Abstract:
A method for optical and electrical signal processing of a multi-heterodyne signal generated by a multi-mode semi-conductor laser, for a system comprising two laser sources and an sample interaction unit. At least the beam of one of the laser passes through said sample interaction unit before being combined on a detector. The first laser is tuned (40=>42) by an amount keeping the tuning result within the available detector bandwidth (55). Then the second laser is roughly tuned by the same amount as the tuning of the first laser to bring back the signal to the vicinity (48) of the original place in the RF-domain and within the bandwidth (55) of the detector. The tuning steps are repeated with different value of mode spacing for reconstructing the sample spectrum and provide a high resolution image of the dip (41) absorption line (40).
Abstract:
This invention relates to a device and associated process capable of obtaining the optical spectrum phase of an optical signal or test signal to be analyzed using techniques for heterodyning between two monochromatic spectral components simultaneously extracted from the test signal itself by means of stimulated Brillouin scattering.
Abstract:
A hybrid optical/electronic wavefront includes an electro-acoustical device, such as a Bragg cell, that is used to upshift an optical reference signal. An optical test signal and the frequency upshifted optical reference signal are optically heterodyned to create a signal having a frequency equivalent to the beat frequency of the two signals. The optically heterodyned signal is then converted by a detector to an electronic signal having the same phase as the optical test signal. The output of the detector is a sinusoidal signal having the same phase as the phase of the optical test signal. This signal is filtered by way of an AC filter and mixed with a second clock signal. The low frequency product of the mixer is passed by way of a filter and converted to a square wave by way of a comparator. The output of the comparator is applied to a simple pulse counter and used to disable the pulse counter. An electronic reference signal formed by mixing the two RF signals, filtering the output, and squaring up the output by way of another comparator. The reference signal is used to start the pulse counter. A clock signal for the pulse counter is developed by squaring up the RF driving signal applied to the electro-acoustical device by a comparator. The pulse counter counts the clock pulses while it is enabled. The pulse count is linearly related to the difference in phase between the optical test signal and the frequency upshifted signal.
Abstract:
A phase-diverse coherent optical spectrum analyzer is presented. An optical receiver receives a first input signal and a second input signal, and produces at least a first output signal, a second output signal, and a third output signal based on mixing the first input signal and the second input signal. A processing unit isolates heterodyne components from the first output signal, the second output signal and the third output signal, wherein the heterodyne components comprise a first signal and a second signal that represent the phase-diverse nature of the optical mixing process. Phase diversity of the heterodyning between the first input signal and the second input signal is achieved by the coherent optical spectrum analyzer.
Abstract:
In an optical communications system employing a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) scheme, a laser device can be used to transmit electromagnetic radiation at different wavelengths, each different wavelength being known as a channel. In addition, a demultiplexer such as an Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) can be used to separate out a multiplexed signal into its component channels. It is known that laser devices and AWGs are susceptible to wavelength drift as their temperatures change or aging occurs, in the case of the AWGs causing channels to overlap which results in cross-talk between adjacent channels. Consequently, the present invention provides an apparatus for detecting cross-talk and method therefor. To this end, a first and a second output signal from a wavelength selective device (9) are directed to be coincident upon a photodetector (11). A homodyne beat signal results from the coincidence of the first and the second output signal and the homodyne beat signal is used to measure wavelength drift.
Abstract:
In a method for influencing and measuring pulsed electromagnetic illumination, e.g. parallel laser light (L), said illumination or light can be spatially divided, in particular, in an autocorrelator comprising a beam receptor (12), can be recombined behind said beam receptor by a superposition or focussing device (18 or 58) and can be detected in the recombinant area by a detector (20). As the transmission system (52), the beam receptor comprises beam profile dividers in a penetrable housing (50), in the form of at least two transmission parts (54; 56), with or in which separate, preferably parallel component beams (S, T) can be modified in their time-based beam characteristics, before being recombined. The inventive beam receptor (12) preferably has at least a two-part mirror (22), plate (32), chamber or crystal system (42) comprising a beam profile divider (14, 24, 34, 44) which creates or leaves unchanged a base component beam (S), whilst the time-based characteristics of this or every other component beam (T) in a neighbouring beam profile divider (16, 26, 36, 46) can be controlled in a different manner, in order to effect, in particular, reflection or transmission delays and/or changes to the optical paths.