Optical system and method
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsMirko Pittaluga, Zhiliang Yuan, Andrew James Shields
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical system, comprising: an emitter configured to output a first optical signal along a first optical path to an interference unit and to output a second optical signal along a second optical path to the interference unit, the interference unit being configured to interfere the first and second optical signals, wherein the coherence length of the optical signal is longer than the path difference between first and second optical paths, and there is a path difference between the first and second paths of at least 1 km.
Claims18
An optical system, comprising:
- an emitter configured to output a first optical signal along a first optical path to a detector node and to output a second optical signal along a second optical path to the detector node, the detector node being configured to interfere the first and second optical signals;
- a first node with a first encoder located in the first node, the first node forming at least part of the first optical path, the first encoder being configured to receive said first optical signal and encode said first optical signal in phase such that the first optical signal output from said first encoder is encoded in phase;
- and
- a second node with a second encoder located in the second node, the second node forming at least part of the second optical path, the second encoder being configured to receive said second optical signal and encode said second optical signal in phase such that the second optical signal output from said second encoder is encoded in phase,
- wherein said detector node is configured to cause interference of the encoded first optical signal and the encoded second optical signal, and
- coherence length of the optical signal is longer than a path difference between the first and second optical paths, and the path difference between the first and second optical paths is at least 1 Kilometer (km).
A method of optical communication, the method comprising:
- outputting a first optical signal from an emitter along a first optical path to a detector node and outputting a second optical signal from the same emitter along a second optical path to the detector node, wherein:
- at least part of the first optical path being formed by a first node with a first encoder located in the first node, the first encoder receiving said first optical signal and encoding said first optical signal in phase such that the first optical signal output from said first encoder is encoded in phase;
- and
- at least part of the second optical path being formed by a second node with a second encoder located in the second node, the second encoder receiving said second optical signal and encoding said second optical signal in phase such that the second optical signal output from said second encoder is encoded in phase,
- wherein said detector node is configured to cause interference of the encoded first optical signal and the encoded second optical signal;
- the method further comprising:
- causing interference of the first and second optical signals at the detector node,
- wherein coherence length of the optical signal is longer than a path difference between the first and second optical paths, and the path difference between the first and second paths is at least 1 kilometer (km).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.