Systems and methods for additive manufacturing are generally described. According to certain aspects, endcaps optically coupled to optical fibers of additive manufacturing systems are provided. In some aspects, methods for reducing a power area density of laser energy within an endcap are provided. The endcaps described herein may be used to at least partially mitigate thermal cycling that may result from the transmission of laser energy through interfaces of an additive manufacturing system.

An optical adjustment apparatus includes a measurement-light irradiation part that has a plurality of second optical fibers and emits, with timings different from each other, a plurality of lights having a single wavelength via the second optical fibers, an optical fiber block that holds exit-side end portions of the first and second optical fibers, a light detection part that receives and detects a plurality of reflected lights via the second optical fibers, a tilt calculation part that compares, with each other, variations with time of intensities of the respective reflected lights and calculates a tilt of the optical fiber block relative to the optical substrate, and a distance calculation part that calculates an inter-end surface distance between the optical substrate and the optical fiber block, based on a variation with time of an intensity of at least one reflected light.

A fiber optic assembly is provided including a support substrate having a substantially flat surface and a signal-fiber array supported on the support substrate. The signal-fiber array includes a plurality of optical fibers. At least some of the optical fiber of the plurality of optical fibers includes a first datum contact disposed between the optical fiber and an adjacent optical fiber and each of the optical fibers of the plurality of optical fibers includes a second datum contact disposed between each of the optical fibers of the plurality of optical fibers and the support substrate. A first datum surface is disposed at a top surface of each of the plurality of optical fibers opposite the support surface.

The present invention discloses an optical fibre cable clamping apparatus (100) for clamping an optical fibre cable attached to a base comprising an upper clamp member and a lower clamp member, a grooved fibre extension for placing optical fibre elements and two grooved strength member extensions formed in the upper clamp member and the lower clamp member. In particular, the two grooved strength member extension is coupled to attach two strength members.

Arrays of fiber pigtails can be used to project and receive light. Unfortunately, most fiber pigtail arrays are not aligned well enough for coherently combining different optical beams. This imprecision stems in part from misalignment between the optical fiber and the endcap spliced to the end of the optical fiber. The endcap is often polished, curved, or patterned, causing the light emitted by the endcapped fiber to refract or diffract as it exits the endcap. This refraction or diffraction shifts the apparent position of the beam waist from its actual position. Measuring this virtual beam waist position before and after splicing the endcap to the fiber increases the absolute precision with which the fiber is aligned to the endcap. This increase in absolute precision reduces the deviation in virtual beam waist position among endcapped fibers, making it easier to produce arrays of endcapped fibers aligned precisely enough for coherent beam combining.

A passively aligned fan-out apparatus for a multicore fiber (MCF) includes a fan-out assembly that comprises a fan-out substrate, small-clad fibers (SCFs) supported in SCF V-grooves of the fan-out substrate, and alignment rods disposed outboard alignment V-grooves of the fan-out substrate. The SCFs have a distal-end pitch P2D at a distal end of the fan-out substrate greater than the proximal-end pitch P2P of the SCFs at a proximal end of the fan-out substrate. An MCF assembly and/or single mode fiber (SMF) assembly may also be provided as part of the fan-out apparatus.

There is provided an optical fiber array that can be easily optically connected to cores of optical waveguides on a connection counterpart substrate without requiring a complicated fabrication process to the connection counterpart substrate and laborious diffusing fusion of the cores. In an array, coating-removed exposed portions of fibers are attached to grooves that are provided on a lower substrate in order to position the optical fibers. Further, the exposed portions are pressed by a lid. Coated portions of the fibers are placed on a flat surface of a concave portion that is provided on the substrate to form a step with the grooves in a state where the exposed portions are attached. Front end parts of the exposed portions of the fibers each have a light collecting portion that collects light beams passing through an inside of the corresponding fiber to reduce an MFD. The light collecting portions are lens-shaped portions that are formed by cutting and are used for optical alignment with the cores of the optical waveguides.

A connection structure of optical waveguide chips includes a base substrate (2003) in which grooves (2013) are formed, spacer optical fibers (2006) each disposed for a corresponding one of the grooves (2013) and fitted in the groove (2013) while partially projecting from the base substrate (2003), and silica-based PLCs (2001, 2002) that are a plurality of optical waveguide chips in each of which grooves (2007) fitted on the projecting portions of the spacer optical fibers (2006) are formed at positions of an optical waveguide layer (2008) facing the grooves (2013), and each of which is mounted on the base substrate (2003) while being supported by the spacer optical fibers (2006). The silica-based PLCs (2001, 2002) are mounted on the base substrate (2003) such that incident/exit end faces of the optical waveguide layers (2008) face each other.

An optical measuring device includes: a laser light source that emits first light having a first wavelength; an image capturing unit that emits second light having a second wavelength different from the first wavelength; a separating unit that receives the first light and the second light to direct the first light and the second light toward an object to be measured, and receives reflected light from the object to be measured to separate the reflected light into first reflected light based on the first light and second reflected light based on the second light; a light receiving element that receives the first reflected light separated by the separating unit; and a calculating unit that calculates a yawing angle and a pitching angle of the object to be measured based on a light receiving result of the light receiving element, in which the image capturing unit captures an image of the object to be measured by receiving the second reflected light separated by the separating unit, and the calculating unit calculates a rolling angle of the object to be measured based on an image capturing result acquired by the image capturing unit.

Assemblies having one or more optical fibers laser bonded to a substrate are disclosed. In one embodiment, an assembly includes a substrate having a surface, an array of optical elements bonded to the surface of the substrate, an epoxy disposed between individual optical elements of the array of optical elements, and a plurality of spacer elements disposed within the epoxy, wherein at least one spacer element of the plurality of spacer elements is positioned between adjacent optical elements of the array of optical elements, and the plurality of spacer elements has a coefficient of thermal expansion that is less than a coefficient of thermal expansion of the epoxy. The assembly includes a bond area between each optical element of the array of optical elements and the surface of the substrate, wherein the bond area includes laser-melted material of the substrate that bonds the optical element to the substrate.