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US 6,272,268 B1Granted
Optical couplers with multilayer fibers
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsWilliam J. Miller, David L. Weidman
Life of this patent
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AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsWilliam J. Miller, David L. Weidman
Estimating the term…
A tapered optical fiber coupler includes a first fiber with a core (11) and a cladding (12) and a second fiber with a core (21), an inner cladding (22) and an outer cladding (23). In the stretched, coupling regions of the device, the coupling regions (44, 50) of the fibers form of coupling region waveguides with dispersion curves crossing one another at a preselected operating wavelength. The one or more claddings of each fiber has a monotonic decreasing refractive index distribution, and the refractive index distributions of the claddings (12, 22, 23) are different from one another. Coupling of light from one another occurs only in the narrow band of wavelengths surrounding the operating wavelengths. The outside diameters and core diameters of the fibers may be identical to one another and identical to those of standard optical fibers. Thus, the device can be connected in an optical system.
A fiber optic coupler comprising at least first and second fibers,
An overclad coupler having at least first and second fibers, each said fiber having a pair of end regions and at least one tapered coupling region disposed between said end regions, said coupling regions extending side-by-side adjacent one another, said coupler further including an overcladding surrounding said coupling regions, said first and second fibers having the same outside diameter in said end regions, said first and second fibers each having a core and one or more claddings, said one or more claddings of each said fiber having a monotonic decreasing refractive index distribution, said refractive index distributions of said claddings being different from one another, said tapered coupling regions of fibers forming first and second waveguides, the dispersion characteristic of the first waveguide relating the propagation constant β12′ of light passing through the first waveguide to wavelength λ being different than the dispersion characteristic of the second waveguide relating the propagation constant β22′ of the second waveguide to λ, the dispersion characteristics of said waveguides being selected so that β12′=β22′ only at an operating wavelength λ0.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.