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US 6,476,959 B2Granted
Optical pulse synthesis using brillouin selective sideband amplification
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorX. Steve Yao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques for producing optical pulses based on Brillouin selective sideband amplification by using a common modulation control signal to modulate both a signal beam to produce multiple sideband signals and a single pump beam to produce multiple pump beams.
Claims40
A device, comprising:
- a signal generator operable to produce a signal beam at a signal frequency;
- a pump generator operable to produce a pump beam at a pump frequency that is different from said signal frequency;
- a polarizing beam splitter positioned to receive said signal beam in a first linear polarization at a first port and said pump beam in a second linear polarization orthogonal to said first linear polarization at a second port to output said signal and said pump beams at a third port;
- an optical medium positioned to receive said signal beam and said pump beam from said polarizing beam splitter, said optical medium exhibiting a Brillouin effect in response to said pump beam to produce at least one Brillouin signal that propagates opposite to a direction of said pump beam;
- and
- a polarization-rotating reflector positioned to receive a transmitted optical beam from said optical medium and reflect said transmitted optical beam back to said optical medium after rotating a polarization of said transmitted optical beam by 90 degrees.
3 more elements
A device, comprising:
- a signal generator operable to produce a signal beam at a signal frequency and to modulate said signal beam to carry modulation signals in response to a modulation control signal;
- a pump laser operable to produce a pump beam at a pump frequency that is different from said signal frequency;
- a pump optical modulator positioned to receive said pump beam and operable to modulate said pump beam to carry modulation pump signals in response to said modulation control signal, said modulation pump signals having a frequency spacing substantially equal to a frequency spacing of said modulation signals in said signal beam;
- and
- an optical medium positioned to receive said signal beam and said pump beam, said optical medium exhibiting a Brillouin effect in response to said modulation pump signals in said pump beam to produce Brillouin signals that propagate opposite to a direction of said pump beam, wherein said Brillouin signals propagate in the same direction as said signal beam and respectively overlap with selected modulation signals in said signal beam in frequency to amplify said selected modulation signals.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- providing an optical medium that exhibits a Brillouin effect;
- coupling a pump beam into said optical medium from a first side of said optical medium along a first direction to produce at least one Brillouin signal that propagates against said first direction;
- controlling said pump beam to have a first linear polarization when entering said optical medium;
- coupling a signal beam into said optical medium from said first side along said first direction;
- controlling said pump beam to have second linear polarization orthogonal to said first linear polarization when entering said optical medium;
- reflecting said signal and said pump beams that transmit through said optical medium from a second side that is opposite to said first side;
- and
- rotating a polarization of each of said signal and said pump beams by 90 degrees upon said reflection.
5 more elements
A method, comprising:
- producing a signal beam at a signal frequency and a pump beam at a pump frequency that is different from said signal frequency;
- using a common modulation control signal to modulate said signal beam to carry modulation signals and said pump beam to carry modulation pump signals, wherein a frequency spacing between two adjacent modulation pump signals is substantially equal to a frequency spacing of said modulation signals in said signal beam;
- coupling said pump beam into an optical medium which exhibits a Brillouin effect in response to said modulation pump signals to produce Brillouin signals that propagate opposite to a direction of said pump beam;
- coupling said signal beam into said optical medium to spatially overlap with said Brillouin signals and to propagate in the same direction of said Brillouin signals;
- and
- adjusting a frequency spacing between said signal frequency and said pump frequency to overlap frequencies of said Brillouin signals with frequencies of selected modulation signals in said signal beam to amplify said selected modulation signals.
3 more elements
A device, comprising:
- a signal laser to produce a signal beam at a signal frequency;
- a signal optical modulator to modulate said signal beam to carry modulation signals in response to a laser modulation control signal;
- a modulation control module to produce said laser modulation control signal;
- a pump laser to produce a pump beam at a pump frequency different from said signal frequency;
- a pump optical modulator to modulate said pump beam to carry modulation pump signals in response to said laser modulation control signal, wherein said modulation pump signals have a frequency spacing substantially equal to a frequency spacing of said modulation signals in said signal beam;
- an optical medium positioned to receive said pump beam in a first polarization from said pump optical modulator and said signal beam from said signal optical modulator in a second polarization orthogonal to said first polarization, said optical medium exhibiting a Brillouin effect in response to said modulation pump signals in said pump beam to produce Brillouin signals that propagate opposite to a direction of said pump beam and overlap with frequencies of selected modulation signals in said signal beam;
- and
- an optical polarization-changing reflector module optically coupled to receive transmitted light from said optical medium and to reflect said transmitted light back to said optical medium as reflected light with a polarization orthogonal to a polarization of said transmitted light.
5 more elements
The device as in claim 33, wherein said output module includes an optical circulator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.