Patent ID: 6879441

Claim:
An optical apparatus, comprising: a substrate that propagates optical signals in at least two dimensions, the substrate having a first port and a second port; a plurality of diffractive elements within the substrate, the plurality of diffractive elements being arranged such that the plurality of diffractive elements exhibit a positional variation in at least one of amplitude, optical separation, and spatial phase over some portion of the substrate, each of the plurality of diffractive elements individually provides reciprocal focusing between the first port and the second port, and when a first optical signal having a first spatial wavefront and a first temporal waveform is introduced into the substrate through the first port, the plurality of diffractive elements apply a transfer function to the first optical signal to produce a second optical signal having a second spatial wavefront and a second temporal waveform, wherein the first and second spatial wavefronts differ in at least spatial wavefront shape and the first temporal waveform differs from the second temporal waveform, and focus the second optical signal to exit the substrate through the second port.