INDEX TUNABLE THIN FILM INTERFERENCE COATINGS

• Main Authors: MURANO, ROBERT, SHERMAN, STEVEN, WU, MING, MA, EUGENE, PAYNE, ADAM, DOMASH, LAWRENCE, NEMCHUK, NIKOLAY, WAGNER, MATTHIAS
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 27.12.2002
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: DEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS, THE OPTICAL OPERATION OF WHICH ISMODIFIED BY CHANGING THE OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM OF THEDEVICES OR ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF THE INTENSITY,COLOUR, PHASE, POLARISATION OR DIRECTION OF LIGHT, e.g.SWITCHING, GATING, MODULATING OR DEMODULATING; FREQUENCY-CHANGING; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; NON-LINEAR OPTICS; OPTICAL ANALOGUE/DIGITAL CONVERTERS; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICAL LOGIC ELEMENTS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNIQUES OR PROCEDURES FOR THE OPERATION THEREOF

According to various embodiments and aspects of present invention, there is provided a dynamically tunable thin film interference coating including one or more layers with thermo-optically tunable refractive index. Tunable layers within thin film interference coatings enable a new family of thin film active devices for the filtering, control, modulation of light. Active thin film structures can be used directly or integrated into a variety of photonic subsystems to make tunable lasers, tunable add-drop filters for fiber optic telecommunications, tunable polarizers, tunable dispersion compensation filters, and many other devices. L'invention concerne un revêtement interférentiel à couches minces, accordable de manière dynamique, comprenant une ou plusieurs couches à indice de réfraction accordable par voie thermo-optique. Les couches accordables dans ces revêtements interférentiels à couches minces permettent de créer une nouvelle famille de dispositifs actifs à couches minces servant à filtrer, réguler, moduler la lumière. Ces structures à couches minces actives peuvent être utilisées directement ou intégrées dans une variété de sous-système photoniques pour permettre la production de lasers accordables, de filtres d'insertion-extraction accordables destinés aux télécommunications à fibres optiques, de polariseurs accordables, de filtres de compensation de dispersion accordables, ainsi qu'un grand nombre d'autres dispositifs.