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US 5,495,462 AGranted
Light beam splitting apparatus
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsSeiji Nishiwaki, Tetsuo Kitagawa, Junichi Asada, Kiyoko Ooshima
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AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsSeiji Nishiwaki, Tetsuo Kitagawa, Junichi Asada, Kiyoko Ooshima
Estimating the term…
When a laser beam enters into a grating coupler at a right angle, a guided wave with a wave mode corresponding to an incident angle can be generated. Although the guided wave is a light beam in single mode, the waveguide mode is deflected by passing through a step-wise structure and is converted into several guided waves having several modes. When the guided waves are radiated from a straight output grating coupler, the radiant angle is dependent upon the waveguide mode, so beams are radiated in different directions according to their respective waveguide modes. Therefore, a guided wave in zero-order mode outputs a radiant beam having a larger radiant angle, while a guided wave in first-order mode outputs a radiant beam having a smaller radiant angle.
A light beam splitting apparatus comprising a transparent waveguide layer, an input medium which guides a laser beam radiated from a laser light source into the waveguide layer and generates a first guided wave having a first wave mode and being transmitted through the waveguide layer, and an output medium which radiates the guided wave transmitted through the waveguide layer toward outside, wherein said waveguide layer is actually step-wise bent at a portion between the input and the output media over a step structure having a differential height, such that a part of the first guided wave changes to a second guided wave having a different wave mode by passing through said step-wise bent portion, so that, the two guided waves will be radiated from the output medium in two different directions.
A light beam splitting apparatus comprising a transparent waveguide layer, a second transparent layer adjoining the waveguide layer, an input medium which guides a laser beam radiated from a laser light source into the waveguide layer and generates a first guided wave transmitted through the waveguide layer, and an output medium which radiates said guided wave transmitted through the waveguide layer toward the outside, wherein a terminal portion of the second transparent layer is formed between the input and the output media, a part of the first guided wave changes to a second guided wave having a different wave mode by passing adjacent to the terminal portion, so that the first and second guided waves will be radiated from the output medium in two different directions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.