separate standalone element that is fed by one or more optical fibers. The phased array can be for scanning a biomedical specimen used in conjunction with a swept-source OCT system, can be used in a free-space coherent optical communication system for beam pointing or tracking, used in LIDAR applications, or many other beam control or beam steering applications.