Provided are a dual coupler device configured to receive lights of different polarization components, a spectrometer including the dual coupler device, and a non-invasive biometric sensor including the spectrometer. The dual coupler device may include, for example, a first coupler layer configured to receive a light of a first polarization component among incident lights. and a second coupler layer configured to receive a light of a second polarization component among the incident lights, wherein a polarization direction of the light of the first polarization component is perpendicular to a polarization direction of the light of the second polarization component. The first coupler layer and the second coupler layer may be spaced apart from each other and extended along a direction in which the light propagates in the first coupler layer and the second coupler layer.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for optical applications, a spectrometer system and method for producing an apparatus for optical applications, and in particular to an apparatus comprising an optical waveguide having a first refractive index along a light propagation axis interrupted by a plurality of scattering portions having a second refractive index. Each scattering portion has a long axis substantially perpendicular to the light propagation axis as well as a short axis substantially perpendicular to the light propagation axis and the long axis. A receiver unit or a transmitter unit is arranged on a side of the optical waveguide, the long axis being substantially perpendicular, i.e. normal to the plane of this side on which the receiver unit or transmitter unit is arranged. Accordingly, simplification and miniaturization of an optical apparatus can be realized.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

A 2-D sensor array includes a semiconductor substrate and a plurality of pixels disposed on the semiconductor substrate. Each pixel includes a coupling region and a junction region, and a slab waveguide structure disposed on the semiconductor substrate and extending from the coupling region to the region. The slab waveguide includes a confinement layer disposed between a first cladding layer and a second cladding layer. The first cladding and the second cladding each have a refractive index that is lower than a refractive index of the confinement layer. Each pixel also includes a coupling structure disposed in the coupling region and within the slab waveguide. The coupling structure includes two materials having different indices of refraction arranged as a grating defined by a grating period. The junction region comprises a p-n junction in communication with electrical contacts for biasing and collection of carriers resulting from absorption of incident radiation.

Described herein are optical sensing devices for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). A PIC may comprise a plurality of waveguides formed in a silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate, and a plurality of heterogeneous lasers, each laser formed from a silicon material of the SOI substrate and to emit an output wavelength comprising an infrared wavelength. Each of these lasers may comprise a resonant cavity included in one of the plurality of waveguides, and a gain material comprising a non-silicon material and adiabatically coupled to the respective waveguide. A light directing element may direct outputs of the plurality of heterogeneous lasers from the PIC towards an object, and one or more detectors may detect light from the plurality of heterogeneous lasers reflected from or transmitted through the object.

The present invention provides a method for measuring an optical sensor system comprising an array of intrinsic fiber optic sensors at an interrogator comprising an optical source and an optical detector. The method comprises the steps of emitting an optical signal to an array of intrinsic fiber optic sensors; detecting optical responses to the emitted signal from the sensors; associating each detected optical response with an individual sensor by determining within which region among a plurality of detection regions assigned to the individual sensors the optical response is detected wherein each detection region corresponds to a wavelength range in the bandwidth of the optical sensor system; and performing signal processing on each optical response to measure the value of the physical parameter detected by its associated sensor. A calibration of the detection region assigned to each sensor is performed at predetermined intervals.

An optical system operating in the near or short-wave infrared wavelength range identifies an object based on water absorption. The system comprises a light source with modulated light emitting diodes operating at wavelengths near 1090 and 1440 nanometers, corresponding to lower and higher water absorption. The system further comprises one or more wavelength selective filters and a housing that is further coupled to an electrical circuit and a processor. The detection system comprises photodetectors that are synchronized to the light source, and the detection system receives at least a portion of light reflected from the object. The system is configured to identify the object by comparing the reflected light at the first and second wavelength to generate an output value, and then comparing the output value to a threshold. The optical system may be further coupled to a wearable device or a remote sensing system with a time-of-flight sensor.

A spectrometer system is described. The system comprises a signal input port and a pump input port, respective signal and pump dispersion fibers, a nonlinear optical fiber section, and an output dispersion fiber. The dispersion fibers are configured to apply predetermined spectral dispersion on light input associated with signal and pump inputs. The nonlinear optical fiber section is configured to receive dispersed signal and pump waves and enable nonlinear interaction between the signal and pump waves. The output dispersion fiber is configured to receive light resulting from said nonlinear interaction and apply predetermined dispersion to the received light, thereby providing output light having mapping between time and spectral components of the input signal. Wherein at least one of the signal input port and pump input port comprises temporal speckle generating unit configured to affect optical pulses passing through to induce temporal speckles within said optical pulses.

Disclosed is a measurement system using a fiber Bragg grating sensor, which includes a sensing unit including a plurality of dynamic sensors and static sensors using fiber Bragg gratings to detect mutually different physical quantities to be measured, an optical meter configured to measure each physical quantity by simultaneously processing data output from the plurality of dynamic sensors and static sensors in real time, and a server configured to store and manage the data measured by the optical meter. Mutually different physical quantities are measured by simultaneously processing the data output from the plurality of dynamic sensors and static sensors in real time by using one optical meter.

A Fabry-Perot cavity-based spectral notch filter is disclosed, where the filter is operative for providing an output optical signal whose spectral content is spatially dispersed along at least one direction, while also controlling the spectral position and spectral range of the output light. In some embodiments, the spectral filter is integrated with a detector arrays to realize a compact, high-resolution spectrometer that can rapidly acquire the absorption spectrum of a sample with high sensitivity.