The disclosure relates to apparatuses melting batch materials, the apparatuses comprising a vessel; an electrode assembly comprising an electrode and at least one detection component coupled to the electrode; and at least one device configured to measure an electrical or optical property of the electrode assembly. Also disclosed herein are electrode assemblies for the optical or electrical detection of electrode length, and apparatuses comprising such electrode assemblies.

A method for manufacturing an optical modulator is disclosed. The optical modulator includes a Mach-Zehnder modulator, the Mach-Zehnder modulator including an electrode and an arm waveguide, the electrode being provided on the arm waveguide. The method includes a step of preparing the Mach-Zehnder modulator, a step of acquiring a relationship between a voltage applied to the electrode and a phase change amount of light propagating through the arm waveguide based on a light transmittance in the arm waveguide, a step of acquiring a voltage in which a range of a phase change amount of light in the Mach-Zehnder modulator has a predetermined range based on the relationship, and a step of storing the voltage in a storage unit.

Described are systems and techniques for characterizing optical fibers. Disclosed systems and techniques employ optical metrology, functional metrology, or both to characterize microstructured optical fibers and determine fiber characteristics, errors, and quality control metrics. The characteristics, errors, and quality control metrics are useful for improving the manufacturing of optical fibers.

A monitoring device may receive sensor information, associated with an optical device included in a high-power fiber laser, from a set of sensors associated with the optical device. The monitoring device may determine, based on the sensor information, a set of operational properties of the optical device. The set of operational properties may include: a health property that describes a health of one or more components of the optical device, a degradation property that describes degradation of one or more components of the optical device, an environmental property that describes an environment of the optical device, or a process property associated with a process in which the optical device is being used. The monitoring device may identify whether an operational property, of the set of operational properties, satisfies a condition, and may selectively perform a monitoring action based on whether the operational property satisfies the condition.

A space seeker motion test system comprises a rough vacuum chamber including a space seeker holding fixture, a space chamber including a target to be imaged by a space seeker disposed in the space seeker holding fixture, a bellows coupling the space seeker holding fixture to the space chamber, a gate valve providing selective fluidic communication between the space seeker holding fixture and an internal volume of the space chamber through the bellows, a first vacuum pump configured to maintain the rough vacuum chamber at a rough vacuum, and a second vacuum pump configured to maintain the space chamber at high vacuum.

A mode control system and method for controlling an output mode of a broadband radiation source including a photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The mode control system includes at least one detection unit configured to measure one or more parameters of radiation emitted from the broadband radiation source to generate measurement data, and a processing unit configured to evaluate mode purity of the radiation emitted from the broadband radiation source, from the measurement data. Based on the evaluation, the mode control system is configured to generate a control signal for optimization of one or more pump coupling conditions of the broadband radiation source. The one or more pump coupling conditions relate to the coupling of a pump laser beam with respect to a fiber core of the photonic crystal fiber.

An optical power detection system comprises a sensor and a reader. The sensor is configured to detect light in the cladding of an optical fiber. The sensor is positioned both within a ferrule of the optical fiber and proximate the cladding. The sensor is additionally configured to produce an output signal representative of the detected light. The reader is electrically coupled to the sensor and is configured to receive the sensor output signal. The reader is additionally configured to operation on the output signal to produce a corresponding visual and/or audible indication of the optical power in the optical fiber.

Systems and methods for testing a photonic IC (PIC) with an optical probe having an out-of-plane edge coupler to convey test signals between the out-of-plane probe and an edge coupled photonic waveguide within a plane of the PIC. To accommodate dimensions of the optical probe, a test trench may be fabricated in the PIC near an edge coupler of the waveguide. The optical probe may be displaced along one or more axes relative to a prober to position a free end of the prober within the test trench and to align the probe's out-of-plane edge coupler with an edge coupler of a PIC waveguide. Accordingly, a PIC may be probed at the wafer-level, without first dicing a wafer into PIC chips or bars. The optical probe may be physically coupled to a prober through a contact sensor to detect and/or avoid physical contact between probe and PIC.

In some implementations, a device may obtain responsivity data for segments of a fiber optic cable. The device may receive, from a sensor device, vibration data associated with the fiber optic cable, the vibration data being produced by a vibration source in or on soil associated with the fiber optic cable. The device may normalize, based on the responsivity data, the vibration data. The device may determine, based on the normalized vibration data, a distance of the vibration source from the fiber optic cable. The device may perform one or more actions based on the distance satisfying a distance threshold.

This method includes a reference optical fiber transmission loss measurement step for measuring a reference optical fiber transmission loss measurement value, a difference value calculation step for subtracting the transmission loss reference value from the reference optical fiber transmission loss measurement value and calculating a transmission loss difference value, and a measured-optical-fiber measurement step for measuring the transmission loss of an optical fiber to be measured, the reference optical fiber transmission loss measurement step being repeatedly performed, a transmission loss difference value being calculated by performing the difference value calculation step each time a reference optical fiber transmission loss measurement value is obtained, a correction value being calculated on the basis of a plurality of transmission loss difference values, the measurement value obtained in the measured-optical-fiber measurement step being corrected using the correction value, and the transmission loss value of the optical fiber to be measured being determined.