Architecture for high-extinction electro-optic modulation in pulsed fiber lasers
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorFabio Di Teodoro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A spectral combiner is configured to spectrally combine a pulsed signal at a first wavelength and a continuous wave (CW) signal at a second wavelength. A time gate has a signal input configured to receive a first multiplexed input signal from the first WDM, a radio frequency (RF) input configured to receive a RF control signal, a bias input configured to receive a direct current (DC) bias signal, and an output. A spectral decomposer is configured to demultiplex a second multiplexed output signal from the time gate's output into a first demultiplexed signal at the first wavelength and a second demultiplexed signal at the second wavelength. The DC bias signal is based on the second demultiplexed signal.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a spectral combiner configured to spectrally combine a pulsed signal at a first wavelength and a continuous wave (CW) signal at a second wavelength;
- a time gate comprising:
- a signal input configured to receive a first spectrally combined input signal from spectral combiner, the first spectrally combined input signal comprising the pulsed signal at the first wavelength and the CW signal at the second wavelength;
- a radio frequency (RF) input configured to receive a RF control signal;
- a bias input configured to receive a direct current (DC) bias signal;
- and
- an output;
- and
- a spectral decomposer configured to demultiplex a second multiplexed output signal from the output of the time gate into a first demultiplexed signal at the first wavelength and a second demultiplexed signal at the second wavelength, wherein the DC bias signal is based on the second demultiplexed signal.
A system comprising:
- a pulsed signal source configured to operate at a first wavelength;
- a continuous wave (CW) signal source configured to operate at a second wavelength;
- and
- a plurality of amplifier stages comprising an input amplifier stage and an output amplifier stage, wherein each amplifier stage of the plurality of amplifier stages comprises:
- a fiber amplifier;
- a first wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) configured to spectrally combine a first signal from the fiber amplifier and a second signal from the CW signal source;
- a time gate configured to gate a first output signal from the first WDM;
- a second WDM configured to demultiplex a second output from the time gate into a first demultiplexed signal at the first wavelength and a second demultiplexed signal at the second wavelength;
- a filter configured to filter the first demultiplexed signal;
- and
- a bias control configured to receive the second demultiplexed signal;
- wherein the fiber amplifier of the input amplifier stage is configured to receive a signal from the pulsed signal source, and the fiber amplifier of the output amplifier stage is configured to receive the filtered first demultiplexed signal from the second WDM of the input amplifier stage.
A method comprising:
- spectrally combining a pulsed signal at a first wavelength and a continuous wave (CW) signal at a second wavelength using a spectral combiner;
- gating a first spectrally combined input from the spectral combiner using a time gate, wherein the gating is controlled by a radio frequency (RF) control signal input into an RF input of the time gate;
- demultiplexing a second multiplexed output of the time gate into a first demultiplexed signal at the first wavelength and a second demultiplexed signal at the second wavelength;
- and
- biasing the time gate via a direct current (DC) output of a bias control, wherein the DC output of the bias control is adjusted based on the second demultiplexed signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.