US 2026/0261089 A1Published application

An Optical Amplifier System

AssigneeLeonardo UK Ltd

InventorsJohn BARR, Ross MACISAAC

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Abstract

High power fibre amplifier systems avoid inadvertent generation of Stimulated Brillion Scattering (SBS) that causes optical losses and, if large enough, may damage the system. The standard active technique used to suppress SBS is to modulate the seed beam with a radio frequency line width broadening signal, e.g. white noise, to increase the spectral linewidth of the seed beam. This significantly increases the threshold power at which SBS becomes a problem by significantly reducing the coherence length. The problem accompanying a reduced coherence length is that the tolerance in variations in optical path length reduces markedly. The solution provided to this problem is to delay the line width broadening signal by predetermined amount to compensate for the difference in optical path lengths.

Claims5

Dependent claims

An optical fibre amplifier system comprising:

(i) an optical fan out configured to receive and split a coherent optical beam into a set of multiple optical beams;
(ii) a set of optical fibre transmission lines, each transmission line of the set of optical fibre transmission lines being a to carry a different optical beam of the set of multiple optical beams, each optical fibre transmission line providing a different optical path length from the others of the set;
(iii) each optical fibre transmission line including a separate optical fibre amplifier, configured to amplify the optical beams carried by the transmission line;
(iv) a coherent beam combiner arranged to combine the set of multiple optical beams outputted from the set of optical fibre transmission lines to provide a combined output beam that is substantially both spatially and temporally coherent;
and
(v) a radio frequency Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (RF SBS) suppression signal generator means (Generator),
wherein
the Generator is configured to generate a set of RF SBS suppression signals (Signals), each Signal of the set being time offset from each of the other Signals of the set by a pre-configured value;
(vi) a set of electro-optic phase modulators, each electro-optic phase modulator being configured to phase modulate a different one of the Signals of the set of Signals onto a different beam of the set of multiple beams;
and
the pre-configured value of the time offset of each Signal being selected to compensate for different optical path lengths of the fibre transmission lines to cause the Signal imposed on each of the beams at a point they are combined by the coherent beam combiner to be substantially temporally aligned.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 19/163,937Filed 8 Mar 2024
Priority: GB 2303539.710 Mar 2023
Published: 3 Sep 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

H01S 3/06758
Fibre amplifiers: tandem amplifiers
H04B 10/291
Repeaters: in which processing or amplification is carried out without conversion of the main signal from optical form
H01S 3/0085
Optical devices external to the laser cavity, specially adapted for lasers, e.g. for homogenisation of the beam or for manipulating laser…
H01S 3/08013
Construction or shape of optical resonators or components thereof: resonator comprising a fibre, e.g. for modifying dispersion or repetition rate