The invention refers to an optical device for heterodyne interferometry, comprising a chip, a beam splitter, a first waveguide arranged on the chip, light propagating in the first waveguide being guided to the beam splitter, a second waveguide arranged on the chip, light propagating in the second waveguide being guided to and/or from the beam splitter, wherein the beam splitter, the first waveguide, and the second waveguide form part of a Michelson interferometer, wherein the first waveguide and the second waveguide at least partially form two arms of the Michelson interferometer, and wherein two further arms of the Michelson interferometer are at least partially arranged outside the chip.

A generator device for generating an arbitrary optical pulse pattern includes: a light source to provide primary laser pulses, a distributor to provide a plurality of primary optical pulses by distributing light of the primary laser pulses (LB00.sub.k) into a plurality of branches, a combiner to form an output signal by combining modulated optical signals from the branches, and a controller unit to provide control signals for controlling optical modulators of the branches, wherein a first branch comprises a first optical modulator to form a first modulated optical signal from primary optical pulses of the first branch, wherein a second branch comprises a second optical modulator to form a second modulated optical signal from primary optical pulses of the second branch, and wherein a propagation delay of the second branch is different from a propagation delay of the first branch.

Embodiments are disclosed for generating an optical Pulse Amplitude Modulation 4-level (PAM-4) signal from bandwidth-limited duobinary electrical signals in a Mach-Zehnder modulator. An example system includes an MZM structure that comprises a first waveguide interferometer arm structure associated with a first semiconductor device and a second waveguide interferometer arm structure associated with a second semiconductor device. A polybinary electrical signal is applied to or between the first semiconductor device and the second semiconductor device to convert an input optical signal provided to the MZM structure into an optical PAM-4 signal.

A fiber optics polarization controller comprises: an optical fiber and multiple polarization stages. A first stage comprises: a motor having a hollow shaft spanning from a proximal end to a distal end along a rotational axis; and a fiber paddle affixed to and adapted to rotate with the hollow shaft. The fiber paddle has a ring-shaped body with two openings arranged opposite to each other around the ring-shaped body. A first opening of the fiber paddle is connected to the distal end of the hallow shaft substantially collinear with the rotational axis of the motor. The optical fiber is arranged spanning through the hollow shaft, entering the fiber paddle through the first opening, following around the ring-shaped body to form a fiber loop, and exiting the ring-shaped body through the second opening. A second stage is arranged in series with the first stage.

An optical phase modulator (2) includes a first 2×2 Mach-Zehnder optical phase modulation unit (10). The first 2×2 Mach-Zehnder optical phase modulation unit (10) includes a first 2×2 multimode interference waveguide (11), a second 2×2 multimode interference waveguide (14), a pair of first arm waveguides (12, 13), and first modulation electrodes (15, 16). A first output port (an output port 17d) of the first 2×2 Mach-Zehnder optical phase modulation unit (10 ) is a cross port to a first input port (an input port 17a) of the first 2×2 Mach-Zehnder optical phase modulation unit (10).

Described herein are photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths, a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA, a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA, and control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

Configurations for light source modules and methods for mitigating coherent noise are disclosed. The light source modules may include multiple light source sets, each of which may include multiple light sources. The light emitted by the light sources may be different wavelengths or the same wavelength depending on whether the light source module is providing redundancy of light sources, increased power, coherent noise mitigation, and/or detector mitigation. In some examples, the light source may emit light to a coupler or a multiplexer, which may then be transmitted to one or more multiplexers. In some examples, the light source modules provide one light output and in other examples, the light source modules provide two light outputs. The light source modules may provide light with approximately zero loss and the wavelengths of light may be close enough to spectroscopically equivalent respect to a sample and far enough apart to provide coherent noise mitigation.

Photons can propagate concurrently in two different directions along optical paths in a generalized Mach Zehnder interferometer (GMZI). A counterpropagating GMZI can include a first set of input ports and a second set of input ports, a first set of output ports and a second set of output ports, and optical components interconnected to form a GMZI that can selectably establish a first optical path between one of the the first set of input ports and one of the first set of output ports and a second optical path between one of the second set of input ports and one of the second set of output ports. The first optical path and the second optical path can include an overlapping portion though which photons on the first and second optical paths propagate in opposing directions.

The optical modulator includes an optical modulation element having a first optical waveguide, a second optical waveguide, a first electrode which applies an electric field to the first optical waveguide, and a second electrode which applies an electric field to the second optical waveguide, and a control unit configured to control an applied voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode. When a half-wave voltage of the optical modulation element is Vπ and a null point voltage of the optical modulation element is Vn, the control unit sets an operating point Vd in a range of Vn+0.50Vπ≤Vd≤Vn+0.75Vπ or Vn−0.75Vπ≤Vd≤Vn−0.50Vπ and sets an applied voltage width Vpp, which is an amplitude of an applied voltage applied to the optical modulation element, in a range of 0.22Vπ≤Vpp≤0.50Vπ.

An electro-optic modulator includes an optical structure and an electrical structure. The optical structure includes an input waveguide, a beam splitter, a first waveguide arm, a second waveguide arm, a beam combiner, and an output waveguide; each of the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm includes a conventional waveguide region. The first waveguide arm further includes a first modulating region, a second modulating region, and a third modulating region. The second waveguide arm further includes a fourth modulating region, a fifth modulating region, and a sixth modulating region; the electrical structure includes a traveling wave electrode including a signal-ground-signal electrode structure. The traveling wave electrode further includes a signal input region, a modulating electrode region, and a matched resistor region. The modulating electrode region includes a first signal electrode, a ground electrode, and a second signal electrode.