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US 11,462,878 B2Granted
All solid hybrid arrow fiber
AssigneeLawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
InventorsPaul H. Pax, Diana C. Chen, Michael J. Messerly
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An all solid hybrid waveguiding structure provides large mode area, acceptable losses of the desired core mode and very high losses of the undesired next higher order mode in the core. Embodiments of the waveguide include a hybrid of low index barriers providing confinement by total internal reflection, and further include high index rings that support guided modes only at effective indices different from that of the desired core mode.
Claims16
An apparatus, comprising:
- a length of background material of undoped optical material having an index of refraction (nbg);
- a core comprising a length of a solid core material within said length of background material, wherein said core material comprises a rare-earth dopant and has an index of refraction (ncore);
- and
- a length of a first set of solid optical material elements located within said length of background material and distributed around said core, wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer solid ring region having an index of refraction (nring)that is greater than nbg,
- wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer wall, wherein light is partially confined to said core by glancing reflection from at least one said wall of said solid optical material elements.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a length of background material of undoped optical material having an index of refraction (nbg);
- a core comprising a length of a solid core material within said length of background material, wherein said core material comprises a rare-earth dopant and has an index of refraction (ncore);
- and
- a length of a first set of solid optical material elements located within said length of background material and distributed around said core, wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer solid ring region having an index of refraction (nring) that is greater than nbg,
- wherein each said outer solid ring region of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises a diameter that brings at least one of its interior modes into resonance with at least one higher order mode (HOM) of said core, and thereby increases the propagation loss of said at least one HOM.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a length of background material of undoped optical material having an index of refraction (nbg);
- a core comprising a length of a solid core material within said length of background material, wherein said core material comprises a rare-earth dopant and has an index of refraction (ncore);
- and
- a length of a first set of solid optical material elements located within said length of background material and distributed around said core, wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer solid ring region having an index of refraction (nring) that is greater than nbg,
- wherein said core is co-doped with material to reduce its index to that of said undoped optical material.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a length of background material of undoped optical material having an index of refraction (nbg);
- a core comprising a length of a solid core material within said length of background material, wherein said core material comprises a rare-earth dopant and has an index of refraction (ncore);
- a length of a first set of solid optical material elements located within said length of background material and distributed around said core, wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer solid ring region having an index of refraction (nring) that is greater than nbg;
- and
- a length of a second set of optical material elements located within said background material and distributed around said core, wherein said second set of optical material elements comprises an index of refraction (nbarrier) below that of nbg.
2 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a length of background material of undoped optical material having an index of refraction (nbg);
- a core comprising a length of a solid core material within said length of background material, wherein said core material comprises a rare-earth dopant and has an index of refraction (ncore);
- and
- a length of a first set of solid optical material elements located within said length of background material and distributed around said core, wherein each solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements comprises an outer solid ring region having an index of refraction (nring) that is greater than nbg,
- wherein at least one solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements has a diameter that tunes a mode of said outer solid ring region such that an unwanted higher order mode (HOM) in said core is coupled to a mode supported within the interior of at least one solid optical material element of said first set of solid optical material elements.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.