Optical fiber filter with ultra-wide tuning range
AssigneeII-Vi Delaware, Inc.
InventorsYongkang Hu, Ketang Tan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical fiber filter has an ultra-wide tuning range and includes a two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror, a collimating and beam expanding system, and two gratings. An input fiber emits a multi-wavelength optical signal into the rotating mirror, which reflects the signal to the system to form collimated beams. In turn, the collimated beams are incident on the gratings that disperse the light of different wavelengths to different angles. Lights of different diffraction angles are input into an output fiber by adjusting the rotating mirror. The rotating mirror can be used to switch between gratings of different wavebands to tune optical wavelengths in an ultra-wide range.
Claims15
An optical fiber filter, the optical fiber filter comprising:
- a two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror disposed in optical communication with at least one multi-wavelength optical signal input to the optical fiber filter, the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror being configured to rotate in two-dimensions and being configured to reflect the at least one multi-wavelength optical signal;
- a collimating and beam expanding system disposed in optical communication with the at least one reflected multi-wavelength optical signal;
- two gratings each disposed in optical communication with the collimating and beam expanding system and being configured to disperse the at least one reflected multi-wavelength optical signal into light of different wavelengths at different diffraction angles;
- first reflection components correspondingly arranged on input ends of the two gratings;
- and
- second reflection components correspondingly arranged on output ends of the two gratings,
- wherein the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror is configured to select the light of at least one of the different diffraction angles as at least one filtered signal for output to at least one output optical fiber, and
- wherein a first dimension of the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror is configured to tune a wavelength for the filtered signal;
- and wherein a second dimension is configured to switch between the two gratings to achieve an ultra-wide tuning range.
An optical fiber filter, the optical fiber filter comprising:
- at least one input optical fiber;
- at least one output optical fiber;
- at least one optical fiber circulator in communication with the at least one input optical fiber and the at least one output optical fiber;
- a two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror disposed in optical communication with at least one multi-wavelength optical signal from the at least one input optical fiber, the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror being configured to rotate in two-dimensions and being configured to reflect the multi-wavelength optical signal;
- a collimating and beam expanding system disposed in optical communication with the at least one multi-wavelength optical signal;
- two gratings each disposed in optical communication with the collimating and beam expanding system and configured to disperse the at least one multi-wavelength optical signal into light of different wavelengths at different diffraction angles;
- first total reflection components correspondingly arranged on front ends of the two gratings and being configured to reflect the at least one multi-wavelength optical signal to the respective gratings;
- and
- second total reflection components correspondingly arranged on rear ends of the two gratings, each of the second total reflection components being configured to return a respective filtered signal to the at least one optical fiber circulator,
- wherein the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror is configured to select the light of at least one of the different diffraction angles as the respective filtered signal for output to the output optical fiber, and
- wherein a first dimension of the two-dimensional mechanical rotating mirror is configured to tune a wavelength for the filtered signal;
- and wherein a second dimension is configured to switch between the gratings to achieve an ultra-wide tuning range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.