Title: Optical fiber system employing topological guidance of light

Abstract

An optical fiber system exploits a principle of topological confinement for guided higher-order modes, in contrast to more conventional total-internal-reflection (TIR) confinement. The optical fiber has a geometry and index profile defining a cutoff wavelength for a predetermined L-mode of optical signal propagation in the optical fiber, where L is azimuthal mode index. An optical source subsystem is coupled to the optical fiber to establish an optical signal propagating in the optical fiber, wherein the optical signal has the predetermined L-mode and a wavelength being either (1) at least 15% above the cutoff wavelength such that the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode, or (2) sufficiently above the cutoff wavelength that, based on the L-mode of the optical beam, the optical beam propagates as a topologically confined mode having propagation loss less than 3 dB/meter.

Inventors:

Ramachandran, Siddharth; Ma, Zelin

Issue Date:

2022-11-22

Research Org.:

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Boston Univ., MA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); US Office of Naval Research (ONR)

OSTI Identifier:

1986832

Patent Number(s):

11506841

Application Number:

17/315,314

Assignee:

Trustees of Boston University (Boston, MA)

DOE Contract Number:  

SC0012704; ECCS-1610190; N00014-19-1-2632; N00014-20-1-2226; N00014-20-1-2450

Resource Type:

Patent

Resource Relation:

Patent File Date: 05/09/2021

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English