An integrated optical component includes at least one input waveguide, at least one output waveguide; a first slab waveguide having a first refractive index, n1. The first slab waveguide may be disposed between at least one of the input waveguides and at least one of the output waveguides. The integrated optical component may further include a second slab waveguide having a second refractive index, n2. The integrated optical component may also include a third cladding slab having a third refractive index, n3. The third cladding slab may be disposed between the first slab and the second slab. The thickness of the second slab waveguide and the thickness of the third slab waveguide are adjustable to reduce a birefringence of the integrated optical component.

A beam steering method and device are provided. The beam steering method includes outputting, from a hologram recording medium on which a plurality of signal light beams having different steering information are recorded, signal light beam having specific steering information, by making reference light having a specific characteristic incident on the hologram recording medium. The method further includes o obtaining information about an object existing in the external environment based on the output signal light.

An optical device. In some embodiments, the optical device includes a first interface; a second interface; a first plurality of waveguides, at the first interface; a second plurality of waveguides, at the second interface; and a free propagation region. A first waveguide of the first plurality of waveguides has a width at least 20% greater than a second waveguide of the first plurality of waveguides.

An optical receiver, used in wavelength-division multiplexing, has multiple photodetectors per channel. The optical receiver comprises a demultiplexer to separate incoming light into different output waveguides, one output waveguide for each channel. A splitter is used in each output waveguide to split each output waveguide into two or more branches. A separate photodetector is coupled with each branch so that two or more photodetectors are used to measure each channel.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward an optical apparatus that includes a semiconductor layer to propagate light from at least one light source. The optical apparatus may further include a curved echelle grating with a plurality of grating teeth, the echelle grating at an outer side of the semiconductor layer. The curved echelle grating may include a plurality of grating teeth, and a grating tooth of the plurality of grating teeth may have a grating facet and a shadow facet. A shadow facet may have an angle of grating greater than 0 degrees with respect to a normal of a curve of the curved echelle grating. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward an optical apparatus that includes a semiconductor layer to propagate light from at least one light source. The optical apparatus may further include a curved echelle grating with a plurality of grating teeth, the echelle grating at an outer side of the semiconductor layer. The curved echelle grating may include a plurality of grating teeth, and a grating tooth of the plurality of grating teeth may have a grating facet and a shadow facet. A shadow facet may have an angle of grating greater than 0 degrees with respect to a normal of a curve of the curved echelle grating. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

This patent document discloses, among others, wavelength-selective switches (WSS) for redirecting optical WDM signals or channels based on a combination of spatially separating light in different optical polarizations in an optical birefringent material and using diffractive optics for separating light at different optical WDM wavelengths into spatially separated optical beam to perform wavelength-selective optical switching in optical WDM applications. Notably, the optics for processing the optical WDM signals in the disclosed optical WSS devices is designed to provide scalable optical WSS devices where different WDM signals share optical components to reduce designed optical components for different WDM signals.

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).

The present invention provides a wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing optical transceiving assembly based on a diffraction grating, which is an uplink optical emitting unit and a downlink optical receiving unit that comprise a laser chip array, a light receiving detector array, a first fast axis collimating lens, a second fast axis collimating lens, a first slow axis collimating lens, a diffraction grating, a slow axis focusing lens, a second slow axis collimating lens, an optical isolator, a coupling output lens, a coupling input lens, a coupling outputting optical fiber and a coupling inputting optical fiber. The wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing optical transceiving assembly solves the technical problem of sharing a diffraction grating to realize a wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing function, achieves the beneficial effects of better diffraction grating filtering property, smaller light path coupling loss and insertion loss correlative with wavelength, larger independent optical element sizes, and simpler assembly process, and is more suitable for manufacturing a multi-channel wavelength division multiplexing/demultiplexing optical transceiving assembly.

A self-fit optical filter includes a dual fiber collimator, a diffraction grating for spatially dispersing the input light beam into a plurality of sub-beams, a cylindrical lens for focusing each of the sub-beams at a saturable absorber which becomes saturated dependent on intensity of light, and a reflector for reflecting the sub-beams back along their optical paths. A method of filtering includes: demultiplexing an input beam into a plurality of sub-beams having distinct center wavelengths, at least partially absorbing one or more of the sub-beams by using a saturable absorber while allowing other sub-beams to pass through, substantially unattenuated, and multiplexing the sub-beams into an output optical signal.