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:
Sep. 20, 2005
Filed:
Jan. 17, 2002
Yakov Sidorin, Tucson, AZ (US);
Yakov Sidorin, Tucson, AZ (US);
Optitune plc, London, GB;
Abstract
In a tunable optical source, a zone plate deviceis used to provide frequency selective feedback to a laser diodeThe zone plate deviceis positioned to receive an output mode of the laser diodeand to return a frequency selected image of the mode spot to the laser diodeBy changing the refractive index of material of the zone plate deviceit is possible to change the frequency providing the image at the point of return to the laser diodeThis allows the zone plate deviceto be used in tuning the optical source, without using moving parts. In an embodiment, the zone plate deviceis at least partially fabricated in an electro-optic material such as SBN:75 and can therefore be tuned by using electrodes to apply an elecric field across it. The zone plate devicecan be coupled directly to the laser diodeor via a waveguide sectionwhich can be used to increase the output mode spot size from the laser diodefor delivery to the zone plate deviceThe zone plate devicecan alternatively be used as a standalone component for filtering optical radiation from other sources. Tunable optical sources can be used for instance in communications, particularly wavelength division multiplexing.