US 2026/0147252 A1Published application

Acousto-optic mode switching in multicore optical fiber

AssigneeCorning Incorporated

InventorsPaulo Clovis Dainese, JR., Agnivo Gosai, Seyyed Ali Hassani Gangaraj, Karl William Koch, III, Tuerhong Maitiniyazi, William James Miller

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Abstract

Efficient acousto-optic switching of light between two cores of a multicore optical fiber can be achieved using fiber configurations with cores differing in their effective refractive indices, by simultaneously exciting two flexural acoustic waves of different frequencies to transfer the light in a two-step process from one core to an intermediate cladding mode and then from the intermediate cladding mode to the other core. The intermediate cladding mode may be selected to achieve high, similar coupling rates between the two cores and the cladding modes, and sufficient acoustic frequency separation from neighboring cladding modes.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An acousto-optic switch device comprising:

a multicore optical fiber comprising first and second optical cores surrounded by a cladding, the first optical core configured to guide a first core mode having a first optical wavenumber, the second optical core configured to guide a second core mode having a second optical wavenumber that differs from the first optical wavenumber, and the cladding configured to guide multiple cladding modes having multiple respective third optical wavenumbers and multiple respective field distributions;
an acoustic signal source configured to induce a flexural acoustic wave in the multicore optical fiber;
and
control and driver circuitry configured to operate the acoustic signal source such that:
the flexural acoustic wave comprises a first acoustic wave having a first acoustic wavenumber and a second acoustic wave having a second acoustic wavenumber,
the first acoustic wavenumber substantially matches a difference between the first optical wavenumber and the third optical wavenumber of an intermediate cladding mode selected among the multiple cladding modes,
the second acoustic wavenumber substantially matches a difference between the second optical wavenumber and the third optical wavenumber of the intermediate cladding mode, and
the field distribution of the intermediate cladding mode has nulls at centers of the first and second optical cores and is concentrated around boundaries of the first and second cores.

5 more elements

A method for switching light from a first core of a multicore optical fiber to a second core of the multicore optical fiber, the method comprising:

exciting a first flexural acoustic wave having a first acoustic wavenumber in the multicore optical fiber to resonantly couple the light acousto-optically from an optical mode of the first core to an intermediate cladding mode selected among multiple cladding modes;
while the first flexural acoustic wave is excited, exciting a second flexural acoustic wave having a second acoustic wavenumber in the multicore optical fiber to resonantly couple the light acousto-optically from the intermediate cladding mode to an optical mode of the second core,
wherein:
the selected intermediate cladding mode is characterized by a field distribution that has nulls at centers of the first and second optical cores and is concentrated around boundaries of the first and second cores,
the first acoustic wavenumber is selected to be equal to a difference between optical wavenumbers of the optical mode of the first core and the intermediate cladding mode, and
the second acoustic wavenumber is selected to be equal to a difference between optical wavenumbers of the optical mode of the second core and the intermediate cladding mode.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.