An electro-optic beam controller, material processing apparatus, or optical amplifier, and corresponding methods, can include an actively controlled, waveguide-based, optical spatial mode conversion device. The conversion device can include a coupler, which can be a photonic lantern, configured to combine light beams into a common light beam; a sensor configured to measure at least one characteristic of the common light beam; and a controller configured to modulate optical parameters of the individual, respective light beams to set one or more spatial modes of the common light beam. Actively controlled and modulated devices can be used to maintain a stable, diffraction-limited beam for use in an amplification, communications, imaging, laser radar, switching, or laser material processing system. Embodiments can also be used to maintain a fundamental or other spatial mode in an optical fiber even while scaling to kilowatt power.

A fiber optic sensor arrangement is disclosed that includes a plurality of optical fiber based sensor elements, the sensor elements configured to modify an associated optical carrier signal in accordance with changes in a sensed quantity at a location of the sensor element and a phase modulation arrangement for phase modulating each optical carrier signal in accordance with respective uncorrelated pseudorandom binary sequence signals. The sensor arrangement also includes an interferometer module for receiving each of the phase modulated optical carrier signals, the interferometer module operable to convert a change in the phase modulated optical carrier signals to a change in optical intensity of the corresponding optical carrier signal to generate a combined modulated optical intensity signal, an optical intensity detector for measuring the combined modulated optical intensity signal and generating a time varying electrical detector signal and an analog to digital convertor to convert the time varying electrical detector signal to a time varying digitized detector signal. Also included in the sensor arrangement is a decorrelator arrangement for decorrelating the time varying digitized detector signal against the respective uncorrelated pseudorandom binary sequence corresponding to each of the optical carrier signals to recover each of the modulated optical carrier signals and a demodulator for demodulating each of the modulated optical carrier signals to recover the respective optical carrier signal to determine the changes in the sensed quantity at the location of the sensor element.

A multi core optical fiber that includes a plurality of cores disposed in a cladding. The plurality of cores include a first core and a second core. The first core has a first propagation constant β.sub.1, the second core has a second propagation constant β.sub.2, the cladding has a cladding propagation constant β.sub.0, and (I).

An optical device may include at least one optical fiber, and a phase change material (PCM) layer on the at least one optical fiber. The PCM layer may include Ge.sub.xSe.sub.y, where x is in a range of 20-40, and y is in a range of 60-80.

An optical waveguide element that suppresses insertion loss related to coupling to an optical fiber or the like while miniaturizing the optical waveguide element is provided. There is provided an optical waveguide element including: a rib optical waveguide (10) that is made of a material (1) having an electro-optic effect; and the reinforcing substrate (2) that supports the optical waveguide, in which one end of the optical waveguide forms a tapered portion (11) of which a width narrows toward an end surface of the reinforcing substrate, a structure (3) made of a material having a higher refractive index than a material constituting the reinforcing substrate is provided so as to cover the tapered portion, and a coating layer (4) made of a material having a lower refractive index than the material constituting the structure is disposed so as to cover the structure.

An optical module includes: a polarization controller that includes a main body including a polarization multiplexer and demultiplexer portion that, upon input of two kinds of light that are in perpendicularly-polarized states, performs polarization multiplexing on the two kinds of light and output polarization-multiplexed light, and upon input of light, performs polarization demultiplexing on the light and outputs two kinds of light that are in perpendicularly-polarized states, a first polarizer, a first input portion, a second input portion, a third input portion, a first output portion, and a second output portion; and an optical device configured to receive input of light via the polarization controller and output light via the polarization controller.

Multi-directional optical devices are disclosed. The optical device may employ a multiple input/multiple output optical coupling structure to determine propagation direction of received light (in receiver configuration), and/or control the propagation direction of transmitted light (in transmitter configuration). Propagation direction can be determined without the need for moving parts. In accordance with some embodiments, designs of solid-state photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are disclosed herein that utilize N×M star couplers to perform Fourier transformations to light traversing between the N ports and M ports such that light arriving at one or more of the N ports is distributed with a linear phase profile across the M ports. The slope of the linear phase profile is dependent on which of the N ports that light was received from. The light exits from waveguides coupled to the M ports at one or more propagation directions dependent on the linear phase profile.

In some examples, a microstructured fiber comprises a cladding material surrounding at least one core material, wherein the at least one core material comprises an array of discrete devices contacted in parallel. A method of producing a microstructured fiber may include 3D-printing a fiber preform, thermally drawing the fiber preform into a fiber that preserves the cross-sectional geometry of the fiber preform, and axially patterning the fiber into a microstructured fiber comprising an array of discrete devices contacted in parallel. In some embodiments, microstructured fibers may be integrated into a sensory textile that includes at least one of an electrooptic portion, a sonar portion, a magnetic gradiometer portion, and a piezogenerating portion. In some embodiments, microstructured fibers may be formed into an in-fiber integrated quantum device circuit or an in-fiber ion trap.

An electro-optic beam controller, material processing apparatus, or optical amplifier, and corresponding methods, can include an actively controlled, waveguide-based, optical spatial mode conversion device. The conversion device can include a coupler, which can be a photonic lantern, configured to combine light beams into a common light beam; a sensor configured to measure at least one characteristic of the common light beam; and a controller configured to modulate optical parameters of the individual, respective light beams to set one or more spatial modes of the common light beam. Actively controlled and modulated devices can be used to maintain a stable, diffraction-limited beam for use in an amplification, communications, imaging, laser radar, switching, or laser material processing system. Embodiments can also be used to maintain a fundamental or other spatial mode in an optical fiber even while scaling to kilowatt power.

A method of processing by controlling one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam may include: launching the optical beam into a first length of fiber having a first refractive-index profile (RIP); coupling the optical beam from the first length of fiber into a second length of fiber having a second RIP and one or more confinement regions; modifying the one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam in the first length of fiber, in the second length of fiber, or in the first and second lengths of fiber; confining the modified one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam within the one or more confinement regions of the second length of fiber; and/or generating an output beam, having the modified one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam, from the second length of fiber. The first RIP may differ from the second RIP.