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US 4,071,831 AGranted
Amplifying characteristics of a cavity-enclosed nonlinear medium
AssigneeBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
InventorsHyatt McDonald Gibbs, Samuel Leverte McCall, Jr., Thirumalai Nallan Chakravarthy Venkatesan
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Abstract
A device is disclosed which is capable of amplifying optical signals. The absorptive and dispersive properties of a cavity-enclosed nonlinear medium are combined with the transmission properties of the cavity to yield an input-output characteristic curve that displays gain or bistability.
Claims24
A method of amplifying variations in an optical signal of a given wavelength comprising
- introducing light of the given wavelength into a cavity formed by at least two surfaces that reflect light of the given wavelength, and which surfaces are separated at least in part by a positive-temperature nonlinear medium
- fixing the cavity and medium characteristics such that the absorptive properties of the medium dominate its dispersive properties and such that there is a single valued relationship between the intensities of the incident and transmitted signals which exhibits gain, and
- extracting the amplified signal from said cavity.
A device to amplify variations in optical signals of a given wavelength comprising
- a cavity formed by at least two surfaces that reflect light of the given wavelength together with means for introducing light into, and extracting light from, the cavity and which surfaces are separated at least in part by a positive-temperature nonlinear medium, which separation is of such a value and which medium is maintained under such conditions, that the absorptive properties of the medium dominate its dispersive properties and that there is a single valued relationship between the intensity of the signal of said wavelength impinging on and emitted by the said device that displays gain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.