Patent · US Active

Method and apparatus for optical delivery fiber having cladding with absorbing regions

US7835608B2 · kind B2 · utility

41Cited by
20References
57Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 20, 2007
Grant dateNov 16, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 28, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01S3/094019
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

Apparatus and method for distributed absorption of pump light over a length of delivery fiber that is, for example in some embodiments, fusion spliced to an end of a multiply clad gain fiber that has significant unused pump light at the end of the gain fiber. In some embodiments, this includes coupling a fiber amplifier to a passive-core delivery fiber that includes a distributed pump dump. In some embodiments, at an output end of the amplifying fiber there is still a significant amount of pump power. If all this pump power is dumped in one small place (e.g., at a splice between the amplifying fiber and a passive delivery fiber) a hot spot will result, leading to unreliable devices that fail (have catastrophic changes in operating performance). The present invention provides a distributed pump dump built into a delivery fiber that is passive to the signal in its core.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.