Interferometer coupler using multiple input ports for improved stability
AssigneeThe University of Sydney
InventorsIan Masson Bassett, John Herbert Haywood
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Abstract
A method of interrogating an optical coupler interconnected to a two beam interferometer, so as to determine an idealized output value, said optical coupler having at least three bidirectional external input/output ports, said method comprising the steps of: for each of said external input/output ports: inserting an optical signal into the port; measuring a corresponding output at each of said ports; forming summations of those corresponding outputs which, in an ideal coupler, would have equal intensities; and determining said idealized output value of said coupler from said summations.
Claims8
A method of interrogating an optical coupler interconnected to a two beam interferometer, so as to determine an idealised output value, said optical coupler having at least three bidirectional external input/output ports, said method comprising the steps of:
- for each of said external input/output ports:
- inserting an optical signal into the port;
- measuring a corresponding output at each of said ports;
- forming summations of those corresponding outputs which, in an ideal coupler, would have equal intensities;
- and determining said idealized output value of said coupler from said summations.
A method as claimed in any previous claim wherein each of said summations is formed from a corresponding output from each of the ports for a particular optical signal insertion.
A method as claimed in any previous claim wherein said two beam interferometer comprises a Sagnac interferometer.
A method as claimed in any previous claim wherein said summations are formed from a single optical pulse appropriately delayed so that said corresponding outputs arrive at a detector in a temporally spaced manner.
An apparatus for interrogating an optical coupler interconnected to a two beam interferometer, so as to determine an idealised output value, said optical coupler having at least three bidirectional external input/output ports, said apparatus comprising:
- means for inserting optical signals into each of the ports;
- means for measuring a corresponding output at each of said ports when an optical signal is inserted into one of the ports;
- and
- means for forming summations of those corresponding outputs which, in an ideal coupler, would have equal intensities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.