Implementations disclosed describe a system comprising a first optical device to receive an input beam of light, the input beam having a plurality of spectral components of light, and cause the input beam to disperse into a plurality of spectral beams, wherein each of the plurality of spectral beams corresponds to one of the plurality of spectral components and propagates along a spatial path that is different from spatial paths of other spectral beams, and a second optical device to collect a portion of each of the spectral beams, wherein the collected portion depends on the spatial path of the respective spectral beam, and form an output beam of light from the collected portion of each of the spectral beams, wherein a spectral profile of the output beam is different from a spectral profile of the input beam of light.

A tunable wavelength filtering device is presented in which the tuning mechanism is based on altering the incident angle to an optical thin film coating stack, or thin film optical filter. Rotating mirrors, such as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) tilt-mirrors, are used to alter the incident angle of the optical beam coming from an input fiber, and also to aim or align the exiting beam to an output optical fiber. The optical thin film coating stack can be implemented onto a glass substrate, to form a thin film filter chip. The thin film filter chip can be fixed in place, and the incident angle and exiting angle of the optical beam is varied by adjusting the tilt angle of the two rotating mirrors.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has enabled telecommunication service providers to fully exploit the transmission capacity of optical fibers. State of the art systems in long-haul networks now have aggregated capacities of terabits per second. Moreover, by providing multiple independent multi-gigabit channels, WDM technologies offer service providers with a straight forward way to build networks and expand networks to support multiple clients with different requirements. In order to reduce costs, enhance network flexibility, reduce spares, and provide re-configurability many service providers have migrated away from fixed wavelength transmitters, receivers, and transceivers, to wavelength tunable transmitters, receivers, and transceivers as well as wavelength dependent add-drop multiplexer, space switches etc. However, to meet the competing demands for improved performance, increased integration, reduced footprint, reduced power consumption, increased flexibility, re-configurability, and lower cost it is desirable to exploit/adopt monolithic optical circuit technologies, hybrid optoelectronic integration, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

An optical device may include an optical filter array comprising an array of bandpass filters, and a liquid-crystal (LC) panel comprising an array of LC regions. An aspect ratio of the LC panel may match an aspect ratio of the optical filter array such that each LC region, of the array of LC regions, is associated with a respective bandpass filter of the array of bandpass filters A LC region, of the array of LC regions, may selectively transmit light that is incident on the LC region.

A sensor system comprises a pulsed light source, and a passive sensor head chip in communication with the light source. The sensor head chip includes a first photonics substrate, a transmitting optical component on the first photonics substrate and configured to couple a pulse, transmitted through a first optical fiber from the light source, into a region of interest; and a receiving optical component on the first photonics substrate and configured to couple backscattered light, received from the region of interest, into a second optical fiber. A signal processing chip communicates with the sensor head chip and light source. The signal processing chip includes a second photonics substrate and comprises a passive optical filter array that receives the backscattered light from the second optical fiber. The filter array includes notch filters in communication with each other and operative for frequency selection; and optical detectors respectively coupled to the notch filters.

An optical filter assembly comprising: a tuneable optical filter; a beam splitter assembly configured to split an input beam into an output beam, a reference beam, and a probe beam, and to direct the output beam and the probe beam through the tuneable optical filter, such that the probe beam is at an angle to the output beam; a first detector configured to measure the intensity S0 of the reference beam; a second detector configured to measure the intensity S1 of the probe beam after it has passed through the filter; a controller configured to adjust the tuneable optical filter on the basis of the measured intensities of the reference and probe beams.

The invention comprises a delivery fiber assembly suitable for delivering broad band light. The delivery fiber assembly comprises a delivery fiber and a connector member. The deliver has a length, an input end for launching light and a delivery end for delivering light, where the delivery fiber comprises along its length a core region and a cladding region surrounding the core region. The cladding region comprises a cladding background material having a refractive index N.sub.bg and a plurality of inclusions of solid material having refractive index up to N.sub.inc and extending in the length of the longitudinal axis of the delivery fiber, wherein N.sub.inc<N.sub.bg and the plurality of inclusions in the cladding region is arranged in a cross-sectional pattern comprising at least two rings of inclusions surrounding the core region. The connector is mounted to the delivery fiber at a delivery end section of the delivery fiber comprising said delivery end. The delivery fiber has a transmission bandwidth of about 200 nm or more, such as of about 300 nm or more, such as of about 400 nm or more, such as of about 500 nm or more.

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.

In the examples provided herein, a system has a first racetrack resonant waveguide structure, positioned to enable an input light signal to couple from a first waveguide; and a second racetrack resonant waveguide structure, positioned to enable the input light signal to couple between the first racetrack resonant waveguide structure and the second racetrack resonant waveguide structure, and further positioned to enable an output light signal to couple from the second racetrack resonant waveguide structure to a second waveguide. The system also has a primary heating unit, positioned to heat a primary region including a first portion of the first racetrack resonant waveguide structure and a first portion of the second racetrack resonant waveguide structure, to change a central frequency and a passband width for the system.

In accordance with an embodiment, a bandpass transmission filter having a center wavelength of transmission includes: a waveguide structure comprising a grating structure having changing grating pitch values configured to diffract radiation in the waveguide structure having a first wavelength lower than the center wavelength of transmission, and configured to reflect radiation in the waveguide structure having a second wavelength higher than the center wavelength of transmission; and a radiation absorbing structure configured to absorb radiation guided by the waveguide structure having a third wavelength higher than the second wavelength, wherein the radiation absorbing structure is an integrated part of the waveguide structure or comprises a layer arranged adjacent to the waveguide structure.