528 results about "Wavelength selectivity" patented technology

An apparatus for optically analyzing a substrate. The apparatus includes: (a) a light source for directing light onto the substrate; (b) optics for creating an optical path from light reflected from the substrate; and (c) a multiple wavelength imaging optical subsystem positioned in the optical path. The multiple wavelength imaging optical subsystem includes: (i) one or more filters which are capable of one or both of: (1) being alternatively or sequentially interposed in the optical path to extract one or more of wavelengths or wavelength bands of interest; or (2) having their wavelength selectivity adjusted to extract one or more wavelengths or wavelength bands of interest; and (ii) one or more imaging devices positioned to image the extracted wavelengths or wavelength bands of interest from the one or more filters; (d) an imaging device positioned in the optical path. Also a method is included, making use of the apparatus for analysis of a substrate.

An optical coupling device including: at least a first input port for delivering an optical input signal beam that includes a plurality of wavelength channels; at least a first optical output port for receiving an optical output signal beam; a wavelength dispersion element for spatially separating the plurality of wavelength channels in the optical input signal beam to form a plurality of spatially separated wavelength channel beams; an optical coupling device for independently modifying the phase of each of the spatially separated wavelength channel beams such that, for at least one wavelength channel beam, a selected fraction of the light is coupled to the first output port and a fraction of the light is coupled away from the first output port.

A novel class of optoelectronic devices incorporate an interference filter. The filter includes at least two optical cavities. Each of the cavities localizes al least one optical mode. The optical modes localized at two cavities are at resonance only at one or at a few discrete selective wavelengths. At resonance, the optical eigenmodes contain one mode having a zero intensity at a node position between the two cavities, where this position shifts as a function of the wavelength. A non-transparent element, which is preferably an absorbing element, a scatterer, or a reflector, is placed between two cavities. At a discrete selective wavelength, when the node of the optical mode matches with the non-transparent element, the filter is transparent for light. At other wavelengths, the filter is not transparent for light. This allows for the construction of various optoelectronic devices showing a strongly wavelength-selective operation.

Various embodiments related to infrared vision for a liquid crystal display (LCD) device are disclosed herein. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a display system, comprising an LCD device and a display backlight configured to illuminate the LCD device by directing visible light toward an interior surface of the LCD device. The display system further comprises a wavelength-selective reflector disposed between the display backlight and the LCD device and having a smooth surface facing the interior surface of the LCD device, where the wavelength-selective reflector has a wavelength-selective coating configured to cause incident visible light from the display backlight to be transmitted through the wavelength-selective reflector to the LCD device, and cause incident infrared light reflected from an object on or near an exterior surface of the LCD device to be reflected off of the wavelength-selective reflector and directed to an infrared vision subsystem.

A display apparatus includes first and second IR or other light sources that produce light at respective first and second non-visible wavelengths. The light is modulated according to a desired image. The modulated light is then applied to a wavelength selective phosphor that converts each component of the light to a respective visible wavelength. In one embodiment, the image source is a scanned light beam display that scans an IR light beam onto a screen that carries the phosphor.

To provide an optical interconnection circuit among wavelength multiplexing chips, capable of increasing signal transmission speed and of being easily made minute thereby being simply and easily fabricated, an electro-optical device, and an electronic apparatus, an optical interconnection circuit among wavelength multiplexing chips, which is disposed on a substrate, includes micro-tile shaped elements having a light emitting function or a light receiving function with wavelength selectivity.

A device comprising a number of different wavelength-selective active-layers arranged in a vertical stack, having band-alignment and work-function engineered lateral contacts to said active-layers, consisting of a contact-insulator and a conductor-insulator. Photons of different energies are selectively absorbed in or emitted by the active-layers. Contact means are arranged separately on the lateral sides of each layer or set of layers having the same parameters for extracting charge carriers generated in the photon-absorbing layers and/or injecting charge carriers into the photon-emitting layers. The device can be used for various applications: wavelength-selective multi-spectral solid-state displays, image-sensors, light-valves, light-emitters, etc. It can also be used for multiple-band gap solar-cells. The architecture of the device can be adapted to produce coherent light.

Techniques for providing spectroscopic imaging integrates an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF), or an interferometer, and a focal plane array detector. In operation, wavelength selectivity is provided by the AOTF or the interferometer. A focal plane array detector is used as the imaging detector in both cases. Operation within the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions, and into the infrared spectral region, is achieved. The techniques can be used in absorption spectroscopy and emission spectroscopy. Spectroscopic images with a spectral resolution of a few nanometers and a spatial resolution of about a micron, are collected rapidly using the AOTF. Higher spectral resolution images are recorded at lower speeds using the interferometer. The AOTF technique uses entirely solid-state components and requires no moving parts. Alternatively, the interferometer technique employs either a step-scan interferometer or a continuously modulated interferometer.

Optical networks are increasingly employing optical network nodes having multiple interfaces to allow a node to direct optical signals received at any interface to any other interface connected to the node. Constructing a larger wavelength selective switching (WSS) module used in such a node can be complex and expensive. A method an apparatus for constructing a large WSS using parallelism is provided. In example embodiments, a larger WSS may include multiple parallel non-cascaded smaller WSSs and an optical coupler configured to optically couple the multiple parallel, non-cascaded smaller WSSs. This technique may be used to construct both N×1 and 1×N WSSs. Because the technique employs multiple parallel, non-cascaded WSSs, all inputs of a larger N×1 WSS and all outputs of a larger 1×N WSS are available receive or transmit external signals rather than being rather than being unavailable due to, for example, cascading smaller WSS devices together.

A wavelength-selective optical device for coupling of light at predetermined wavelength from one optical fiber waveguide to another using at least two gratings and cladding-mode assisted coupling is disclosed. The transfer of light is performed using intermediate coupling to one or more cladding mode of the waveguides. In the case when the fibers have physically different cladding's, an arrangement for transfer of light from one cladding to another is required. The disclosed coupler has no back-reflection, small insertion loss, and very high channel isolation. The device can be used in wavelength-division multiplexing networks.

A flexible wavelength switch fabric may be implemented with multiple groups of reconfigurable blocking filters or with multiple multi-in, single out wavelength selective switches. The behaviors of reconfigurable blocking filters are individually settable, such as channel blocking, channel spacing, transmission rate, and default blocking state. Add and drop taps may be added to provide arbitrary add/drop capability. Optical splitters/combiners used may be tunable so that insertion losses may be minimized for the overall network.

An optical switch fabric, including: a first set of horizontal optical waveguides receiving a plurality of wavelengths; a plurality of wavelength-selective drop optical switches associated with the first set of horizontal optical waveguides, wherein the plurality of wavelength-selective drop optical switches are each configured to drop a selected wavelength from a horizontal optical waveguide of the first set of horizontal optical waveguides to an associated vertical optical waveguide of a plurality of vertical optical waveguides; and a plurality of controllable optical switches associated with the plurality of vertical optical waveguides, wherein the plurality of controllable optical switches are each configured to direct a selected wavelength from a vertical optical waveguide of the plurality of vertical optical waveguides to a horizontal optical waveguide of a second set of horizontal optical waveguides, and wherein the second set of horizontal optical waveguides output a plurality of wavelengths.

A solar panel mounting arrangement, and electronic device, and a wireless device, includes a solar panel (204); and a wavelength selectively reflective optical film (202) being disposed in front of the solar panel for the optical film to substantially reflect a pre-selected band (304) of solar irradiation frequencies (302) in the visible light range and incident on a front surface of the optical film (202) while allowing solar irradiation frequencies (302) outside of the pre-selected band (304) to substantially pass through the optical film (202) and irradiate the solar panel (204). The optical film (202) can include at least one of an iconic pattern, a company logo, and a photo, that is visible from the front of the optical film (202). The optical film (202) can include holographic film. The optical film can include a multi-layer film.

A fiber gain medium provided by a rare-earth doped fiber (10) is contained in a first resonant cavity by end reflectors (12, 18). The reflector (12) is wavelength selective to limit the frequency band of the first resonant cavity. The first resonant cavity also contains a second resonant enhancement cavity (16) with multiple transmission bands lying within the first resonant cavity's frequency band. Multiple standing wave modes of the first resonant cavity lie within both the frequency band of the first resonant cavity and the transmission bands of the second resonant cavity, and it is these standing wave modes that support laser action when the rare-earth doped fiber is suitably pumped by pump lasers (40).

The present invention relates to an ultraviolet radiation detector in general and more specifically to a solar blind ultraviolet radiation detector; that is, a detector insensitive to the radiation of sunlight reaching the earth's surface but sensitive to UVC wavelengths in the spectrum, defined as the interval 200 nm-280 nm. The solar blind detector is base on the use of photochromic compounds in conjunction with ultraviolet wavelength-selective chemical blocks and their incorporation into optically clear polymer matrices. The photochromic compound is selected from the group comprising spiropyran molecules spirooxazine molecules and chromene derivatives. Applications for such device are as numerous as the sources of UVC radiation. An obvious use for such Solar Blind UVC detector is monitoring the output of UVC sources used in the decontamination of water and air (water treatment and air purification) and for sterilization of medical instruments.

We describe a variable bandwidth tunable optical spectral filtering device and associated method for selectively directing a portion of a wavelength multiplexed input signal, entering through one or more optical fibers, into one or more output signals provided to one or more optical fibers and/or electronic outputs. The optical filtering is accomplished using free-space diffractive wavelength de-multiplexing optics combined with a fixed (permanent) patterned structure located in the spectrally dispersed image plane. The structure can direct a selected spectral portion of the optical signal to one or more separate outputs, such as an optical fiber or power detector. A single active element in the optical path is used to spatially shift, or steer, the entire input spectrum at the dispersed spectral image plane, to control the portion of the input spectrum illuminating specific features on the permanent patterned structure. In one preferred embodiment, a device with a fixed selective area triangular shaped tilted reflective facet on a flat reflective surface is constructed such that the light reflected off the flat reflective surface and off the triangular reflective facet are selectively multiplexed back and directed to different output fiber ports. Inputs at different angles of incidence on the reflective structures may be deflected by the same structures to different output port fiber ports. A reconfigurable variable-bandwidth tunable optical add/drop multiplexing device is constructed using such a filtering device and an application of such an add/drop multiplexing in a optical transport network is demonstrated.

A 1×N² wavelength selective switch (WSS) configuration in which switch elements are configured in a way that enables the input or output fibers to be arranged in a two-dimensional (2D) array. By employing 2D arrays of input/output channels, the channel count is increased from N to N² for wavelength selective switches. In one embodiment, in which the components are arranged as a 2-f imaging system, a one-dimensional (1D) array of mirrors is configured such that each mirror has a dual scanning axis (i.e., each mirror can be scanned in X and Y directions). In another embodiment, in which the components are arranged as a 4-f imaging system, two 1D arrays of mirrors are configured with orthogonal scanning directions. In both embodiments, the number of ports is increased from N to N².

Provided are an optical sheet member including an optical conversion sheet containing a fluorescent material which absorbs at least a part of light in a wavelength range of 380 nm to 480 nm, converts the absorbed light into light in a wavelength range longer than that of the absorbed light, and re-emits the converted light, and a wavelength selective reflective polarizer functioning in the wavelength range of at least a part of the light in the wavelength range of 380 nm to 480 nm, in which both of front brightness and a color reproduction range are improved in a case of being incorporated into a display device using backlight which emits light having at least a blue wavelength range; and the display device.

Enhanced light absorption of solar cells and photodetectors by diffraction is described. Triangular, rectangular, and blazed subwavelength periodic structures are shown to improve performance of solar cells. Surface reflection can be tailored for either broadband, or narrow-band spectral absorption. Enhanced absorption is achieved by efficient optical coupling into obliquely propagating transmitted diffraction orders. Subwavelength one-dimensional structures are designed for polarization-dependent, wavelength-selective absorption in solar cells and photodetectors, while two-dimensional structures are designed for polarization-independent, wavelength-selective absorption therein. Suitable one and two-dimensional subwavelength periodic structures can also be designed for broadband spectral absorption in solar cells and photodetectors. If reactive ion etching (RIE) processes are used to form the grating, RIE-induced surface damage in subwavelength structures can be repaired by forming junctions using ion implantation methods. RIE-induced surface damage can also be removed by post RIE wet-chemical etching treatments.