The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 01, 1994
Filed:
Aug. 18, 1993
Fred L Heismann, Freehold, NJ (US);
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
The effects of polarization dependent hole burning and/or polarization dependent loss are reduced by modulating the state of polarization (SOP) of an arbitrarily polarized optical signal being launched into the transmission path periodically through a predetermined sequence of polarization states. The sequence of polarization states is selected such that on average the launched modulated signal excites substantially all possible polarization states with substantially equal probability, independent of the input SOP to the polarization modulator. In one exemplary embodiment, the SOP is modulated by a combination cascade of a rotating half-wave plate followed by a quarter-wave plate, which rotates at a different angular speed. In another exemplary embodiment, the SOP is modulated by a combination cascade of two variable phase retarders oriented at fixed angles of 0.degree. and 45.degree., where the modulation frequencies of the two retarders are substantially different from each other.