Optical pulse waveform conversion
AssigneeFurukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsMasateru Tadakuma, Osamu Aso, Misao Sakano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A waveform converter for altering the waveform and optical spectrum of an optical signal may comprise a nonlinear element having a nonlinear effect on optical pulses, a dispersion element having a dispersion effect on optical pulses, and a wavelength selecting element configured to select spectral components in a desired wavelength region.
Claims27
An optical pulse waveform converter, comprising:
- a coupled plurality of optical elements comprising:
- an optical pulse input port configured to receive an input optical pulse;
- a nonlinear optical element configured to broaden a wavelength content of an optical pulse routed through said nonlinear optical element;
- a dispersive optical element configured to modify a temporal profile of an optical pulse routed through said dispersive optical element;
- a wavelength selecting optical element configured to pass selected wavelength components of an optical pulse routed through said wavelength selecting optical element;
- and
- an optical pulse output port configured to output an optical pulse comprising different optical characteristics than said input optical pulse.
A device for modifying an optical signal having a pulse waveform, said device comprising an element for exerting a nonlinear effect on said pulse waveform, an element for exerting a dispersion effect on said pulse waveform, and an element for changing an optical spectrum profile of said pulse waveform.
An optical pulse waveform converter, comprising:
- a plurality of nonlinear elements for exerting a nonlinear effect on an optical pulse;
- a plurality of chirped fiber grating elements for exerting a dispersion effect on said optical pulse and for modifying an optical spectrum profile of an optical pulse.
An optical pulse waveform converter, comprising:
- a plurality of nonlinear elements and a plurality of dispersion elements coupled in an alternating series;
- a wavelength selecting element coupled to an output of said alternating series.
A method for converting an optical pulse waveform, said method comprising:
- broadening the wavelength content and narrowing the temporal width of an input optical pulse to produce a modified optical pulse;
- and
- selecting a portion of the wavelength content of said modified optical pulse to produce an output optical pulse.
An optical pulse light source, comprising:
- a modulated signal light source having output pulses characterized by a temporal waveform and a wavelength content;
- a waveform converter coupled to receive said output pulses from said signal light source and comprising a nonlinear optical element, a dispersive optical element, and a wavelength selecting optical element, wherein said waveform converter is configured to output optical pulses which have different wavelength content than said optical pulses output from said signal light source.
A device for producing a optical pulses for optical amplification and communication, said device comprising:
- a laser producing a modulated producing a modulated light signal output;
- a waveform converter having said light signal output as an input, said waveform converter comprising:
- a nonlinear optical element configured to broaden a wavelength content of an optical pulse routed through said nonlinear optical element;
- a dispersive optical element configured to modify a temporal profile of an optical pulse routed through said dispersive optical element;
- a wavelength selecting optical element configured to pass selected wavelength components of an optical pulse routed through said wavelength selecting optical element.
A method of changing the wavelength content of a first optical pulse, wherein said first optical pulse has an optical spectrum centered at a first wavelength, said method comprising spreading the optical spectrum of said first optical pulse to produce a spread optical spectrum, selecting a second wavelength from said spread optical spectrum, and filtering wavelengths outside of a selected wavelength band around said second wavelength band so as to produce a second optical pulse having an optical spectrum centered approximately at said second wavelength.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.