An undersea fiber optic cable routing architecture including a branching unit coupled to three trunk cables capable of switching individual fibers in each fiber pair within a cable to either of the other two cables. The branching unit comprises a plurality of optical switches and a controller for receiving remote command signals and configuring the optical switches in accordance with the remote command signals.

Optical telecommunication receivers and transmitters are described comprising dispersive elements and adjustable beam steering elements that are combined to provide optical grid tracking to adjust with very low power consumption to variations in the optical grid due to various changes, such as temperature fluctuations, age or other environmental or design changes. Thus, high bandwidth transmitters or receivers can be provides with low power consumption and/or low cost designs.

Waveguide shuffle blocks (WSBs) are provided that may incorporate waveguides routed in any pattern to effectuate many-to-many connectivity between optical cables/fibers or other WSBs connected thereto. Such WSBs may be configured in ways that allow the WSBs to be stacked and to achieve effective optical cable/fiber organization. Moreover, such WSBs may include readable tags that can provide information regarding a particular WSB configuration and/or what optical cables/fibers are connected so that network topology can be discovered and monitored. Some WSBs may be configured as wavelength shifting shuffles (WSSs) that allow a particular wavelength(s) of an optical signal(s) to be routed as desired and/or alter a first wavelength associated with a particular optical signal to a second wavelength. In other embodiments WSSs can be configured to allow for wavelength multiplexing/demultiplexing.

Measuring a concentration of at least one target species is described. A first and second tunable diode laser are configured to generate laser light at a respective wavelength different from one another. A pitch head comprising a transmitting optic is optically coupled to the first and second tunable diode lasers via distal ends of the first and second optical fibers, and is oriented to project respective beams from each of the first and second distal ends through a measurement zone. A photodetector is configured to detect an optical power of light in the first and second wavelengths. A catch head located across the measurement zone from the pitch head is in optical communication with the pitch head to receive the respective beams from the first and second distal ends and direct the respective beams to the photodetector.

An undersea fiber optic cable routing architecture including a branching unit coupled to three trunk cables capable of switching individual fibers in each fiber pair within a cable to either of the other two cables. The branching unit comprises a plurality of optical switches and a controller for receiving remote command signals and configuring the optical switches in accordance with the remote command signals.

A wavelength selective switch, including: an optical fiber array, an optical signal processing device and an output selection device. The optical fiber array includes multiple dual-core optical fibers arranged in parallel, one dual-core optical fiber being used for inputting two optical signals; the optical signal processing device is located at an output end of the optical fiber array and is used for splitting the two optical signals into sub-signals of different wavelengths and projecting the sub-signals of different wavelengths to different spectral band regions in the output selection device; and the output selection device is located at the rear end of the optical signal processing device, and is used for processing the sub-signals projected to the spectral band regions, so as to respectively perform output selection on the sub-signals split from two optical signals, thereby achieving a dual-switch function.

An optical displacement sensing system is provided. With configuration of an optical sensor disposed on a displacement platform and in cooperation with a broadband light source and an optical spectrum analyzer, when the displacement platform moves, the waveguide grating of the optical sensor is resonated and the reflected light provided with a resonance wavelength is formed. The waveguide grating has the plurality of grating periods, and when the displacement platform moves to a different position to make the broadband light source correspond to a different grating period, the position can correspond to the different resonance wavelength. Therefore, according to the aforementioned configuration, the position is determined according to the different resonance wavelength, instead of using an optical encoder; furthermore, the micrometer-scale or nanometer-scale displacement detection is achieved.

An optical scan device includes an optical waveguide array, including a plurality of optical waveguides each of which propagates light along a first direction, that emits a light beam, the plurality of optical waveguides being arranged in a second direction that intersects the first direction, a phase shifter array including a plurality of phase shifters connected separately to each of the plurality of optical waveguides, a control circuit that controls a phase shift amount of each of the plurality of phase shifters and/or inputting of light to each of the plurality of phase shifters and thereby controls a direction and shape of the light beam that is emitted from the optical waveguide array, a photodetector that detects the light beam reflected by a physical object, and a signal processing circuit that generates distance distribution data on the basis of output from the photodetector.

In an example, a system includes a digital micromirror device (DMD). The DMD includes a hinge and one or more spring tips coupled to the hinge, where the hinge is configured to tilt toward a raised address electrode. The DMD includes a micromirror including a recessed mirror shelf and a reflective surface, where the recessed mirror shelf is coupled to the hinge, and where the recessed mirror shelf is configured to contact at least one of the one or more spring tips responsive to the hinge tilting toward the raised address electrode.

In the wavelength selective fiber optic switch, an optical fiber with a portion of cladding removed defines a window facilitating access to the radially evanescent field present when optical power is propagating through the optical fiber, defining a first transmission path. The cladding removed optical fiber, a secondary optical waveguide, and a grating structure form a grating assisted coupler. An adjustable positioning fixture changes the relative spacing of the fiber core, grating, and output waveguide between a decoupled position and a coupled position. The switch operates, in the decoupled position, to allow optical power to propagate unperturbed through the first transmission path, including optical power at said optical wavelength, and in the coupled position, to extract and reroute optical power at the optical wavelength to propagate through the second transmission path, while leaving unperturbed other wavelengths propagating through the first transmission path. A tuning mechanism is implemented that alters the periodic properties of the grating to tune to a desired optical wavelength.