An optical fiber includes a core configured to transmit laser light and a cladding that surrounds the core. In some implementations, an outer surface region of the cladding is tapered or comprises a plurality of notches. The outer surface region of the cladding is configured to cause an aiming beam that falls incident upon the outer surface region of the cladding at a first incidence angle to fall incident upon an outer surface region of the core at a second incidence angle to allow the aiming beam to couple into the core.

A photonic integrated circuit. In some embodiments, the photonic integrated circuit includes: a waveguide; and a waveguide facet, a first end of the waveguide being at the waveguide facet, a first angle being an angle between: the waveguide at the first end of the waveguide and the normal to the waveguide facet, the first angle being at least 5 degrees, a first section of the waveguide having a first end at the waveguide facet and a second end, the first section having: a curvature of less than 0.01/mm at the first end of the first section, a curvature of less than 0.01/mm at the second end of the first section, and a curvature of at least 0.1/mm at a point between the first end and the second end.

A monolithic fiber-lens array includes a number of optical fibers integrated into a fiber block and multiple lens elements integrated into a lens block. The fiber block is coupled to the lens block via a transparent adhesive layer, and the tips of the optical fibers are aligned with respective focal points of the lens elements.

An optical system may include an objective lens system having a primary optical axis and a relay lens system having a relay optical axis. The relay optical axis may have a first angular offset with respect to the primary optical axis. The objective lens system may be configured to provide light from a light source to the relay lens system and provide light from the relay lens system to an image sensor. The relay lens system may be configured to provide light from the objective lens system to an end face of an optical fiber, where the end face has a second angular offset with respect to a cross-sectional axis of the optical fiber. The relay lens system may provide light reflected from the end face to the objective lens system.

Methods and systems for optical interconnection.

An optical coupler including a first surface intended to receive a light beam and a second surface intended to supply at least part of the light beam, and a lateral wall connecting the first surface to the second surface, the lateral wall successively including, between the first and second surfaces, a first concave portion and a first convex portion.

An optical system includes a light-guide optical element (LOE) (100) having a pair of parallel major external surfaces (102, 104) and a set of mutually-parallel reflector surfaces (106a, 106b, 106c) obliquely angled within the LOE. At least one of the reflector surfaces has high reflectivity for angles of incidence above 60 degrees to the normal and partial reflectivity for angles of incidence less than 35 degrees to the normal.

The back reflection in photodiodes is caused by an abrupt index contrast between the input waveguide and the composite waveguide/light absorbing material. In order to improve the back reflection, it is proposed to introduce an angle between the waveguide and the leading edge of the light absorbing material. The angle will result in gradually changing the effective index between the index of the waveguide and the index of the composite section, and consequently lower the amount of light reflecting back.

The optical receiver portion of an optical sensing system (such as, for example, a LIDAR system) includes a tunable narrowband optical filter that is used in combination with a feedback element to continuously monitor the received (reflected) optical signal and adjust the center wavelength of the narrowband optical filter to follow recognized shifts in the source wavelength. These slight adjustments to the center wavelength of the optical filter (as controlled by the feedback element) ensure that the passband of the optical filter tracks any shift/drift in the source wavelength, without requiring any direct connection/wavelength monitoring between the source and the receiver, and also without the need to utilize complex wavelength stability configurations at the source.

An optical connection structure includes a first spatial multiplex transmission line, a second spatial multiplex transmission line, a first lens arrangement, a second lens arrangement and a first beam diameter conversion portion. The first spatial multiplex transmission line has a plurality of first transmission lines. The second spatial multiplex transmission line has a plurality of second transmission lines. The first lens arrangement is optically coupled with the first spatial multiplex transmission line. The second lens arrangement is optically coupled with the second spatial multiplex transmission line. The first beam diameter conversion portion has a first end face and a second end face and arranged between the first spatial multiplex transmission line and the first lens arrangement. The first beam diameter conversion portion is configured such that an optical diameter at the second end face is larger than an optical diameter at the first end face.