DIELECTRIC OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE DEVICE

Abstract: A selective filtering device (1) for use in optical communications systems takes the form of a transversely coupled Fabry-Perot interferometer. One described embodiment comprises a first length (2) of monomode optical fibre transversely coupled to a second fibre (3) in a coupling region (6). One end (5, 8) of each fibre (2, 3) at opposite respective ends of the coupling region (6) is provided with a suitable highly reflective surface, for example, an evaporated gold/aluminium deposit. In operation, a light input E1 may be modified by the resonant cavity behaviour of the Fabry-Perot cavity formed between the mirrored ends (5, 8) to provide filtered or enhanced outputs E3 and E4. The outputs may be further modified by alternative or additional light input (eg. E2) via the ends (4, 7) of the fibers (2, 3).

Description: DIELECTRIC OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE DEVICE The present invention relates to optical resonant cavities, and in particular to cavities using dielectric optical waveguides. In optical systems, in-line devices such as diffraction gratings and prisms have heretofore been used as transmission or reflection wavelength filters. Alternatively, devices using the interferometric principles of cavity resonators, such as, for example, the Fabry-Perot etalon have been proposed as wavelength filters or selective amplifiers. An example of such an interferometric fi ter 1s disclosed 1n published European Patent Application EP 143645, in which the ends of two optical fibres are mirrored and longitudinally aligned in close proximity in a suitable housing. The arrangment provides an etalon which forms a wavelength filter.that can be adjusted by varying the separation of the fibre ends. Problems which can arise with '1n-l1ne' resonators of this kind are the losses which are introduced, for example, owing to electromagnetic mode mismatch, spurious reflection and other factors, as a consequence of the break 1n the continuity of the transmission Hne. An alternative approach to providing an optical filter comprises using a ring of optical fibre, as described, for example, by Stokes et al. 1n "All-single-mode fiber resonator", Optics Letters, Vol.7, No.6, June 1982. Stokes' device consists of a loop of optical fibre 3m 1n circumference. For most purposes the spectral response of a ring of such length 1s excessively narrow, and a device of this size would clearly be impractical for most applications. However, reducing the size by using rings of smaller circumference, and thereby broadening the spectral response, has been found to introduce curvature dependent bending losses which increasingly degrade the overall performance as the radius of curvature of a ring 1s reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved, selective optical cavity resonator which avoids, or at least mitigates, some of the aforementioned problems. According to the present invention a dielectric optical waveguide device comprises a first waveguide transversely coupled to a second waveguide at a coupling region, wherein one end of each waveguide selected at opposite ends of said coupling region is provided with a reflection means, thereby to form a Fabry-Perot cavity. Preferably, both the waveguides are optical fibres; most preferably, moηomode optical fibres. The waveguides may alternatively be fabricated on substrates, such as, for example, lithium niobate. Conveniently, the reflection means comprise reflective surfaces provided by deposition directly on the waveguide ends. The reflective surfaces may comprise metallic coatings, and may conveniently be provided by conventional techniques such as evaporated gold/aluminium deposition or by grown silver. Alternatively, the reflective surfaces may be dielectric reflection coatings. In place of direct deposition, the reflection means may be provided by mirrors butt-mounted on the waveguide ends. As a further alternative, the reflection means may comprise other apparatus or combinations of apparatus known to the skilled worker and adapted to perform the function of optically reflecting Incident light over the operating spectral range of the device. When the device is employed as an optical filter, preferably the reflection means will be very highly reflective. Over the operating spectral range of the device the reflectivities will be preferably at least 0.8, and more preferably, at least 0.9. Conveniently, the device 1s tunable, and further comprises means to effect the tuning. For example, tuning may be achieved by altering the effective length of the Fabry-Perot cavity. In one embodiment, the tuning means comprises a plezo-electrfc stretcher to adjust the length of one of the waveguides where that waveguide forms part of the Fabry-Perot cavity. Either or both waveguides may incorporate a dopant, in addition or alternative to conventional refractive Index modifying dopants, to alter the optical properties thereof. .The dopant ay ' comprise a light amplifying medium, such as, for example, neodymium. In these circumstances, lower reflectivity reflection means may be desirable. The invention will now be described in detail and by reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a schematic representation of an optical device according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a calculated graph of the ratio of Intensity 1n the output arm of the device of Figure 1 to that in the input arm as a function of wavelength, for a cavity length of 10cm; Figure 31s a graph similar to Figure 2, for the device of Figure 1 and for a cavity length of 20cm; Figures 4 and 5 are graphs illustrating the performance of one practical device; Figure 61s a calculated graph of the modulation depth versus finesse for a device of Figure 1 for the Indicated input and output configuration; and Figure 7 1s a calculated graph of the modul ation depth versus coupl ing parameter, K, for a device of Figure 1 , for the indicated input and output configuration. Referring now to Figure 1, a transverse coupled Fabry-Perot interferometer 1, which behaves as a wavelength selective fil tering device, using monomode optical fibres as waveguides, comprises a first fibre 2 coupled to a second fibre 3 in a coupl ing region 6 in a directional coupl er. In this example, the coupl ing region 6 is at or near the mid-point of fibre 2. One end 5,8 of each fibre 2,3 at opposite respective ends of the coupl ing region 6 is provided with a reflective surface. The two lengths of fibre L2.L4 between these ends 5,8 with refl ective surfaces together form a. resonant cavity. The fibres are shown curved in the diagram for convenience. In practice, the fibres will normal ly be, ounted relatively straight 1n a suitable potting compound. The coupling at 6 may be achieved by fusing or other known methods. In construction, the ends 5,8 of the fibres 2,3 which are to be provided with suitably reflective surfaces are first cleaved and/or pol ished to be perpendicular to the fibre axes (to better than 0.5° ) , flat and free from chipping and other defects. These ends are then mirrored. The reflective surfaces may be provided by butt-mounting of prepared refl ectors or by deposition of reflective material . Such mirroring may be achieved by forming a silver deposit on the ends as described in publ ished UK Patent Appl ication GB 2136956A. By this technique, 1t 1s possible to obtain mirrored surfaces which give greater than 95° /o reflectivity. Al ternatively, the reflective surfaces may be provided by other metall ic deposits such as, for example, evaporated gold/aluminium, using conventional techniques. As a further alternative, the reflective surfaces may comprise dielectric reflective coatings. The first fibre 2 is attached to the second fibre 3 in the coupling region 6 using a suitable technique. The choice of technique will depend on such factors as, for example, the required ease of handling in assembly. Thus fused taper construction might be appropriate for longer lengths of fibre. Alternatively, the coupling may be provided by an adjustable polished coupler, or by other means, such as, for example, D-fibre coupling, well known to those skilled in the art. The cavity provided by the present invention may be seen to have constructional advantages. For example, the fibres 2,3 may both be of easily manipulable lengths, thus making it a relatively simple matter to construct a Fabry-Perot cavity of any appropriate desired length. Further, the device 1, with its constructional symmetry, may be made by first providing reflective surfaces on one end 5,8 of each of the two fibres 2,3 before they are coupled. As there is one non-mirrored end 4,7 on each of the two lengths of fibre 2,3, which form the device 1, monitoring and evaluation of the reflective surfaces and/or of the quality of the coupling (by control of the coupling parameter, K, as discussed in more detail below) as desired may be conveniently straightforward. The degree of transverse coupling of the evanescent fields 1n the optical fibres 1s conventionally indicated by a coupling parameter, K, which is a measure of the percentage power coupled from one fibre into another. The coupling parameter 1s wavelength dependent. For a given wavelength the coupling 1s a maximum when the effective length of the coupling region itself is equal to an odd number of half-wavelengths, and a minimum when the length is equal to an even number of half-wavelengths. The coupling parameter may be selected by appropriately adjusting the proximity of the fibre cores and the extent of the overlap defining the coupling region. The finesse of a cavity resonator, which provides a measure of the frequency selectivity of the device, depends, among other factors, on the proportion of power coupled into the cavity itself. Generally, a higher finesse corresponds to a lower percentage coupling. In contrast, for the device 1 of the present invention, higher values of K will correspond to a higher finesse (see Figures 6 and 7 below). The finesse is also significantly affected by the reflectivities of the reflection means defining the cavity length. For high finesse the reflectivities should be as great as possible. Thus for use as a filter, reflectivities above 0.99 across the operating spectral range will be desirable, and are achievable. Preferably, the reflectivities will be at least 0.8, and more preferably at least 0.9. If 1t is necessary to provide an input or output via the reflection means, for example, if the resonant cavity 1s doped with a light amplifying medium, then lower reflectivities may be required. The skilled person will thus make an appropriate choice of the reflectivities for the desired device function. In operation of the device of Figure 1, an optical input E, via the unmirrored end 7 of one fibre 3 produces a corresponding optical output E * back out via the same end and another output Eg which exits via the unmirrored end 4 of the other fibre 2 as indicated 1n the Figure. An optical input Eg (Illustrated via the mirrored end 5 of the first fibre 2) may also be made directly Into the resonant cavity via the mirrored end 5,8 of either fibre 2,3. The outputs will be modified according to such parameters as, for example, the reflectivity of the reflection means of the cavity, the length of the cavity (L2+L4), the position of the coupling region 6 (ie. the ratio L2:L4) and the magnitude of the coupling parameter, K. Although K 1s itself wavelength dependent, as determined by such factors as, for example, the nature of the coupling and the length of the coupling region, the variation is slow and, consequently, for most purposes K may be considered essentially constant over the free spectral range of the Fabry-Perot cavity. Mathematically, for the device of Figure 1, the outputs for a normalised input (E,=l) are expressible as intensities in the following form: E 3 « (l+Asin 2 [β(L2+L4)])/(l-Bsin 2 [β(L2+L4)]) E 4 «C (l/(l-Bsin 2 [β(L2+L4)]) Where B is the fibre propagation constant, and A and B are constants dependent on mirror reflectivities (r), coupling loss (γ), intrinsic fibre amplitude transmission loss (α) and coupling ratios (1e. the relative position of coupling region, and the magnitude of the coupling parameter, K). It 1s Important to note that the argument of the sinusoidal variation involves the sum of fibre lengths within the cavity. The frequency dependence of the variation 1n intensity, as illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, for example, is thus independent of the. relative position of the coupling region with respect to the mirrors. In contrast, the amplitude terms Involve other functions of the lengths L2 and L4, and are not purely dependent on the sum (L2+L4). Therefore, the amplitude related modulation depth 1s dependent on the position of the coupling position and the input-output configuration. In fact this dependence is weak and 1s Itsel f dependent on ths intrinsic fibre ampl itude transmission loss in) . As α tends to zero, so the position dependence of the modulation depth reduces to nil . Figure 2 il l ustrates a calculated spectr _1 response for various val ues of K for a device according u Figure 1 with ideal 100% mirror reflectivity and a resanant cavity length (L2+L4) of 10cm. The graph sho*_$ the rel ative intensity of transmission as a ratio of output E 3 to input E, as a function of wavel ength. ( A) to (E) rel ate to different val ues of c u ing parameter, K , as shown on the Figure, It can fte seen that i n this case the device behaves as a fil ter reflecting back (E 4 ) at resonant wavel engths and passing the l ight at off -resonant wavelengths (E^J . Figure 3 shows a calculated spectral response al so for a device according to Figure- 1 or ' a resonan* cavity l ength of 20cm, other parameters being as for Figure 2. As is evident from these calculated raphs, for a cavity (or 1n this case fi rst fibre 2a) of su lengths ( 10-20cm) the passbandwidth 1s of the order of a few hundred megahertz. To Increase the passbandw. 'iϊ to the gigahertz range the cavity length will have ts he reduced to the order of mill imetres. Figures 4 and 5 ill ustrate the experiment?] resul ts achieved for a single Input (E^) Into a device according to Figure 1. To form the device, a fixed coupler with an intensity coupl ing co-eff1c1ent of 99.2°/o at the source wavelength and a coupl ing loss of between 0.G2dB and 0.04dB was used. The reflection means (5,8 of Figure 1) were provided by butt-coupled adjustable dielectric mirrors with better than 99P/o reflectivity. The effective resonant cavity length (L2+L4) was approximately 2.3m. In this experiment a HeNe laser 1.523ya source was employed. The input was therefore at a fixed wavelength and consequently the resonant selectivity of the device itself was demonstrated by adjusting the length of the resonant cavity (rather than by wavelength sweeping). The device was rendered tunable by using a piezoelectric stretcher to alter the effective cavity length (1e. change L2 and/or L4) over a range of a few micrometres. The reflected light (E^) was extracted using a second (conventional) coupler located between the laser source and the device. Figure 4 shows the variation in reflected signal (E as the device was tuned over approximately 1 micron. Two resonances are evident. Figure 5 1s a diagram of a corresponding variation in transmitted signal (E 3 ). As the measurements of Figures 4 and 5 were made at different times they are not precisely matched, however the operation of the device is nonetheless clearly demonstrated. The measured finesse is above 5.0, compared with the theoretical maximum reflection finesse of 102 in this example. The free spectral range 1s estimated to be 45W1z. (The free spectral range is the reciprocal of the round-trip travel time for light in the cavity, and is therefore inversely proportional to the cavity length. The finesse 1s calculated as the ratio of the free spectral range to the full width at half maximum (FWHM).) As noted above, and as apparent, for example, from Figures 2 and 3, the finesse 1s greater, and the frequency selectivity finer, as the degree of coupling Indicated by the coupling parameter, K, 1s Increased, However, as 1s also apparent from Figures 2 and 3, Increases 1n finesse are eventually at the expense of decreases in modulation depth. This variation Is Illustrated directly 1n Figure 6, where modulation depth 1s plotted against finesse for different values of coupling loss, γ, and for the specific device configuration and parameters as detailed on the Figure. For practical purposes, therefore, it may not generally be desirable automatically to choose to be as high as possible over the spectral range of interest. Consequently, in selecting an appropriate K for the coupling, the skilled person will have regard to the relative merits of frequency selectivity and modulation depth 1n the particular circumstances prevailing. Normally, however, K will be expected to be at least 0.75 at wavelengths across the relevant spectral range. Generally, the lower the achievable coupling loss (γ), the higher will be the preferred value of the coupling parameter, K. Practically, K will commonly be at least 0.85, and where a very low coupling loss is obtainable, for example, K may feasibly be at least 0.95 across the relevant spectral range. ». - ' The extent of the variation of ' modulation depth relative to changes in the coupling parameter, K, 1s plotted graphically in Figure 7. The modulation depth is calculated for an Input (E j ) and transmitted output (Eg) for various values of coupling loss (γ), with fixed reflectivities and zero Intrinsic fibre transmission loss ( ) , as shown. Although the specific embodiments illustrated use optical fibres, 1t should be appreciated that a transverse coupled device according to the present invention could also be constructed from other suitable dielectric optical waveguides, for example, lithium niobate structures. Such alternative structures may be particularly appropriate, for example, for the construction of cavities of sub-milHmetric length. It may also be convenient to make the resonant cavity active to provide resonant enhancement. This may be achieved, for example, b ' doping one or both of the fibres, 1n the region forming the resonant cavity, with a light amplifying medium. Neodymium is one suitable medium of this type. Such devices may be important in the realisation of all-fibre lasers, for example. Alternatively, it is possible to induce Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) or Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) in the resonant cavity to achieve a multipass operation with wavelength shifting. By injecting light at a power above the SRS or SBS threshold, for the cavity at the injected wavelength, SRS or SBS may be induced, promoting a shift to a longer wavelength (Stokes emission). Resonant devices according to the present invention provide convenient filters 1n optical transmission systems. A resonant cavity formed according to Figure 1 may be easily spliced (at ends 4,7) into a transmission line, for example, to modtfy the transmission characteristics as may be appropriate. It will be appreciated that bending losses can be avoided and that no gap is required or introduced in the transmission line in such constructions. The present invention also facilitates the construction of further novel resonant devices. For example, two or more devices according to the present invention with differing or appropriately matched behaviour, for instance, may be connected in-line. In other novel embodiments), for example, additional reflection means may be provided on either or both other ends (4,7) of the waveguides (1e. the ends shown without reflection means in Figure 1) to further modify the device responses. Such devices may have particular application for narrowing the output Hnewldth of all-fibre lasers.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A dielectric optical waveguide device(l) comprising a first waveguide(2) transversely coupled to a second waveguide(3) at a coupling region(6), wherein one end(5,8) of each waveguide(2,3) selected at opposite respective ends of said coupling region(6) 1s provided with a reflection means, thereby to form a Fabry-Perot cavity. 2. A device according to claim 1 wherein said waveguides (2, 3) are monomode optical fibres. 3. A device according to claim 1 wherein said waveguides(2,3) are formed in a planar substrate. 4. A device according to claim 1 wherein the reflection means comprises a high reflectivity surface comprising a metallic coating. 5. A device according to claim 1 wherein the reflection means comprises a high reflectivity surface comprising ^ a dielectric coating. 6. A device according to any preceeding claim, wherein at least one waveguide(2,3) within the Fabry-Perot cavity is doped with a dopant, in addition or alternative to any conventional refractive index modifying dopant. 7. A device according to claim 6 wherein said dopant 1s a light amplifying medium. 8. A device according to any preceeding claim Including tuning means to alter the length(L2+L4) of the Fabry-Perot cavity, thereby to tune the device. 9. A device according to claim 8 wherein the tuning means comprises a piezo-electrfc stretcher. 10. A device according to any preceeding claim, wherein the coupling parameter, K, 1s at least 0.75 across the operating spectral range of the device. 11. An optical fibre light amplifier comprising a device according to any preceeding claim. 12. A method of wavelength selection of optical signals using a device according any preceeding claim, wherein optical signalsfE j .Eg) are input to, and selected optical s1gnals(Eg,E 4 ) are output from the device. 13. A method according to claim 12 wherein the optical signals(E^,E 2 ) are input at a power above the SBS/SRS threshold, for the Fabry-Perot cavity at the wavelength of the signals, thereby to obtain an optical output (Eg,E 4 ) at a different wavelength. 14. A method of manufacturing a dielectric optical waveguide device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, comprising the steps of providing reflective surfaces on one end of each of two dielectric optical waveguides and coupling the two waveguides at a coupling region such that ends of the two waveguides having reflective surfaces are at opposite respective ends of the coupling region.

Inventors: BRIERLEY MICHAEL CHARLES, MALLINSON STEPHEN ROBERT, MILLAR COLIN ANDERSON, URQUHART WILLIAM PAUL, BRIERLEY, MICHAEL, CHARLES, MALLINSON, STEPHEN, ROBERT, MILLAR, COLIN, ANDERSON, URQUHART, WILLIAM, PAUL
Applicants: BRITISH TELECOMM, BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
Application year: 1986
Main classification: H01S3
IPC codes: G02B6, H01S3