Victor M Aquaro

US Patent:

6956876, Oct 18, 2005

Filed:

Feb 29, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/516274

Inventors:

Victor Michael Aquaro - Paterson NJ, US
George Ludwig Fischer - Long Valley NJ, US
Dietrich Marcuse - Lakewood NJ, US
Herman Melvin Presby - Highland Park NJ, US

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H01S003/30

US Classification:

372 6, 385 43

Abstract:

A method and apparatus are disclosed for coupling a multimode laser to a multimode fiber using a multimode tapered structure. The disclosed multimode tapered structure accepts an optical beam having a highly elliptical beam shape and converts the optical beam for acceptance by the circular multimode optical fiber. According to one aspect of the invention, the multimode tapered structure has a tapered form having an elliptical cross section at one end to match the rectangular laser aperture, and a circular cross section at the other end to match the fiber core. The disclosed multimode tapered structure is tapered from a smaller dimension at the input end that matches the dimension of the multimode light source to a larger dimension at the output end that matches the circular core of the multimode fiber. Depending on the selection of the numerical aperture and the length of the multimode tapered structure, coupling efficiencies up to 98 percent may be achieved with the present invention.